Hi, I’m Steven.

I write about people: how we think, how we change, and how the places and systems around us shape what we do. 

This is my creative writing space for essays, notes, poetry and half-formed ideas. Writing is thinking, so this is mostly me thinking out loud. The name comes from Freud’s id, the instinctive part of us beneath the filters. 

WHAT I DO

For 20 years I’ve led digital marketing and customer experience for brands like Booking.com, Emirates and Singapore Airlines, across five countries. The thread connecting that work is understanding people: what makes something useful, what gets in the way, and what helps change take hold. 

Today I bring that experience to IDspiration Studio. I help businesses grow by understanding what makes customers choose them, buy from them and keep coming back.

Tools only help when people actually use them. I help teams make AI and digital tools part of everyday work, so they can stay focused on their customers.

See how I work → 

I also host EveryCity Whispers, a podcast about how cities shape who we are, and keep a portfolio of past work. 

A FEW THINGS ABOUT ME

  • Tokyo-based, by way of Virginia, California, New York, Dubai, Amsterdam and São Paulo, with about 75 countries and over 3 million miles (4.8 million km) flown along the way (and I still stare out the window for every takeoff and landing).
  • I co-founded Sideview, a social journaling app, and took it through Web Summit’s Alpha startup program (where I met Nolan Bushnell, the Atari founder who gave Steve Jobs his first job, without realizing who he was; I still treasure his business card). 
  • In 2011, I turned down a role as Airbnb’s ~80th employee to start my own consultancy. What I learned about luck and judgment →
  • I geek out on Don Norman (my professor at UCSD 🤯), Harold and the Purple Crayon, and reframing problems: looking for the simpler psychological fix before the technical one. 

WHAT GUIDES ME 🧭

Agency · Curiosity · Empathy · Simplicity

Thanks for stopping by. Leave your email for an occasional interesting thought, or drop me a line.