”Writing is thinking, I love thinking, I love working on problems, I love thinking through the problems…. So the whole writing thing is a thinking thing.” says Graham McAllister in this final part of our conversation. His foray into writing a book on Games Usability after he sold his company was also a foray into exploring the process of writing, asking himself questions like "How do you write a book? What's my voice? How do I write? What fits in with my life?” 

Graham unpacks his experiences about the art and craft of writing that worked for him in answer to these questions. He starts with reflections on publishing challenges in academia and his commitment to making knowledge freely accessible. He also talks about the process of discovering his writing voice, the iterative writing process, setting up a writing routine and setting achievable goals. Graham also reflects on the broader implications of his work within academia and industry, the pursuit of clear communication for your audience, and his future aspirations in writing and consulting. The conversation highlights themes of personal growth, the importance of thoughtful work-life integration, and the impact of past mentors and opportunities.

Overview

00:00 Introduction

02:50 Introduction to the Book Writing Journey

03:28 The Philosophy of Free Knowledge

04:51 The Writing Process and Idea Generation

07:12 Structuring and Refining the Book

10:08 Finding Your Voice and Writing Routine

11:51 Future Writing Projects and Reflections

20:09 Balancing Work and Personal Fulfillment

26:04 Final Reflections and Gratitude

Related Links:

Graham’s Home page and LinkedIn Profile and his books

CAL120 Part 1 episode with Graham on his previous career pivots

CAL121 Part 2 episode with Graham on team vision alignment

Welcome to Changing Academic Life.

2

I'm Geraldine Fitzpatrick, and this is

a podcast series where academics and

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others share their stories, provide

ideas, and provoke discussions about what

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we can do individually and collectively

to change academic life for the better.

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What do you think about writing?

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And how would you answer

the following questions?

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How do you write a book?

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Especially a book aimed at non-academics.

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What's your voice and how do you create

a writing routine that fits in your life?

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These are all questions that Graham

McAllister asked himself as he

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embarked on writing his book on games

usability after he sold his company.

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He calls them the soft

skills of writing books.

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And he wanted to use this book as a way

to explore the process of writing itself.

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So in this last of three parts of my

conversation with Graham, he shares

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his experiences about the art and

craft of writing that worked for him.

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He talks about his commitment to making

knowledge freely accessible about the

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process of discovering his writing voice.

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The importance of knowing your audience

and being able to communicate clearly and

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succinctly with them, and how the writing

process itself is highly iterative.

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He also shares the writing routine that

he set up, how he did that, and also

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how he set himself achievable goals.

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So he set himself up for

ongoing progress and success.

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And whether you are writing a book or

writing an academic paper for an academic

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audience, I think you'll find a lot to

take away from his experiences here.

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And towards the end, Graham also reflects

more generally on the implications of

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his work within academia and industry

and what's next for him possibly taking

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time again to reflect on the impact

of past mentors and the importance

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of thoughtful work life integration

and finishes with the call to us

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that we can design a better life.

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Enjoy this final part of my

conversation with Graham.

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You said before about after you sold

the company and you went away on

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holidays and you sat there and wrote

a book or started writing a book.

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And what I saw is this book is

freely available on your webpage.

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So talk us through the book, you

know, both the writing process, you

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know, what lessons we might learn.

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So I know that for many academics,

they have a book in them and it

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can be, feel really daunting.

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And also the decision to, to make

it freely and not try to get a

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publisher and make money from it.

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Graham: Yeah.

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Um, first thing is part of me

thinks knowledge should be free.

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Um, and I, I realize I'm a consultant,

but I, I realize the irony in saying

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that, but I hear I'm thinking of.

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Can I name specific publishers?

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Oh, no, I'll not, I'll not, I'll not.

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So there's academic publishers who,

even as an academic, I did not want

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to publish with because the research

was funded by the government or

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something like that, and then they

would charge to pay off that research.

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And I felt that research should be free.

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That's what I thought was fair.

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Wasn't paid for by you.

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I should be able to put that on my

website or my research group's website

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or the university's website so that

everyone can benefit from that.

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And that was one of my main frustrations

as a, as an academic was there's

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some great work out there, but

boy is it hard to get that, those

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findings out to the wider world.

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As someone who likes educating and

learning and sharing what's been learned.

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That is a major pain

point as an academic bit.

