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Half a match
When psychology professor Lee Ross wanted to persuade his team at Stanford to recruit Amos Tversky, he used this story (via The Undoing Project, by Michael Lewis): “I said, I’m going to tell you a classic Yiddish story. There’s a guy, an eligible bachelor. A happy bachelor. The matchmaker comes to him and says, ‘Listen,…
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You shouldn’t write a book unless…
One of the most interesting pieces of advice on writing books comes from author Ryan Holiday, who advocates not writing a book. Unless… “What matters more now than any other single thing is that what you’re saying is different–that it’s interesting, that it provokes some response from people. You’ll only accomplish this if you’ve got…
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It works for you
The emotion you’re experiencing, the block you’re feeling, the reactions and responses that emerge from your subconscious; it all works for you, for some reason. In some cases, it helps you get what you need or want. In other cases, it helps protect you from others or from yourself. It takes great discernment to know…
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30 productivity hacks
1. Start for just 15 minutes. You’re allowed to stop after. 2. If you’re nervous about writing an email but need to respond, schedule it to go out. 3. Make a decision at the end of the meeting. Don’t do in two meetings what you can do in one. 4. Do something, even if there’s…
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Wiz ships
Two weeks before I wrote this, Wiz Khalifa published a new documentary, Still Rolling Papers (11 years after his debut album, Rolling Papers). A quick look: Will Smith has close to 10 million subscribers, so does Ye. Ellen DeGeneres has 38 million. Kim Jong-Kook’s Gym Jong-Kook channel has close to 3 million subs. Gary Vaynerchuk…
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Good Writing Money, Bad Writing Money
If there’s anything I’ve learned in 15 years of writing, it’s that not all writing money is earned equally. There are such things as good writing money, and bad writing money. Here’s an idea of what they mean to me, and a guide to lessons I’ve learned, and how I’ll think about making money as…
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The “no skip” intro
I skip most introductions of TV shows. But never The Simpsons. It’s mastered the perfect balance of novelty and familiarity; same songs, same characters, but slight tweaks in style or short storylines make a huge difference. It keeps me intrigued; what will happen this time? It’s a tension that’s too light to feel close to…
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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…