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A regular amount of effort
One of the most helpful, and hopefully the earliest, pieces of advice every writer comes across is to aim for a shitty first draft. That’s because sometimes, when you wait too long to do something—or when you only have one opening per week to do it—you feel like it becomes more precious. Your expectations of…
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Software vs. hardware orientation
Nintendo’s former president Hiroshi Yamauchi divided all of the products in the world in two ways, which he emphasized to the leaders of the company: The first way was what he called a “hardware orientation.” These products were valuable because they were useful. If you’re making appliances like refrigerators, cars, or dishwashers, you’d be best…
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Categorization, commoditization, and clarity
When you’re growing your business, one of your biggest challenges is market misunderstanding. When you’re working on a business (as an entrepreneur, freelancer, team, artist, author, etc.), your perspective tends to expand in breadth and depth. You develop expertise and see patterns. You come across better opportunities and bigger markets. In order to grow, you…
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Moving with the efficiency of trust
When you think about the future of work with artificial intelligence, consider the things that don’t change. For example, how people think about accountability. A person can only be responsible for so much work. At some point, they need a second person to take on more work. As the second person gets things done, the…
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First generation artist
When you’re working as a first generation artist—or author, entrepreneur, etc.—you are doing something really difficult. You are like an immigrant of sorts. It is the complete opposite of the parent-child duo who can perform on stage together, or do an art show together. Your parents practice a different craft and they will have trouble…
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Getting ahead vs. falling behind
If cooking is just a matter of adding heat to food at different intervals of time, then getting ahead is just getting work done earlier rather than later. In spite of the simplicity, it turns out that there are a million ways to prepare, add heat, and serve ingredients. That’s why the culinary arts exist.…
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Just five minutes
It’s been a while since I completed an audiobook. In my mind, an entertaining podcast requires less commitment, and doesn’t quite need as much energy either. I rarely need to write down a note when I listen to a podcast, but I often need to with an audiobook. I also learn a lot from audiobooks…
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Strategic desperation
There’s an old story about an army who invades another country. Right before a key battle, the general instructs the army to burn all of their own boats. Without the boats, there would be no way for the army to turn around. The only way back home was winning the battle. In most versions of…
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Confidence scaffolding
Sometimes, it just takes one in-between step (or maybe a few) to set you up from complete doubt to a sense of confidence. It could be a practical, useful, class. Or a light-hearted, well-done, project (which can also serve as a business card). And of course, practice is always great, because you never know when…
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Find and feed expansion
When I write this blog, I feel happy. It’s not that it’s easy, and it can feel frustrating at times; however, I almost always feel a state of expansion at some point. In Bending Reality, Victoria Song defines expansion as a relaxing, trusting, and open state. She prompts her clients to imagine feeling powerful, confident,…