I was gifted a bit of couch time this last week. Before you get envious of the downtime, the 102 fever didn’t make it all that pleasant. So instead of catching up on old shows, I rewatched a pretty epic documentary series called Abstract. There are a few episodes I’ve seen 8 or 10 times. I wish I were exaggerating. Because you’re presumably healthy, I’ll give you a few notes from this most recent journey.
The show is about creators of all kinds: Platon photos, Tinker Hatfield who designed Jordans 3-10, a toy designer, an interior designer, and a typeface designer.
There were two huge themes through all of these episodes:
The first: History
Each creator respected and even honored the history before them. The typeface designer, for example, reviewed old watches and tombstones for inspiration on new typefaces he was designing. He didn’t copy them, but he evolved them, using the history as inspiration.
Tinker, who led Air Jordans, used Michael’s own past for details on the shoes he was designing to make them stand out. It was spectacular. The best example is the Jordan 20, the shoe Tinker came out of retirement from Jordan Brand to design. He and Mark Smith laser-etched over 200 tiny symbols into the midfoot band, each one a moment from Michael’s life — even 69 dimples on the side for his 69-point game. The entire pattern is full of stories from Michael’s past.
The second: Play
Each one of these creators had found something they consider extremely fun. They enjoyed the process, the creativity, and then eliminated things outside of their control that were considered distractions.
Platon is a great example. He’s a photographer who takes iconic close up photos of the most famous people in the world on black or white backgrounds. He felt overwhelmed with subjects, backgrounds and balancing the two and so he eliminated the background and created his iconic style. His camera never changed, he still uses film in his cameras and he still takes iconic photos. Maybe the most iconic.
So what’s all this about in a newsletter about San Diego people trying to connect with each other? A fair question.
I’m finding that when we bring the things that truly light us up to the conversation. We get to another level of connection in the wild. You might have noticed these topics light me up. The argument isn’t to change jobs or find your passion. This isn’t a career newsletter (that’s our other one, lol). But I’m sure there’s something that we can all bring with us when we’re connecting with others that shows our passion.
It’s much more fun to connect as people anyways. And my guess is, afterwards we get a little closer, we’d be much more interested in considering working on something together.
I’m fully repaired now, and even though I feel like I lost an entire week to the couch, I feel like I gained a bit of new perspective on how to connect with others.
What we’re howling about this week: |
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Monday, July 13
San Diego County Startup Mixer at 5:30 PM - Bay Park 🐾
Tuesday, July 14
Hussein's North County SD Startup Mixer at 5:30 PM - Encinitas
Wednesday, July 15
($) AI Female Founders Panel - Scale Smarter, Not Harder at 5:30 PM - Torrey Pines
San Diego Cyber Group Meetup at 6:00 PM - Mission Valley
Thursday, July 16
Friday, July 17
SD Founders Surf at 6:30 AM - Cardiff
Super Coyote Curious? |
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San Diego is easier to navigate when you know someone who already has. Even better when you find a whole pack of people who want to help you do it.
If you've been building something here and haven't found your people yet, that's what this is for.
If that's you, apply to join the pack.
What we’re howling about next week: |
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Tuesday, July 21
OpenAI Build Week Community Meetup at 5:00 PM - Kearny Mesa
Wednesday, July 22
COMIC-CON 2026: Wed to Sun - Downtown
Leading with AI: CXO Dinner & Discussion Series at 5:00 PM - Torrey Pines
Modern GTM + AI: What's working at 5:30 PM - Encinitas
Thursday, July 23
San Diego Business Impact Awards 2026 at 4:00 PM - Torrey Pines
SD Entrepreneurs Exchange Happy Hour at 5:30 PM - Miramar
Mark Your Calendars |
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Thursday, July 30
AI Happy Hour July - Jalapeño! at 6:30 PM - North Park
Friday, July 31
Thursday, August 27
A few more howls: |
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Into the Den Pod: Kris and I took the mics to Super Bloom. He’s the CEO of TL Foundation, a nonprofit philanthropic venture fund in San Diego. Here’s the episode. I would be overjoyed if you left me a podcast review. But only if you listened first.
If you’re on the hunt for a startup or growing company in SD, here’s last week’s Career Coyote. It’s impressive what’s being built in San Diego.
There’s a newsletter I write for folks who wanna see my notes on San Diego, beyond events, called the Howlpha. I write it for the Super Coyote community, but you don’t have to be a Super Coyote to read it.
That’s enough howling out of me, see you in the wild!
Jonah 🐺
the Howl Guy
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