Category: Creator Confidential
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When a dollar is not a dollar
One property of money is fungibility: a dollar is a dollar. To the bank, whether you or I make $10,000 working for ourselves, or $10,000 working for the worst boss in the world, it’s the same $10,000. Still, the way you and I make this money is not interchangeable. We know this inherently; for example,…
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The Winners Effect
When I was a teenager, for reasons I will explore in a separate post, almost every week I went shopping at Canadian discount retailer, Winners. Shopping at Winners felt like playing a lottery, because the inventory changed with time, and also varied by location. Every time I walked into a store, I felt a thrill;…
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A business model example blending creativity and expertise
The Futur founder and CEO Chris Do recently published his company’s business model: People come for the creativity (the bottom of the pyramid), and stay for the expertise. The more you want direct access to Chris’s time, the more you’ll have to pay. I also really liked this post: In other words, the more processing…
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Show up early, leave late
That’s one way to make time in a packed schedule. If you can’t move things around, you’ll need to make the time. End a session 15 minutes earlier. Delay the next one by 15 minutes. Now you’ve got an extra half hour to do the thing you really should be doing.
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“If I were actually smart, then I would…”
… not be working this job. … be the person who’s my boss right now. … be making a lot more money. When framed like this, thoughts are an end point; because you’re not smart enough, you’re not going to do it. In other words, you can’t. That’s one way to appraise your work, self,…
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Contentions: Viewer discretion is advised
Beware people and products that position themselves to create a problem; to exacerbate a discomfort and dissatisfaction in your present life. For example, that job you were entirely satisfied with doesn’t look as appealing as the creator who claims to make passive income and is recording a video from a beach in Hawaii. Usually, someone…
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Writing a book with index cards
I really liked Edward Slingerland’s coverage of how he wrote his book, mainly reading (for 18 months!), typing up note-sized cut outs in Microsoft Word and printing them out and pasting them on index cards, and then arranging and re-arranging the ideas until it makes sense. This always sounded like a ton of unnecessary work…
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A decade since Hypebeast
I can’t believe I pitched this piece covering print magazines over a decade ago to Hypebeast. People showed love too—Hypebeast comments used to be friendly! It was really fun getting to do this, and it undoubtedly made me a better writer. Hypebeast also covered my work with Prologue and The World According to Kanye.
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Creative oscillations (redux)
When I was writing Creative Doing, I noticed a pattern: in order to develop your creative process, you need to get comfortable with oscillating; constantly swinging back and forth between opposites and extremes. For example, one prompt was, “Obsess over Details,” and another was, “Stop Obsessing.” In order to develop your creative practice, you need…
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Outer scorecard, or inner scorecard
Make something to sell, or make something you like. Write something to get attention, or write something to express yourself. Care about the outcome, or care about the output. Focus on the future, or focus on the present. Serve your ego, or serve a person. Appear like you’re winning, or be happy with what you…