Introducing: Useful / Beautiful
A newsletter about leading yourself
I have a new pensive profile pic and this Substack now has a name: Useful / Beautiful. It also now has a purpose (helping you lead yourself) and is reader-supported (free and paid subscription tiers available). If you smile or raise an eyebrow when reading my words, please hit the like button, share with others, and/or become a Paid Subscriber.
It’s up to you
You get to choose what you think and believe.
But you must remember to choose
It takes regular practice to create your thoughts rather than react to the world.
This newsletter is a prompt to remind you that you are responsible for your thoughts and actions.
You can choose.
How to choose
I have a shortcut for deciding my beliefs and actions. I ask myself:
Is it useful?
Is it beautiful?1
If it’s neither, I let it go.
The concept comes from William Morris of the Arts & Crafts Movement after the first industrial revolution (late 19th century)2. His words were:
Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.
I find this to be a useful and beautiful metaphor for life.
Why this newsletter?
I’d like to create something that is both useful and beautiful. That celebrates both function and form, efficiency and handcraft. I believe there is room and need for the full spectrum.
Useful things are often urgent. They have a reason for existing — a use — like solving a problem. They relieve pain and are easier to sell. Capitalism loves useful things. There are thousands of other newsletters, books, podcasts, etc to help you with prioritization, goal setting, and otherwise useful thoughts. Those tend to be logical, practical, offering quick fixes and business speak like “proven results” or “unleashing productivity”.
Deeply beautiful things (not just surface-level attraction) are precious and often undervalued. If you’ve ever worked for a non profit, you know what I mean. Culture, the arts and humanities, spirituality, compassion and generosity — all beautiful things — may not be considered useful because they are less urgent for survival. But they are important. They add joy, color, inspiration. They give life meaning.
I created this newsletter to help you (and myself):
Discard unhelpful or ugly beliefs.
Return to an intentional life when you start to drift.
Discover your innate creativity.
Stretch into possibility when you feel limited.
Summon courage when you feel resistance.
Accept (if not love) reality when you wish situations were different.
Let go of wanting to be right.
Take full responsibility for the circumstances of your life.
Reject blame in any form (blaming others or yourself).
Lead and support others.
Remember you are rare, creative, and capable.
What I’ll give you
For all subscribers, I commit to:
Sending a new post about once a week.
Sharing stories about what I’m trying and learning, failures and all.
Sharing useful and/or beautiful insights about leading yourself from my ever-growing collection of books (plus podcasts, other newsletters, etc).
Creating prompts for actions you can try.
Reminding you that you’re a divine, brilliant being.
For paid subscribers, I commit to:
Hosting occasional live events like Ask Me Anythings. (If enough people subscribe and want this.)
Creating curious and generous spaces for you to share your experiences leading yourself (using the Substack chat function).
Continuing to do this work so long as I can afford it. Your patronage helps make my work free for those who pay attention but not dollars.
What you could also get
Here’s the thing. You can get even more than I’m capable of giving. You can’t trade dollars or attention for personal transformation. You have to do the work. When you do, it’s magical.
If you do the work — practice leading yourself — you might:
Become more generous and compassionate.
Broaden your perspective.
Feel belonging without striving to impress others.
Feel connected to the divine muses.
Improve yourself while also accepting and loving yourself as you are.
Feel confident leading others.
Feel calm at times when many would be stressed.
Be happy with less.
Feel at peace.
Create meaningful change.
What else? It’s up to you.
What you could give
Wait. What? You can give more than just money? Well, yeah! Not only are you valuable to me, you can be valuable to others too. Some things you can give:
You attention. Read the posts.
Your loyalty. Become a subscriber.
Your dollars. Become a paid subscriber.
Your feedback. Hit the like button. Leave a comment. Send me emails.
Visibility to others. Share it. Forward it. Restack it.
Information and insight to others. Purchase a gift subscription or donate a subscription. (See buttons below).
About Kate
You can totally skip this part.
Or if you’re curious…
I don’t identify as a particular type of person. I am me. That changes daily.
But language is useful. So… I’m a thinker, dreamer, strategist, mom, stepmom, cat mom, plant mom, wife, daughter, sister, aunt, niece, friend, gardener, craftsperson, cook, thrift shopper, bird watcher, leaf peeper, fossil collector, and clover hunter. Plus like a thousand other nouns, depending on the day.
I got a BFA (bachelor of fine arts degree) in painting and drawing then realized I’d rather support artists than make art myself. I was the exhibitions director on a tiny team that launched a start-up contemporary art museum. Exhibition design got me interested in visitor experience which led to human-centered design then customer-centered organic marketing. Working in an enterprise (15K employees) opened my eyes to the complexity of humans working together at scale and the tremendous role leadership and culture plays in success and happiness. I burned out, discovered Stoicism, got laid off, took ownership of my circumstances, created my leadership consulting biz, discovered I had breast cancer, and kept writing.
I make time every day to read non-fiction. My office walls are lined with hardbacks3 about thinking, ideas, innovation, creativity, introspection, habits, change, culture, collaboration, bias, behavioral economics, marketing, spirituality, fables, Greek mythology, and surprisingly very little to do with art. I also subscribe to podcasts and newsletters4.
I once saw a well-targeted ad for a Post-apocalyptic Business Casual clothing line which pretty much sums up my wardrobe.
I am all of these things and more. Just like (and subsequently unlike) you.
“Every system is perfectly designed to get the results it gets.”
- W. Edwards Deming, Engineer
Change your system, change yourself
Are you ready?
I am.
See you next time.
Love, Kate
The beauty of beautiful is that it’s entirely subjective. You get to choose.
I wonder if the Arts & Crafts movement will become popular again as people lament AI taking over much “creative” work.
Fun fact: Most of the non-fiction books in my collection have white or red covers. There are some blue, black, orange, and yellow. Fewer green or purple. Multicolored covers are rare and wonderful.
Another bonus you get from me is that I #readallthethings. I will share insights and links to source material whenever relevant.