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Remembering the good stuff that your brain forgets
There’s a narrative floating around on Twitter (Exhibit 1, 2) that we’re meant to forget things that are unimportant to us. Forgetting is an incredibly useful feature of the brain. The brain does also have a knack to boomerang really valuable memories or ideas back—often in an exciting, relevant, way. We have a name for…
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The rolodex
You really only need a few people to make your career work. For example, in the art world, you only need one dealer, a few collectors, a couple of critics, and a couple of curators to make your career sustainable. 12 true fans. The challenge is how you actually build relationships with these people. Well,…
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What showing up every day actually means
This image, created by Sarah Arnold-Hall, really resonates. Just floss one tooth every day. 80% of running is getting your shoes on. Just make contact with the ball. You should also read: Consistency starts with inconsistency How a daily writing habit sparked my creativity To Make Better Creative Work, Aim for Acceptable, Not Perfect How…
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How to legally access an academic paper for free
If you find an academic paper you want to read in full, just email one of the authors. You can meet somebody new, it’s a common practice, and they’ll be glad you’re interested in their work. (The more famous ones might not be able to respond). I just did this today and the author sent…
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Optionality cost
I talked to my parents last night, and my mom was telling me about how she thought about my book while she was practicing her nagomi art. It was an awesome feeling. Obviously, that conversation wouldn’t have happened if I didn’t write the book. And I almost didn’t. I’d wanted to write a book throughout…
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You’ll never know when you go viral
Nicolas Cole wrote a thread today on how he’s gone viral a bunch of times, and still has no idea how to predict virality moving forward. This is a theme I’ve noticed that Ramit Sethi had written in an email I received in 2018, in which he shared that a post he spent a ton…
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Collecting to build and demonstrate expertise
I’m a big fan of services businesses (so much so that I’d started my own!). I’m an even bigger fan of those services businesses leveraging their teams to expand beyond client services, into building its own products. It’s tough—Metalab founder Andrew Wilkinson lost $10 million doing it!—but it’s not impossible. One great small bet can…
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Since you’re here, you might as well…
Stick around longer and get to know people. Pick up the plastic bag that floated right in front of you. Try a new route. Stretch or do bodyweight workouts. Pet the dog. Take it all in for a couple of minutes, and notice what catches your interest. Pause the music and listen to what your…
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The joke funnel
I’m reading Springfield Confidential by Mathew Klickstein and Mike Reiss, and it’s gotten me laughing out loud more than any book from my recent memory. It’s also inspiring me to write jokes every other sentence at this blog, which itself was going to be a setup for a joke but just ended up making me…
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If you want (your team) to write better, start with your Google Docs comments
When I worked as an editor-in-chief at QuickBooks, I managed a team of two deputy editors and around a dozen writers. I was usually the last pair of eyes on an article, and whenever I edited one, I would keep a second document open. It had the very exciting title, “First draft standards.” If I…