Dispatch

Dispatch No. 2 - Beginnings

The hardest part of starting isn’t the leap—it’s what comes after.

01. Signal

We love to mythologize beginnings: the garage startup, the first time brush touched canvas, the moment someone decided to just start. But real beginnings are messier than lore suggests. Full of false starts, the humility of not knowing, and sacrifices no one sees.

Often I've built elaborate requirements before taking a leap I've been circling. Be financially solvent before dating seriously. Land the Director title before starting something of my own. These weren't my standards. Just borrowed measures of worthiness, and proof I thought I needed to justify what I really wanted.

Eventually the cognitive dissonance hit. At best, those rules offered false confidence. At worst, they discouraged me from taking the first step toward what called me most.

Here's what I've learned: what makes beginnings necessary isn't their magic—it's their inevitability. You can't skip the awkward draft, the half-formed idea, the public attempt that makes you cringe later. The obstacle is the point. You climb it, and suddenly you're in motion.

Beginnings rarely promise elegance. They only make possibility real.

- MG

02. Practice

Starting is not nothing.
This week’s practice is consent to start badly.
Elegance comes later; possibility comes first.
A shaky first draft still outruns the perfect idea left in your head.
Messy beginnings are a gift. ✨

So what’s been sitting on your shelf? A project, a book, a hobby? If you had to take one small, imperfect step today, what would it be?

03. Tools

🛠️ OnlyFAANGs — Fellow UXer Hang Xu is running a six-month experiment: can he land a FAANG job in <6 months? Hang is sharing the whole ride in real time—applications, rejections, pivots, small wins. It’s a rare peek behind the curtain of how design careers unfold, and a reminder that the beginning is often the boldest step.

✨ Constraints to Creativity (C2C) — Creativity is counterintuitive: some of the most inventive work happens within tight boundaries, not endless possibilities. With summer's end and new projects coming to your desk, September's a great time to experiment with intentional limits and see what they unlock.

Set one boundary for your next project: What can I create in one hour with just pen and paper? or How would this look using only two colors? Beginnings don’t need infinite options—they need just enough constraint to get you moving.