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Obscurity is a gift
You have a great idea, you write a blog post in five minutes, you post it. A friend reads it, they message you and say, “Hey, I know you had the best intentions, did you consider how this could be misinterpreted?” Oops, you didn’t. You misspoke, and could be easily misunderstood. No big deal. You…
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Stop stopping
Margaret Atwood writes in the Paris Review, “Everyone writes in a way; that is, each person has a ‘story,’ a personal narrative which is constantly being replayed, revised, taken apart, and put together again. The significant points in this narrative change as a person ages—what may have been tragedy at twenty is seen as comedy…
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Throw out the instruction manual
Instructions are useful, but complicated, and incredibly frustrating, things. There’s a bit on Confucius about engaging in thought on his own for an entire day and night, and wishing instead that he’d spent that time in learning. In the chaos of the real world, it’s useful to see what people have done, but sometimes the…
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How to present your work so it gets the results it deserves
Good work absolutely does not just speak for itself. That’s why a piece of art is always accompanied by an artist statement, and each art show is accompanied by ephemera, an audio guide, or a curator. A staff member at a restaurant not only delivers the food, but explains the story behind a dish or…
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Inbounding
Is it better for you to find a new job and apply to it, or for a recruiter to come reach out to you? Is it better for you to find a new client and sell to them, or for a client to come find you? Is it better for you to reach out to…
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Not actual gameplay
A significant part of the reason why marketing—and the people who work in it—gets a bad rap is it’s not very straightforward. It’s often very story-driven. Done well, the story is almost completely ignored; it’s presented, and often received, as evidence and facts. It’s entirely believable, not only because of charisma, but because the marketer…
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“Quarter million a year, and that don’t bounce”
That’s from “Untouchable,” when Pusha T talks about working as the president of Ye’s record label GOOD Music. His boast was in the salary he’d be earning working in a powerful role at a cutting edge record label, and not relying on the fickle income of music and the struggle of staying relevant in an…
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3 Ways to Change Your Attitude to Change Your Circumstances
Phrases like “Visualize success,” or the importance of having a “Winning attitude,” have been thrown around so much that they’ve almost become parodies for team building office culture. Because they are so cliché, and often used as an excuse for unfair situations (corporations like to distribute the book, “Who Moved My Cheese?” whenever they lay…
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“Rules for the temple”
Excerpted from Donald Glover’s behind the scenes look at Atlanta seasons 3–4 writer’s room: 1. No shoes 2. No smoking inside 3. No tweeting, instagramming or blogging about where we are/ what we’re doing 4. Do not bring others in without asking for the invite beforehand 5. Work begins at 10 am Create a safe…
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Improve the interface
The best social media sites have incredible network potential, but none of them enable a really good creative process. It’s the same upload process, or just typing or pasting words into a field. What sites like Unum, Buffer, and Hypefury—and even Linktree (to the tune of $45 million!)—have done incredibly well is identify parts in…