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That is a barrier.

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That is a usability

friction point to my work.

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Also an economic one.

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That if you're rich and if you want

to spend 50 dollars on a really boring

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academic paper that I wrote, you

could probably have access to that.

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But there's a lot of people where

50 dollars, even if you knew how

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to get it, is very difficult.

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So just that whole access thing

bothers me enormously with academia.

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Enormously.

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Um, so when I decided I want to

write a book, writing is thinking,

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I love thinking, I love working on

problems, I love thinking through

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the problems, I like clarifying the

thinking, like am I really answering

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the question that I think I'm working

on or am I not thinking clearly enough?

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So the whole writing thing is

a thinking thing, you know, I

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can't, I can't separate them out.

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Um, so that was partly it in terms of,

I knew I wanted to write a book and

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I A bit like, I have a lot of ideas.

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I think I come up with a lot of ideas.

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Usually when I'm running,

I, they just come out.

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I can't explain it.

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They just Blow out at a high rate, um,

so much so that my watch face when I'm

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running on my Apple Watch is the, the

note recorder, so I run along and I hit

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the, people usually have their Strava

times, like how fast they're running.

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Mine is to take ideas.

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So I have a button that

takes, takes ideas.

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Anyway, I turn around an

enormous amount of ideas.

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I had an idea for a series of books

on organizational psychology, and

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I really, well, that's interesting.

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I'm not short on ideas of what,

uh, how to help teams or design

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teams and thought, well, I better,

I better start writing then.

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You know, if I've got this series

of ideas, you have to begin, you

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have to actually do one, just

do one and see how it feels.

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And so the easiest thing for

me to write about is the field

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I've been in for the previous.

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I don't even know, 10, 20 years,

wherever it was, in terms of user

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research in the games industry, HCI.

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And I wasn't interested in the topic.

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I knew I knew enough to write

about it off the top of my head.

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I didn't need to read research

papers, but I was interested

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in the process of writing.

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How would I write?

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What is my voice?

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And then I thought back to what's

the problems I have with books,

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like why do I abandon books?

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And a lot of books even, I'm not going

to joke, I'm a famous American academic

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and I've tried to read two of his books.

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And that is hard work,

I've abandoned both.

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He's a CS professor and I like him on

podcasts, but his books are terrible!

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Sorry, I'm getting It's like he's got

one idea, and it could have been a

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really interesting 400 word article,

but it's just padded out to a book

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because a publisher said write a book.

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And I have a very low tolerance for that

BS, I must say, and I'm not having that.

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That's the other thing

I should write back.

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When I give a talk, I'm not very good at

putting up a Putting up with people's BS,

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I'm probably going to tell you like it is.

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Geri: mm hmm.

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Mm hmm.

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Mm hmm.

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Mm hmm.

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Mm

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Graham: common thing.

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But it's evidence BS, it's

not just opinion usually.

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Anyway, so if I'm going to write a book,

I decided I was interested in the softer

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side, the soft skills of writing books.

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How do you write a book?

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What's my voice?

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How do I write?

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What fits in with my life?

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What works with me is definitely

not gonna fit in with you, you know?

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So I decided I'm gonna write

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morning, two hours, because I

feel more creative in the morning.

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Some people feel more

creative in the evening.

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I used to when I was

younger, but not anymore.

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So I'm going in the morning, I write here

for two hours, and some days nothing may

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happen, but I'm not allowed to leave.

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I have to sit here for two

hours and I have to, I am.

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I'm encouraging myself to

write 200 words a day, minimum.

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But no, I may write more, and many

days I did write more, but I, I,

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I should leave with 200 words.

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That's like a paragraph.

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Like, surely I could write a paragraph.

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So that's 1, 000 words

a week, 200 words a day.

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I take the weekends off.

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I think I ended up working weekends

anyway, because I couldn't stop it.

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But the idea in the beginning

was Monday to Friday, 200 words,

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that's 1, 000 words a week.

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Um, so 4, 000 words a month.

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Uh, and I reckon I have the book

done 12, 000 words, whatever, in

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three months or something, whatever

it was, six months or 25, 000 words.

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It was that type of, I've got the,

I've got the math wrong, so someone's

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going to make fun of me, that's fine.

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But that was the idea, something simple.

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Uh, and then I'd go for a run after

that, do some form of exercise.

