Category: Turning Stories
-
Branches, trunk, and roots
Hamza and I recently joined Emil Drud’s podcast Creative Odyssey as guests. It was our first appearance as New Material. I was describing how I thought about blogging, which I described as the trunk of my practice. Emil responded with a good question: what are the roots? Hamza, Emil, and I discussed it for a…
Herbert Lui
-
60%
In school, 50% was the average grade. In the working world, the average grade is closer to 0%. You can always decide not to show up, or to do the minimum. 60% is much closer to 100% than 0%. With some added effort and process changes, you could get to 80%. If you rescope or…
Herbert Lui
-
What is life asking of you?
Freddie Roach hated boxing. He’d enrolled in training since he was young, and got into hundreds of fights outside the gym as well. While he created momentum as a professional boxer, he suffered a string of defeats and was eventually diagnosed with symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. For a boxer who never quit a fight—in fact,…
Herbert Lui
-
Deliberate deprivation
There are several ancient practices that involve deprivation. This includes fasting, celibacy, and silent retreats. What are the reasons people did this? In a world filled with even more excess and indulgence than the past, is there a case to introduce more deprivation, more intentionally, into our lives? If you’ve been flirting with someone or…
Herbert Lui
-
When the dream changes
Hacks is one of my favorite shows on TV. It’s smart, hilarious, and very tightly-written. While there are many moments and lines that I like from the show (“You don’t even know what hard is”), perhaps the most meaningful one took place in the penultimate episode of the fourth season. There’s a good recap here,…
Herbert Lui
-
It’s not about how you make it, it’s about how you spend it
Of the few people who accumulate vast amounts of money—tens or hundreds of millions—there are many who lose it all. They spend the money on failed businesses, expensive things like cars, illiquid investments like mansions, living out lavish group experiences with their friends and entourage. Even incredibly high earners can go broke if they’re not…
Herbert Lui
-
Start lightly, without a commitment to consistency
Many entertainers are on YouTube. When people asked comedian Yoo Jae-suk why he wasn’t, he explained that he didn’t have the time. Starting a YouTube channel would be a program in itself, and he wanted to do it well. Jae-suk’s friend and colleague, Kim Jong-kook, runs a channel with millions of subscribers. Jong-kook explained to…
Herbert Lui
-
Survival mode
If you’re starting a business with little (or no) money, your main priority is to survive. You will have a mission, and a position, and specific work you want to take on. Sometimes though, if your pipeline only has suboptimal clients, boring work, and projects you’re embarrassed to be associated with, you will need to…
Herbert Lui
-
Deliberate boredom
It has never been easier to avoid boredom. Distraction is all around you, offering to cover up the painful things you’re avoiding that boredom can sometimes be a gateway to. Yet without boredom, there can be no inspiration. Boredom is the mud from which the flower of imagination blossoms. Your next creative idea is just…
Herbert Lui
-
Wading through the junk
When science fiction was still emerging, one criticism of the genre was the sheer volume of bad work. After decades of defending science fiction, one writer realized that the criticism applied to everything. “Ninety percent of everything is crap,” he said. That observation became known as Sturgeon’s Law. “One of my painting teachers said 85…
Herbert Lui