Author: Herbert Lui
-
The one line paradox
Sometimes it’s much easier to write 1,000 words on a topic than to write 10. As Mark Twain writes, “I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.” Or as Arnold Kling writes, “When I finish writing a book review, I will often say to myself, ‘There! Now…
-
Endurance
The ability to stick it out is criminally underrated. Not only will you outlast the competition, you will also gain an experience that demonstrates your ability—and bring it to the next thing you do.
-
Books are an organized hobby
Anne Trubek writes: Books are now, I think, and will continue to be more clearly over the next two decades or so, a minor form. Like opera, or theater, or ballet. I adore all of these art forms. I spend money of them, as I do on books. As do millions of others. And we…
-
Winning vs. not losing
There are two quotes I really liked from Shane Parrish’s Clear Thinking: “While the rest of us are chasing victory, the best in the world know they must avoid losing before they can win. It turns out this is a surprisingly effective strategy.” “If you find yourself in a hole, the first thing you need…
-
Practice as perpetuation
A couple of days ago, someone told me that they saw me using a portable monitor and decided to buy one for themselves. It’s just another reminder that people learn from each other and get energy and inspiration from each other. If you wish something was more widespread, the best thing you can do is…
-
Three things about your competitors
If a tattoo artist does a good job the first time you get a tattoo, you’ll be interested in getting more tattoos. They’ve just created an opportunity for other tattoo artists. If somebody reads a book about creativity, they’re probably actually more likely to read another book about the topic—not less. While competitive energy can…
-
Never take offense that you have to negotiate
Here’s something I wish I knew a decade ago (or even just five years ago): This is the other huge mistake people make when they start negotiating. They take offense at what’s being offered because they feel it’s an unfair representation of what they’ve put in. Please understand this: negotiations are not personal. Again, I…
-
Eigenzeit
While I’ve known about the concept of Eigenzeit for a couple of years, which Oliver Burkeman likens to, “the insight that meaningful productivity often comes not from hurrying things up but from letting them take the time they take,” working full-time at Figma has created an opportunity for me to actually practice it. I’ve often…
-
615 days of blogging for the hell of it
Whiona writes: Why is that the end goal of blogging? Of writing? Just to make money and grow our followers? To increase our traffic so we can expose our visitors to 300 repetitive ads that take up their entire phone screen? To “convert” our readers into our customers, because them reading and enjoying what we…
-
Swoopers and bashers
“Swoopers write a story quickly, higgledy-piggledy, crinkum-crankum, any which way. Then they go over it again painstakingly, fixing everything that is just plain awful or doesn’t work. Bashers go one sentence at a time, getting it exactly right before they go on to the next one. When they’re done they’re done.” Kurt Vonnegut Thomas Basbøll…