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That's what I think about what I wrote.

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And then the next morning, that

idea or what I had, what I ran

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would feed into the next morning.

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So there was this loop, right?

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I would write.

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I would do exercise where

most of the thinking happens.

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I would take the thinking and capture

it, not write about it, just feed

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that into the next morning's loop.

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And I kept that going.

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I wrote 25, 000 words or

something on the usability book.

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Um, but I wrote the book four times.

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I realized the first writing

was just getting the idea out.

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It was just a long bit back CS

professor who I'm criticizing.

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It was just like a, but it

wasn't repeating the same idea.

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At least it was more content,

but I realized that's kind of.

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Kind of reads like a book.

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I was, I was rethinking what a book meant.

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What does a book mean?

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A book means I'm sharing ideas

with someone and their ideas I

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think are useful, but why are they

always written in these long, you

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know, long chapters, like 20 pages?

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It's hard to keep 20 pages

of stuff in your mind.

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I don't think I could do that.

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I'm pretty sure I couldn't do that.

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So at some point I had this idea

of I'm going to chunk it up.

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Typical psychology, right?

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We'll chunk it up into how our mind works.

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And the original idea was

something like, I'll come up with

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a hundred ideas on usability.

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And the book will have some pun

around the number 100 or 99 or

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whatever crazy idea I had at the time.

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It ended up, I think there were 66 ideas.

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Uh, I didn't pad it out to 100, I think

I could have, but I was trying to be

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authentic, which is, well, it's 66.

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Maybe I should have done a route 66 pun.

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Maybe I could have made that work.

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But anyway, you see, I should

have went on another run, I think.

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Whatever the number ended up being,

I just felt that's the number.

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I'm not going to artificially

inflate it or reduce it to

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make it fit some clever title.

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Just, it was what it was.

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But I didn't care about the book itself.

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Um, so the book was an

exercise in me writing.

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I love the writing.

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I love the thinking.

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I love the rethinking

of what a book meant.

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Um, I put it on my

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Um, as we're speaking now in January 25,

I'm just, I'm going through the process

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of getting it on the Kindle in print.

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Because the book I really want

to write, the book on game

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vision, I want to get that book.

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That's the book I really want to write.

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I did not want to write

a book on game usability.

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I wanted to write a book.

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Um, so this was the, me practicing

the habit and the, the art of writing.

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So I was not interested in the

technical side, the idea, which

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most academics are interested in.

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The domain knowledge they have.

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It's everything else, which is,

well, even if I can communicate my

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domain knowledge, how do I do that?

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I thought through how best to

get that idea out there, um,

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rather than just saying, oh,

it's going to be in 10 chapters.

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I'll break it up.

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I think you can do, you can

rethink that a bit more.

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Rather than just, well, these

are the 10 chapters, I'll write

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the 10 chapters and get it done.

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Technically, you could do that.

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What else?

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You know, what else could you do?

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So, um, I don't know what

the next book will be.

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Maybe it will be a boring,

these are 10 chapters, and it

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could end up being that way.

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Um, but you at least think about it.

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You know, what, think through.

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My case, I was teaching the game

usability, but with teaching someone

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else how to how to do a thing.

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So it made sense for it to be in 66 steps

because that's actually what you're doing.

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You're following this step wise through.

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That's how you would teach it effectively.

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So it made sense to follow.

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It was like me sitting down beside

someone and teaching them how to do it.

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I would follow through and

tell them, these are the

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steps you need to go through.

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So it's a teaching book, so it makes

sense to follow the teaching format.

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The game vision one, I don't know where

it's going to be yet because I think

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I could take it in different ways.

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I could just tell you, these are the

problems with mental models on teams.

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That could be an interesting

book by itself, right?

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It's just, I'm just raising awareness.

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of saying, well, these are typical things

that crop up and you should find this

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interesting because it explains lots

of psychological problems on teams.

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It explains why you've got friction

between management and creative.

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For example, that's a known

psychological problem that came up.

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But then you went to the model and

you can tell people, here's why.

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And let me point to some solutions.

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And my MSc thesis was half

these are the problems.

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And then I introduced a

model at the second half.

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And I say, here's my model.

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That solves all those problems.

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Maybe, maybe I don't

have to write about that.

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I don't know.

