Björn Jeffery

Our culture would tell me that I’ve somehow failed myself, that I’m a quitter or a loser. Self-help would say that I either wasn’t courageous enough, determined enough or I didn’t believe in myself enough. The entrepreneurial/start-up crowd would tell me that I chickened out on my dream and gave in to my conventional social conditioning. I’d be told to do affirmations or join a mastermind group or manifest or something.

But the truth is far less interesting than that: I thought I wanted something, but it turns out I didn’t. End of story.

I wanted the reward and not the struggle. I wanted the result and not the process. I was in love not with the fight but only the victory. And life doesn’t work that way.

Who you are is defined by the values you are willing to struggle for. People who enjoy the struggles of a gym are the ones who get in good shape. People who enjoy long workweeks and the politics of the corporate ladder are the ones who move up it. People who enjoy the stresses and uncertainty of the starving artist lifestyle are ultimately the ones who live it and make it.

This is not a call for willpower or “grit.” This is not another admonishment of “no pain, no gain.”

This is the most simple and basic component of life: our struggles determine our successes. So choose your struggles wisely, my friend.

(via porky hefer suspends animal-cocoons at london design biennale)

They don’t write them like this any more. I used to listen to this on cassette when I grew up. Lines like “I had taken furnished lodgings down at Rustington-on-Sea”.

Gender preferences for toys only show up after children learn about their gender. Babies show no preference, Brown says.

In fact, when it comes to the actual toys kids like to play with, there is more variability within a gender than there is between genders, says Sweet. For example, she points out that studies of young children have shown that boys are no more likely than girls to enjoy playing with a toy with wheels, something traditionally given to boys.

Few things have changed as much as the British appetite for tea. Tea consumption per person has fallen consistently since the early 1970s, plummeting from almost 68 grams per week in 1974 to only 25 grams per week in 2014, as shown in the chart at the bottom right. The plunge of more than 63 percent is one of the biggest among all beverages in the country. Only the consumption of malt drinks and coffee essences (whatever those are), have fallen by more.

Spin Master Corp. – a leading global children’s entertainment company – today announced that it has agreed to acquire the Toca Boca and Sago Mini companies from the Bonnier Group of Sweden.

Also, we’re celebrating the weird. Not everything should be like Disney and Apple. Those are too perfect; we want our things to have flaws, and to be a bit weird, while also referencing the everyday

We also find ourselves living in an increasingly protected world where everything from forks to table edges to flooring have been designed child safe at a premium and marketed to the fears of parents. I understand that parents including myself want the safe side of everything, but the problem is we need to take a little leap of faith for interesting life experiences. Take a little risk, but make sure there is adult supervision. And adult sensibility.

Part of what makes Toca Boca games so lovable is also their business downfall, in a sense. A parent might buy an app for $2.99 in 2013 and still have the same app, with no additional payments, on her phone three years later. “My hope is that you’ll keep that in mind,” said Jeffery. “When a parent needs to find a new game easily, in an airport or on a Saturday morning when a kid needs a treat, [that experience means] they will go looking for another Toca Boca game.”

“It’s a slower way: Building a company, building a brand. It’s the way that we chose; it’s not the way to make quick money.”