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Can’t vs. didn’t
“People may say I can’t sing, but no one can ever say I didn’t sing.” — Florence Foster Jenkins PS Mag (via Anthony Iannarino) See Tommy Wiseau in Creative Doing. Go down the Florence Foster Jenkins rabbit hole here:
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Two questions for choosing a company to work with
Seth Godin suggests two great questions for choosing a college: Are the people this place attracts the sort of people I want to spend time with and become more like? Is the system that is in place here one that pushes and cajoles and processes people to become more like the kind of person I’d…
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Just one tooth
There’s a classic idea that the key to flossing regularly is to floss just one tooth. The key his this: it’s much easier to show up every day if you can reduce the task down to something so small and simple that it requires next to no effort. In Creative Doing, I share a prompt,…
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To succeed in the age of A.I., build your capacity for longcuts
A couple of years ago, my friend Nik Göke wrote a really nice piece at his blog, “Sometimes, the Work Is Easier Than the Workaround.” In the intro, he writes about trying to find a fast, technical, shortcut to scrape a bunch of text online: The tool was pretty technical, so it took a while…
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If you do the thing, then you can keep the job title
When Busayo Olupona was just starting up her fashion label—many years before it was stocked at outlets like Saks Fifth Avenue and Nordstrom—she had quit her job and practically ran out of money. Many stories, sadly, end up that way; Busayo’s didn’t. She says her mentor Mercedes Gonzalez would hold her accountable for making a…
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The consistency edge
Replit runs its own 100 days of code challenge. Recently Paul Graham shared the stats on how many people complete the challenge: What if, simply by committing and showing up 100 times—around 15 mins, sometimes 45 mins, per day—you did something that 99% of people don’t do? This type of daily challenge is a great…
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To move forward through rejection, take a passion stance
An aspiring comedian completes a set to applause. They notice an established comedian watching and strike up a conversation. The aspiring comedian asks, “Do you think I’m going to make it?” The established comedian says, “No.” It’s not that the established comedian doesn’t want the aspiring one to make it; they simply know that if…
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Sam Altman on self-belief and willfulness
Sam Altman writes, “How To Be Successful,” at his blog. There are two particular points that stand out to me: 2. Have almost too much self-belief Self-belief is immensely powerful. The most successful people I know believe in themselves almost to the point of delusion. Cultivate this early. As you get more data points that…
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“You decide”
The world produces waves.Surf or down.You decide.Virgil© 2017 Virgil Abloh’s message is the first entry in Hans Ulrich Obrist’s compilation of notes from artists, Remember to Dream!. (On compiling, on books about people.) It was also a billboard: Via Sole Retriever and Ovrundr