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Sorry, you were going to ask a

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Geri: Mm hmm.

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No, I think that's a really interesting

process that you've been through

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and I love that the first book was

about finding your voice and finding

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your rhythm of writing and, and

that it still had a clear purpose.

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Its goal was to educate people, you

know, to teach them as a teaching

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tool to walk through these steps.

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Did it also provide some sort of

closure as well to that phase?

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Graham: I think so.

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I think, um, I don't have any

intentions of going back in that career.

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I don't think that's,

that's a very unlikely path.

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Um, so I think it was

good just to summarize.

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I was reading at one point,

why do people write books?

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And that came up as a reason for sure.

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One is, you know, sharing knowledge,

but other is closure, which is, well,

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I've spent my time in this career.

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What really have I learned?

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And if you can't even write a book on

what you spent 20 years doing, it's

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not, it's not interesting by itself.

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There was a series of books I could

have written on user research.

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I don't, you know, that's not the

career for me anymore, so they

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will look for me in my ideas file.

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But I took one and just

said that's the easiest one.

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I can still take value in that and

give value to others, and I can

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learn more about myself as a writer.

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You know, I can learn how I

write, or do I, it could have

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been, I do not enjoy writing.

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Like, I learned, for example, I

don't like making YouTube videos.

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I started a YouTube channel at one

point, and what I realized really

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quick was, I do not like making videos.

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I have no interest in doing that.

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Geri: What did you not like about it?

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Graham: it was very time consuming

and the technical side of it wasn't

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a skill that I wanted to develop.

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Um, I also felt that I wasn't,

it wasn't personally satisfying.

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Writing, I felt, satisfied me.

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I felt I was thinking deeper and

quicker and I did not get that from

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making a video for whatever reason.

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Maybe some people do,

but I did not personally.

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So, um, yeah, I think I just like writing.

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Uh, that's what I learned, which is good.

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You should know, but maybe you

try a book and I hit this process.

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Geri: Absolutely.

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And that's fine.

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Isn't it?

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And it is about knowing ourselves.

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And I, I liked what you said about like,

it's no good just to paraphrase you.

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It's no good just thinking about,

I've got this series, a book, just

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get on and write one and see.

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So that making progress, which is often

the thing that people find hardest

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when it's about procrastination,

especially if you're a perfectionist.

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You want to get everything all

lined up and feel like it's going

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to be perfect before you can start.

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And sometimes you just have to

start and give it a go and reflect.

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Graham: And that's why I set myself a

really low goal, like 200 words per day.

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It's so low.

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Like I remember writing it and

thinking surely anyone could write,

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you could do that over a tea break,

you know, and some days I did.

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But that was the point.

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It's, it's um, it's a bit like exercise.

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You're not allowed to do no

exercise, you have to do some,

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Geri: Um, Um, Yes.

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Graham: But you can't, can't do nothing.

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That's a bad, that's a bad,

you know, result, outcome.

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Geri: You're not setting yourself

up to fail by having unrealistic

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goals, which is really helpful.

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It seems like you're still trying to

find the, the clear why for the next

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book you've got the topic area, and

it's more, is that, you know, to, to

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sort of more like unpack or communicate

these things for people's awareness?

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Or is it about a how to do the, yeah.

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Graham: I think you're right.

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My, my main goal for 2025

is to write that book.

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Now I've got a thesis, an MSc thesis

on that topic, and part of me thinks

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I could just, you know, repurpose

that, um, which is one option.

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Um, but I'm not sure it's

practical enough for me.

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I'm not sure it's gonna, I think

people want to know what does it do.

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Geri: Yeah.

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Graham: And obviously

that's why I designed it.

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It is designed to do something.

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It's not just an academic thesis.

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There's a practical, heavy

practical element to it.

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So some people solve that by

writing a theory book and a field

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workbook or some sort of, some

of these books behind me here.

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I realize your people can't,

listeners can't see it, but

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there's a bookshelf behind me.

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And it's common to write two books,

the exercise book and the theory book.

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Um, and that could be useful because

I plan to take this into a workshop.

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I'm already starting doing that, actually.

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So there is a workshop component, and

so I should write like that if I know

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what I'm going to do with the book, or

if I know how people are going to use

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it, I should write with that in mind.

