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Algorithms charge an ignorance premium on marketing
When you write (or make videos, music, etc.) and rely on an algorithm or platform to distribute your work, you are also paying for it to do so. You may not realize it during the good months, but in the bad months, you’ll start wondering where your earnings went. The platform will always have a…
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Don’t worry about getting chosen
There are plenty of good people making good work who don’t get selected for the lists—30 Under 30, bestseller list, honor roll, etc. That doesn’t take anything away from their work. It certainly doesn’t diminish them in any way. Similarly, making the list doesn’t guarantee success either. “I know somebody who had a number one…
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Find a place where your effort makes an impact
Early in his career, Brian Lee juggled a bunch of projects. This included managing recording artists Dumbfoundead and Breezy Lovejoy. It was Brian who suggested to the latter that he should change his name to something closer to Anderson .Paak. In addition to investing into their two careers, Brian also built a media platform and…
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Who came before you?
Sometimes, it helps to remember that you’re never alone. You are just one of the more recent people in a long line of people that started before you, connected together by your craft. In Eat a Peach, David Chang notes the absurdity of working in a kitchen. Every chef goes through extremely high stress, every…
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The leap
In The Dark Knight Rises, a villain defeats Batman and locks him up inside an ancient prison known as the Pit. The Pit bears resemblance to an extremely large well, and all prisoners are free to climb out of the Pit to escape. The only thing standing in the way is a particularly large gap…
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Clear structures for creative visions
When a creative vision for a project is too ambiguous, you need a person to drive it forward and clarify it. That person probably needs to be you. To do this, you might find it helpful to channel a creative vision through a clear structure. One example: at Figma, I was involved in a transmedia…
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Openness
When I was a senior in high school, my English teacher shared an op-ed she clipped from a newspaper entitled, “Please offend me, and allow me to offend you.” The spirit of the class discussion focused on how important it was for you, me, and everybody else, to be able to say what was on…
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Everything I shipped in 2024
Self-initiated creative projects: I worked at Figma as a content strategist (I wrapped up my gig there in June), here are three projects: I joined FGX as its director of marketing, here are three projects: I didn’t count all of the blog posts that I published here (including my 1000th!), which I’m absolutely delighted by.…
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Clocks
Centuries ago, clocks were advanced technology. To the members of the Qing dynasty that ruled China from the Forbidden City in Beijing, clocks did more than just tell time and help them organize their day. These very rare, well-decorated, ornate, devices represented status and wealth. Some clocks could even be wound up and play music…
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I don’t miss RSS one bit…
Because I use it every day. I use NetNewsWire to read new posts. I subscribe to a bunch of newsletters hosted on Substack—you can just type /feed after the URL and you’ll receive Substack through RSS. You can do the same with Medium. For other newsletters, I use Kill the Newsletter to subscribe via RSS.…