Don't Go It Alone
Friday Footnotes #17
Welcome to Friday Footnotes, a weekly newsletter from Storygram Parents. It’s even got pictures 🙌
Each week I touch on reading, parenting, motivation, children’s books, education, writers, and whatever else catches my attention. Enjoy!
As Blaise Pascal apparently wrote:1
“I have made this longer than usual because I have not had time to make it shorter.”
That might mean the whole post doesn’t show in your email — you can just click view entire message to see the whole thing in a browser. Onwards!
(Don’t) Go It Alone
I’ve been rushed off my feet with client work as I try to clear projects and vaguely hit deadlines before the Christmas break2. I don’t necessarily want to be editing videos on Christmas day, but it might not be the first time.
So instead of the usual fare this week I’m reflecting on one big theme (and lesson) I’m taking away from 2025: collaboration.
Stop! Collaborate and listen.
It might seem odd that this forty(one) year-old bloke has only just discovered the value of working with others. But, if I’m honest3, a combination of pride, selfishness, desire for control, fragility, laziness — and an impressive host of other vices — have held me back from all sorts of projects over the years.
I always hated group projects.
I hated the dynamic: usually someone vocal will take charge while the quiet thinkers sit in the corner, rolling their eyes and dropping fatuous remarks. There’s usually at least one coaster, getting a grade for essentially zero work4. There’s also inevitably a disparity in skill between the group. Am I really supposed to give up my ideas for these schmucks?
I know what you’re thinking. This guy has a high impression of himself.
You’re right. I was delicate. I didn’t want to give up my precious ideas, and if I did, I would be amazed that people weren’t falling over themselves at my genius. I would rather lock my ideas away than risk someone else taking them, or offering their feedback. Because I was afraid.
Fear of collaboration
Ideas, are, in fact, cheap. As an ‘ideas guy’, this is quite hard to accept. The fear of giving up your ideas melts away when you realise just how cheap ideas truly are. That when you give them away, the world doesn’t end. It’s not like the Facebook movie (usually). You probably won’t lose a multi-billion dollar empire.
This is where I have to tell you my one and only lesson on collaboration: the more you give away, the more you get back.
Don’t ask me how that works. If I think back to those dreaded group projects at uni or school, I was often the reticent one, judging from afar and not wading in. The others in the group who jumped in with both feet usually had a much better time, and probably lifted the score of the group as a result.
Fingers and pies
This week I watched Hans Zimmer and his merry band of provocatively dressed musicians performing to a packed O2 arena in London5. I’ve been a fan of film soundtracks, and his soundtracks in particular, for a very long time, so it was very special. I got a little emotional at one particular moment in the Gladiator soundtrack. (I do not get emotional, as a rule6).
All the music performed came from Hans Zimmer’s brain, but Hans didn’t really need to be there for it to work. Apart from the intermittent talkie bits between song — where Mr Zimmer told us he prefers to be at home because he knows where the bathroom is, or told a fairly shocked audience that the incredible violin solo had just been played by someone who essentially had a fever — the concert would have carried on just fine without him.
I’m glad he was there. All I’m saying is that he spent most of the evening looking mildly inept trying to get his computer working, while the epic soundscapes belted out all around him.
I went to another gig at the Albert Hall last year, billed John Williams vs Hans Zimmer — neither of whom were there, but I still enjoyed it!
What am I getting at? Rather than spending this year swimming in an icy cold well of self-reliance, I instead decided to do my best to join the open seas of collaboration. I can report that the water is warm, and not nearly as full of sharks as previously suspected.
My year of collaboration
Here are a few quick areas where I collaborated and experienced growth in 2025.
If you’re thinking, isn’t “collaborating” just “being with friends”? well.. you might be right.
Running
Running is an activity I’ve generally viewed as solo. There is a joy to losing yourself in running and feeling the stress of the week fall off your shoulders. Even at Parkrun, I’m not there to chat. I’m there to beat my younger self.
But I’ve really enjoyed running with friends this year. It might not have always been at the pace I was aiming for, or the distance, but somehow those things matter less when you’re with friends. I’m fairly sure I’ve done more running this year thanks to the social element.
Writing
I have a writing group with a few friends — affectionately called Write Here, Write Now (by me at least). We usually meet at a coffee shop (a great chance to tour some of the amazing joints in London). We chat, write a bit, chat a bit more.
It’s not 100% productive. It can be quite expensive (there are some really nice coffee shops). But it is 1000% better than struggling alone at home, wondering if your ideas are any good.
I’ve found the group inspiring in all sorts of ways, from seeing each other come up with great articles or ideas, release their writing for the first time, or discussing some niche topic to a frankly nerdy degree.
Music
I realise these are all quite off-topic for Storygram, but quite on-topic for my life! I’ve just announced my new band, and I’ll be releasing our music on Substack:
I’ve been so encouraged in making music through friendships this year, and For What Joy (the collective name) is probably the clearest product of collaboration for me this year, that wouldn’t have happened otherwise.
Storygram
I’m sure you were wondering if I’d bring any of this back to Storygram. Well, here it is!
At the beginning of the year I started this Substack in earnest, with a flurry of posts exploring why children aren’t reading, and the importance of reading. Through those and subsequent posts I’ve connected with many of you — readers from various backgrounds and countries, but with one common denominator: caring about the next generation.
Through comments, discussions, dinners, meetings and more, my ideas have been shaped, challenged, and grown. And this is constantly informing the work that I’m doing with Storygram.
I’m getting ahead of myself but as we head towards 2026, I’m thankful for friends, encouragement, chats in the park, unnecessarily long runs, studio jams, and business advisors who come in all shapes. I’m grateful that I get the chance to explore all these avenues with people I care about, and I hope that I can encourage others in their fields as much as I’ve been encouraged.
Or alternatively, we could just all go it alone.
That’s all for today. Have a wonderful weekend. Keep learning! 😊
Graham
(In French, sacre bleu!) — https://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/04/28/shorter-letter/
If you’re a client and you’re reading this — obviously I’ll hit your deadline, don’t worry!
I will be throughout this article, I’m afraid
However, unlike Kemi Badenoch, I would not personally see it as my duty to enlist God’s judgement on the miscreants — https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c80d7l03137o
I assume they were provocatively dressed, but I was about a mile away from the stage, so it’s hard to say
This isn’t strictly true — but the emotion I usually get is anger rather than sadness or nostalgia. Is nostalgia even an emotion?
Bit of a tangent but the footnotes this week were especially funny!!
Been thinking about getting a typewriter… because it might not cyber scan my words for political partialities