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It's not a book, no one reads about

mental models on a Sunday morning, it's

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not the book you pick up, you know, or go

to bed with a shared mental models book.

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So I have to think through, well,

how are people going to use my book?

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I know they're going to do

an exercise at some point.

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But I like the bite sized format that I

learned in the previous one, which is If

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you read two pages, it takes you a minute.

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If I can't tell you something interesting

in two pages, am I communicating?

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Because I think there should be

something interesting within a few

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minutes to keep your attention.

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Um, and if it's just waffle, then

cut it back to the CS professor.

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There's a lot, I would find no

tolerance for that type of book.

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Um, and there's a good idea in there,

but it just could have been said.

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I feel it's going to be used

in a different way, let's say.

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Geri: That's knowing your, uh, intent,

intended audience as well in a way.

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Graham: I think so as well, because

my audience is not academics.

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It's going to be people who

want to solve the problem.

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However, I'm not going to shy

away from the academic nature.

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I can imagine I would be

putting academic references.

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Geri: Uh,

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Graham: That's my current idea.

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I might backtrack on this in this

because I think I want people to know

365

that this is underpinned by science.

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Because there's lots of people who've

written, well not, there's lots of

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people who've got ideas in the game

industry for vision, shared vision.

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But it's just an idea.

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They're like, oh, I think this works.

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And I would ask, well, how do you know?

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And they would say something

generic like, well, I asked

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the team and they say it works.

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And I'm the other end of the scale.

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It's like, well, I'm interested

in the proof behind that.

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So my model will prove

if the team is aligned.

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That's why I designed it.

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Because I was tired of people

saying, oh, we're definitely aligned.

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People say there's no problem

here, and so I designed it, you

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know, so I'm always interested in

here's how I got to that answer.

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And if you want to read that

too, I'm going to pinpoint you to

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the very things that I learned.

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So I want to trade that, instead of

dumbing the book down and saying,

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here's academia, and I'm going to

remove all the hard slogs that we would

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read as academic papers, I'm going to

remove all that and just distill it.

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I'm instead going to say, I want to

bring you up and elevate your knowledge.

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And it's going to be a little

bit tricky, but I think it's

387

going to be worth it for you.

388

So that's my current thinking.

389

Geri: Yeah, and that seems like a skill

you've really developed well is that

390

communicating to people why it matters.

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Graham: I think, and I think that's

the reason, I think, if you write a

392

book that's hard to read, and you can't

tell people why it's worth it to read

393

through it, they're probably abandoned.

394

But if you tell people in advance, this

is not going to be the easiest of reads.

395

There probably would be

an easier way to say this.

396

But, I think you will get more from

it by going through this journey.

397

This is likely harder to read.

398

There's going to be academic jargon.

399

I'll explain it to you.

400

You will benefit stronger if

you stick with it, and I'm going

401

to do my best job I can to not

write a long, woefully long book.

402

I'm going to help you, to elevate you,

to bring this academic terminology

403

and models into your thinking, rather

than keep it out of your thinking.

404

I don't think I'm doing you any

favors by removing it from your

405

thinking and your mental model.

406

My job is to improve you, but I

have to, the journey's going to be

407

a little bit of, Be a bit tricky.

408

Not as hard as an MSc or a PhD,

but it's not a blog article

409

on, you know, Medium either.

410

It's, it's in between.

411

Geri: That's probably good food for

thought for people, especially with the

412

increasing push to impact, which requires

a different sort of communication skill.

413

We should wrap up.

414

So what next for Graham McAllister?

415

There's the book and you said

about starting to do consulting.

416

Graham: I, I, I honestly don't know.

417

know.

418

I do think this is the final career.

419

So I guess, I don't know how

you phrase your life journey.

420

But I think this is the, this is the

wind down phase, for sure, right?

421

Um, I don't work five days a week, or, I

don't work five days a month, you know.

422

So, and that's my design,

it's not for anything else.

423

Could that change?

424

Yes.

425

So this is another one of those

dots where I'm saying, I am here,

426

and I spent five years going back

to LSE and designing a model.

427

And that model shows that the game

industry is, Missing a substantial,

428

you know, explains their problem, and I

could bring that into the game industry.

429

And all I know is I have to

bring that to the game industry

430

Geri: in some format.

431

Uh, Um, Uh,

432

Graham: format.

433

And I imagine if we speak in two years

I don't know what I would say, right?

