Category: Creator Confidential
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Luck vs. skill
There are parts of how something turns out that are within your control. This set of knowledge, actions, and beliefs, you can call “skill,” “hard work,” or “effort.” Your judgement of what’s in your control is known as “wisdom” or “reason.” For some people, it’s useful to believe that you can achieve positive outcomes largely…
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Self-belief vs. the odds
Of the 49,000 members of the Actors’ Equity Association, the national union of stage actors, about 17,000 work at a median income of $7,500 in 2013. That’s not considering actors who don’t qualify for or participate in the union, who are likely paid less or working less. The conventional path of an actor is built…
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Ask people to give you what you want
In December 2009, Patrick McKenzie invited Thomas Ptacek out to coffee in Chicago. This was unusual for Patrick, because he wasn’t comfortable writing cold emails at the time. While Patrick’s original intention was to gossip about Hacker News threads—they were the top two users by karma points—the conversation shifted to Thomas asking Patrick about SEO…
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Re-appraising perfection
The story of perfect: Perfect is free of fault, incompletion, and error. Perfect is safety. Perfect is first place, a gold medal, or 100%. It is happily ever after, the peak of excellence, something to remember while also setting and forgetting. This is the imagined reality we live in, a story based on the assumption…
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Building confidence on a foundation of practice
In March, I appeared as a guest on my friend Michael’s podcast and discussed the creative process and daily blogging. Shortly after, he decided to blog every day for 100 days. I really enjoyed his writing—some highlights include his reflections on identity, mental health, and leaning into your strengths—and I found myself checking his blog…
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Help the best idea win
Ken Kocienda asks in his book, Creative Selection, “Two people have imagined two cute puppies. I assert mine is cuter. What do we do now? Do we have a cuteness argument?” Of course not. The solution is simple: in order to conduct a debate on the topic, the two people need to find pictures of…
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The Scallenge
Sometimes, you see somebody doing something on TV, and you think, “I can probably do that better.” That’s what some people thought when they saw Brian Scalabrine play in the NBA. So Brian issued a challenge, known as The Scallenge, where people could apply to play against him. Four players, each with NCAA Division I…
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Highlighting the practice
My friend Nik wrote something kind about me and this blog. I really appreciated this excerpt: A writer who can maintain a daily blog through the chaotic storm that everyday life can be is a much stronger writer than someone who only types when they feel like they have the time for it — and…
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Learning to talk to customers, directly
A little bit over a year ago, on the advice from a friend, I put together a philosophy of how I approached marketing. One of the key points was going direct. Here’s how I described it: Start where you are and work directly with your customers. Talk to them directly. Find metaphorically (and sometimes physically)…
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Determination vs. desperation
At some point in your life, you will need to cut off your options and make a critical decision. You send a message out to yourself, and to everyone else, that you are committed to follow through. There’s no other option for you. All the epic metaphors come to mind—you are making a leap of…