Done with Despair, Launching Lore and Work in Progress with Matthew Knight
Worm regards
Wherever I scroll lately, is an argument for despair. It’s the hook.
But day in, day out the sun continues to rise. That’s semi-cringe to type out…except that it is also true. So if I could make one tiny adjustment to the quote above, it would be to: make hope practical.
Speaking of practicality…according to Anton Jäger’s book Hyperpolitics, the most practical means of generating real-world change is by doing things together irl.1 Not because now it’s a luxury status-symbol, and not in an easy-to-join-easy-to-leave kinda way, but through deep and meaningful memberships which begets belonging and social capital which begets collective influence.
Let’s get organised, together irl.
And if you needed another argument to let despair miss you, here’s a good quote via VOGUE which yes, is about sustainability, but is also not just about sustainability:
“The global context has not been easy since we started. The headwinds have been strong, but we can’t just wait for the headwinds to stop blowing, or we’ll never get anywhere. It’s super important that we maintain momentum and recognize the long-term importance of this transition.” Jennifer Jordan-Saifi, CEO at Sustainable Markets
The work is the work is the work and it needs to get done.
Onto the practical…
The weekly look at three optimistic signals in dark times, plus curious ‘how might we…’ ideas for what we can do, moving forward.
Fashionable Change: Last week the H&M Foundation announced the Top 20 finalists for the Global Change Award 2026. Sustainability might have dropped-off the headline circuit lately, but the work is still being done: companies creating solutions including fungi breaking down textile waste, carbon-capturing dyes and story-driven digital product passport platform no less.
Moving forward: Brands and organisations solving the tricky problems in circularity are still early. What would it mean to be a collaborator now vs. a customer later?
Make it Make Sense: The launch of LORE last week is an interesting one signalling sense-making as a strategy vs. digital fragmentation, immersive and interactive experiences countering the sea of sameness and lore; the obsessive, fanatically-fun history of it all. Afterall, who doesn’t love a fun fact?
Moving forward: Every organisation has its Lore, how do internal teams and external customers navigate and sense-make yours? Is it fun and accessible or dry af? What kind of experiences could be designed to help fix fragmentation elsewhere?
Rebuilding Together: Two signals from Europe this week. Rebuild is a Copenhagen-based collective on a year-long sprint to redesign social platforms from scratch. And the European Commission just launched its first Strategy on Intergenerational Fairness aka policymaking that keeps future generations in mind. Hey look! It’s people working on broken systems not just complaining about them. Love to see it.
Moving forward: Everybody’s obsessed with the next quarter but these initiatives are planning for the next generation. What could intergenerational fairness look like in your world of work? And sign the rebuild letter.
Ok bonus extra 4th because, in a sea of performative ‘get it girl IWD’ posts, how good is the practicality of this:
Literally just do things!
Chatting work, change and hope this week is Outside Perspective’s Matthew Knight - independent strategy partner, and Chief Freelance Officer at The Independency Co, a collection of projects supporting freelancers and those working with freelancers, including Leapers - supporting the mental health of freelancers; and Outside Perspective - the place for independent strategists. He lives in London with his two children, has a coffee addiction, and is slowly learning Swedish. You can say hello at https://www.thinkplaymake.co/
What are you working on right now?
I officially “Do Too Many Things™, so it depends what mode you catch me in.
But the thing I’m most passionate about currently is Freelance Friendly - it’s a policy framework to help businesses be transparent about how they’re working with freelancers, and a roadmap to make improvements - so their independent workforce is better supported.
Our research into the mental health of freelancers shows that creative industry freelancers are struggling.
40% of freelancers saw a decline in their mental health last year, and much of that impact comes from poor working relationships with clients, as well as a lack of access to support infrastructure.
Hirers can (and should) play a part in better supporting the mental health of their freelancers, so we’ve built a set of stepped principles which clients can consider.
We’re on the hunt for organisations who hire freelancers, treat them respectfully, and want to publish a statement on how they’re working well with us freelance lot, so others can learn what good looks like.
My goal is to have 20 organisations by the end of the year signed up, and committing to doing better for their freelancers.
If you could change one thing about the world of work right now, what would it be, and why?
Recognition that freelancers are a strategic driver of growth, not just a resourcing overflow.
I don’t like the term freelancer, because it carries lots of this baggage of last minute gap filling, or disposable commodity resource. We need to reframe working with independent expertise as a powerful way to bring external capability, augmenting your internal teams, accelerating your ability to deliver brilliant work. It’s such an amazing way to add deep specialisms, fresh perspectives and diversity of thinking to projects.
I think we’ll naturally see a shift towards more mission-based working over the coming years - the rise of AI within organisations will likely mean that much of the “business as usual” work will be automated or delegated to agents, and expertise will be brought in for the most valuable projects, rather than kept on staff all year round.
But if organisations want to work with the best people, they’ll need to recognise and respect the value of those experts, and treat them as such.
What’s giving you hope right now?
I’m excited by the huge explosion of new independent businesses, different models, collectives, coalitions, microstudios, networks, which all seem to be centered around the idea of doing good work, without the burden of complexity or heavy structures. It’s an interesting time for the creative industry, which is not dying, but being redesigned, and the legacy models of where talent lives, where work happens, and who owns and operates in those spaces has been long due a massive overhaul.
People’s energy and passion has been stretched thin over the last decade in some of the more traditional ways of working - so it’s lovely to see it popping back up, new shoots of energy cropping up.
The next ten years are going to be incredibly hard, I think - but there’s something powerful to see people who lead with curiosity, passion and purpose, who are committed to trying something different and new.
Until Next Time…
Worms Magazine! The universe is telling me something because I keep crossing paths with these v good worms.
Only took me 26 years to watch it, here’s your sign to flex those focus muscles and watch Magnolia. “We may be through with the past, but the past is not through with us”
Good sign-offs for your future emails. On which note…
Worm regards,
Caitlin
I am radically simplifying the book here for efficiency, but you get the idea…