434

I could say it turned into nothing, or I

tried and I failed, I tried to tell them

435

and they wouldn't listen, or I designed

this model and someone built on it and

436

now it's this amazing thing, and you can

imagine all the ways that could go, um,

437

and I do not know, and I'm okay with that.

438

I'm

439

Geri: I was just going to

ask, is it scary or exciting?

440

Graham: No no.

441

It's more on the exciting end, I think.

442

The final part, the final, final

part, I think is bringing it maybe

443

to people outside of video games.

444

As you hinted at, this is a human problem.

445

This is a team problem.

446

Whenever a group of people get together,

they have an alignment problem.

447

And that alignment problem generically

is caused by language and the

448

structure of their mental model.

449

And yes, we could talk about

values and things like that.

450

But that's what's causing

the friction ultimately.

451

And so if we can generalize that

and say, well, here's a mental, the

452

general mental model for any team, but

we know you'll need to refine it for

453

your industry, while our team works in

the automotive industry, or space, or

454

healthcare, or fintech, or I get it.

455

But generally speaking, this is a

way of thinking, and again, that's

456

one of the book outlines that I

could write, is saying, generalizing

457

that to teams, uh, of any type.

458

So I spoke to a publisher years ago,

pitching the Game Vision project.

459

This is 2020 maybe 5 years ago, and this

is a famous publisher in the States,

460

and they said they nodded and listened

and went, yes, interesting, interesting.

461

Could you write that?

462

So it's useful for any team.

463

So they wanted to, you know, they said

they'd publish the game book if I wanted,

464

but the book they were really interested

in is the thinking behind that model

465

and applying that to the wider audience.

466

And I said, well, that's not me.

467

It's not my passion.

468

But in 2025, since going back to LSE and

seeing models with any organization, I

469

do know, I think, yeah, I could see how I

would go about writing that book as well.

470

So I don't know, but I can see, you

know, um, I could imagine maybe just

471

writing books for the end of my, my

final working career where, and you

472

give a few talks on them and a few

workshops and you love doing it.

473

And there's nothing wrong

with that path at all.

474

You know, I don't see.

475

Geri: So it's a lovely example

of You never know where life will

476

take you and you can pivot your

career in many different ways.

477

And you're still applying a lot of

your core skills around, you know, like

478

as you've talked about, identifying

interesting problems and being able to

479

articulate them, getting to the why,

what's behind it, how do we solve them,

480

how do we bring methods to solving them,

how do we communicate the findings.

481

So there's a lot of those red

threads as well through all the work.

482

Graham: I think so.

483

I think so.

484

It's like, why do these

problems keep happening?

485

If you're like an organization

or research group.

486

And you're seeing recurring problems.

487

What on earth?

488

Why is that happening?

489

What's going on there?

490

You know, so I think people, I think it's

an interesting time for us to talk because

491

people are rethinking what work is.

492

This has been a common trend since

COVID in particular, and they're

493

saying, well, okay, I go to work,

I get money because I need money

494

to pay the rent, blah, blah, blah.

495

I get it.

496

But what about me?

497

What about my, what do I bring?

498

Am I fulfilled going to work?

499

Um, this work life balance, you know, is

it going to work to get money, but your

500

life starts at 5pm when you come home

and do it the things you want to do.

501

And then people rebelled

against that idea quite rightly

502

saying, well, could they not?

503

Can we not have both?

504

Can we not go to work

and feel happy there too?

505

Can I bring myself to work?

506

Why do I have these two identities?

507

So this, all of this, the underlying theme

between everything we were talking about,

508

and I apply this particularly to the game

industry, which has had a horrific Three

509

years of companies closing and people

crying in car parks and losing their jobs.

510

And the other line, you could

ask me, why did I do game vision?

511

I've tried to give you some answers,

but the bottom answer, the root cause

512

of all of this is people are having

a really horrible time at work.

513

And yes, we could say it's partly

leadership and culture, and

514

that's true, but we can fix it.

515

We can have, we can design a better life,

whether you're in the video game industry

516

or academia or wherever you're in.

517

Um, it could definitely be better.

518

I don't know how much better,

but it could be better.

519

That's what I would say.

520

I think people are starting to pay

more attention to that, uh, over the

521

last five years, which is good to see.

522

Geri: Yes.

