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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,…
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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.