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What annoys you?
A few months ago, I highlighted a book passage about finding what you want by starting with what you don’t want. You can similarly find good ideas by looking at the things that upset you, and then making something as a response. “I keep thinking that I shall have no more to say – and…
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Go all the way
When you read Charles Bukowski’s, “Roll the Dice,” which opens with the lines: if you’re going to try, go all theway.otherwise, don’t even start. You might be inclined to think that you need to push harder, to the point of desperation and burning the boats, as if what you’re doing is a matter of life…
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Keep the interest alive
One of the favorite passages I’d read recently comes from Anything You Want by Derek Sivers: “If you do this, you’ll encounter a lot of pushback and misunderstanding, but who cares? You can’t just live someone else’s expectation of a traditional business. You have to just do whatever you love the most, or you’ll lose…
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Two hairstylists
You have a hairstylist. In order for you to get a haircut, you need to book ahead a week or two, and there are very few available times outside of work hours. They have a long waitlist and a 24 hour cancellation policy, which is very irritating to you. However, they make haircuts you are…
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Hype vs. reality
One story is that you and I live in an age of hype, where in order to get the resources we need to make something we need to inflate it full of unrealistic expectations. In this frame, if you don’t hype your work, then people won’t pay attention and someone else—who is hyping their work—will…
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A new story for hobbyist websites
At Twitter, Noah Smith points out that hobbyists aren’t making more websites. The incentives just aren’t there. A website needs a new story for hobbyists: it’s great for organizing and finding your work (try searching a post you wrote at a social media site!), you own the domain name, and you can control other parts…
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Announce yourself quietly
Being noisy is the easiest way to draw attention. That doesn’t mean it’s the best way, and it’s certainly not the only way.
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Remove imaginary barriers
One of my favorite prompts from Creative Doing is to remove imaginary barriers. It’s surprising to me how often I keep bumping up against barriers that I set up for myself—or that someone else set up that I unconsciously bought into. This comes up as a form of overthinking or procrastination. A list of imaginary…
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Mature confidence
Confidence is a character trait that you earn and develop in yourself. It’s pretty similar to going to the gym. Youthful confidence is boisterous and grandiose. It’s only a matter of time before it’s tested, and often this confidence is brittle. It’s not real yet. A mature confidence isn’t easily shaken. Bad things can happen—an…
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Consistency and breaks
There’s a best practice that equates consistency with success. For some people—the Type A personalities—the problem with taking this advice is when you inevitably break a schedule—a day, or a week, or a month—then you feel guilty, disappointed, and maybe even like you shouldn’t even have started in the first place. It becomes more difficult…