523

Definitely.

524

Totally agree.

525

Well, Graham, this has been wonderful

catching up and such an interesting

526

story and so much in it to reflect

on, on lots of different levels.

527

So anything that we haven't talked about

that you would have wanted to cover?

528

Graham: I don't think so.

529

I think, you know, you've had

a huge influence on my life.

530

That's the final thing.

531

Because multiple times, I don't know why.

532

You accepted me into Sussex to

start as a senior lecturer back

533

then, 2007, 2008, whatever it was.

534

It really, that was a

major pivotal moment.

535

Without that, there wouldn't

have been a company.

536

Without that, I wouldn't have

went to LSE to do the vision,

537

the share mental model work.

538

You're, you know, and

the generosity you have.

539

I mean, we never got to talk

about you on this podcast.

540

I don't know if we want to, I guess,

talk about you or not, but there's

541

probably a consistent theme, um,

about your generosity with your

542

time and how you are to people.

543

And I won't tell stories, but I

definitely I think of stories and

544

things you did that were so generous,

back to that window we had in Sussex.

545

Things you did, I remember thinking,

what a wonderful, wonderful,

546

kind person you really are.

547

Geri: Oh,

548

Graham: And honestly, there's so many

examples, I'm not going to cite them

549

because they're personal to me and they

won't mean anything to anyone else, except

550

to say that I'm not short of examples.

551

You know, and I'm not the only

one who says that, you know,

552

um, the fact you're doing this

and giving, giving back as well.

553

But yeah, just, just to say thank you

because you took my life in a massively

554

better, more interesting direction that I

would not have reached on my own for sure.

555

Geri: And you, yes.

556

So I really appreciate

you saying those things.

557

I'm very humbled.

558

So thank you.

559

And I also am honoured to have been

part of that journey because you've

560

Being the one who's made that path

work and, um, take, you know, like

561

used it and, and built things.

562

And as you said, the multiple impacts

on all sorts of people, companies,

563

people in the industry, people playing

games, you know, just generally.

564

So we, we never know, do we?

565

How, who we touch or how we touch people.

566

Graham: That's what I was thinking about.

567

These random, someone says

a word in a corridor or a

568

Geri: Um, Um,

569

Graham: I like, I never get, I

won't be able to tell Gary anymore

570

that he changed my life too.

571

This random lecture that he gave by

saying yes to this talk at Queen's

572

University and, you know, it sent

my career on a whole different path.

573

And

574

Geri: Um.

575

Graham: As you say, stop the podcast

and tell people, you know, someone,

576

because it's bound to happen.

577

Geri: That's a great

point to, to, uh, stop on.

578

So stop now and go and tell someone what

they did for you, what they mean to you.

579

Yeah.

580

So thank you, Graham.

581

And so ends the last part of

my three part conversation with

582

the wonderful Graham McAllister.

583

I just love his energy and how clearly

he thinks through issues and connects

584

the dots of his various career pivots.

585

And

586

isn't he such a powerful communicator?

587

I think there have been nuggets

spread across all three episodes.

588

And in this latest episode, whether you

struggle with writing or love writing,

589

I hope you'll have found some things

here that you can take away to try out.

590

And even though Graham was talking about

books and for non-academic audiences.

591

I think there are aspects on the art and

craft of writing that he's shared that

592

could apply to all forms of our writing.

593

I know that I took away a lot

from my own writing practice.

594

And finally, I just want to spotlight

something that Graham said at

595

the very end of our conversation.

596

That I think comes through in so much

of what he's done for himself across

597

his various career pivots, and also the

impact that he has had on the people

598

that he's trying to work with to solve

problems to make their lives better.

599

And that's this quote from Graham

about designing a better liFe.

600

Graham: We can design a better life,

whether you're in the video game industry

601

or academia or wherever you're in.

602

Um, it could definitely be better.

603

I don't know how much better,

but it could be better.

604

Geri: So let's all work

at making it better.

605

You can find the summary notes, a

transcript and related links for this

606

podcast on www.changingacademiclife.com.

607

You can also subscribe to Changing

Academic Life on iTunes, and Stitcher.

608

And I'm really hoping that we can

widen the conversation about how

609

we can do academia differently.

610

And you can contribute to this by rating

the podcast and also giving feedback.

611

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612

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613

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