Once You Get There, You Can Move Mountains

Welcome to?The?Art?of?The?Impossible, a weekly newsletter where I unearth five pieces?of?content which I hope will both inspire?and?embolden you.

Before we get started, a quick congrats to the amazing Dean Forbes who has just been claimed UK’s most influential black person on JP Morgan’s 2025 Powerlist. If you don’t already know Dean’s incredible rise - watch our interview here.

PODCAST

This week’s guest is Nuno Coelho Santos – a Portuguese Product Designer who has worked at some of tech’s top companies from DeepMind to Meta’s WhatsApp , and Google Health. Listen here or wherever you get your podcasts from.

He was at DeepMind working on their Streams app for clinicians when Covid struck and his team were pulled into helping the UK Ministry’s of Health Departments Covid response.

In this wide ranging conversation, we talk about Nuno’s early pull between his two great loves – engineering and design, how design ultimately won and led to his work award winning work at DeepMind and Google as well as the career break he took after being inspired by designer Stefan Sagmeister who believed in taking a complete sabbatical every seven years. Listen here or wherever you get your podcasts from.

We also discuss the differences in the companies he worked at, and what the impact of AI might be on software and design in the future.

I really enjoyed talking to Nuno and I think you will learn a lot – this is his first ever podcast interview.

Please enjoy my conversation with Nuno Coelho Santos. Listen here or wherever you get your podcasts from.

QUOTE

“That’s always been one of my mantras - focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple.

But it's worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.”

Steve Jobs, Business Week published on May 25th 1998

INTERVIEW

Here is a short interview with Tim Cook where he discusses working with Steve Jobs, his first job as a paperboy, and his first days working at IBM. Tim also shares his love for logistics, manufacturing, and the management lessons he learned from Steve. . Watch here.

READ

This week’s read is a blog post from Mark Manson: 40 Life Lessons I Know at 40 (That I Wish I Knew at 20) which I think can be ready by anyone of any age and stage - some good advice in here.

Nothing Meaningful in Life Is Easy, Nothing Easy in Life Is Meaningful

We think we’d like to have everything handed to us on a silver platter. But the truth is that we don’t appreciate or enjoy things that we don’t struggle for.

So stop avoiding the difficult things in your life and instead find the difficult things you enjoy.

FILM

I have been thinking a lot recently about how modern society works and the pitfalls of us not being connected anymore which drew me to this documentary focused on the work of Bob Putnam , who wrote Bowling Alone.

This documentary examines social scientist Robert Putnam's "Bowling Alone" theory of how declining community engagement created an American civic crisis.

It looks at why it’s important to be connected, and why the fate of America may depend on it.

Watch it on Netflix to follow the half-century story of America's civic unraveling through the journey of legendary social scientist Robert Putnam, whose groundbreaking Bowling Alone research into America's decades-long decline in community connections could hold the answers to our democracy's present crisis.

Accompanied by influential fans of his work, and scholars — from Hillary Clinton, Pete Buttigieg, and Surgeon General Vivek Murthy to Eddie Glaude Jr., Raj Chetty, and Priya Parker — as well as inspiring groups building community in neighborhoods across the country, join Bob as he explores three urgent civic questions: What makes democracy work? Why is American democracy in crisis? And, most importantly…What can we do about it?

It wasn’t the best docu I have watched but it definitely highlighted some of the thoughts I have had around this lack of connection in society today and the impact that it could/will have.

Trailer here. I also recommend this NYT interview with Putnam here.

EVENTS

Tuesday 12th November, 3-4pm online. FREE event for founders looking to fundraise - Key mistakes to avoid when fundraising with Tessa Clarke CEO of Olio . A chance to ask experienced fundraiser and Venture Advisor, Tessa Clarke - Founder & CEO of Olio - all your Qs to avoid the pitfalls of fundraising. Book your spot for free here.

Thank you so much for reading?the?newsletter?and?for listening to?the?podcast , and?if you enjoy them, please do share with your network - my goal is to have these stories reach as many as possible so that others can be inspired too. And if you have two minutes, please do leave a review for the podcast - it would mean the world to me and helps others to find it too.

Danielle