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Virgil Abloh’s first website
For me, there are few things more exciting or entertaining than diving into a person’s early work. The more I like the work, the more early work I want to see. I recently came across the term, “nerdsniping,” from Paul Millerd. That sensation sums up what I experience when I’m researching the process of an…
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The liking gap
“We found that following interactions, people systematically underestimated how much their conversation partners liked them and enjoyed their company, an illusion we call the liking gap.” The Liking Gap in Conversations: Do People Like Us More Than We Think? by Erica J. Boothby, Gus Cooney, Gillian M. Sandstrom, and Margaret S. Clark (via Platonic by Marisa…
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Participation trophies
In The Art of Possibility, Roz and Ben Zander write, “Enrolling is not about forcing, cajoling, tricking, bargaining, pressuring, or guilt-tripping someone into doing something your way. Enrollment is the art and practice of generating a spark of possibility for others to share.” A generous assumption of why participation trophies exist: it balances the all-consuming…
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The only way to change someone’s mind
“Getting a prospect to admit their “mistake” borders on the impossible. All you’ll do is irritate or antagonize your prospect. That is not the way to persuade them to buy from you.… No, the prospect won’t change their mind, but they will be delighted to make a new decision, based on new information,” writes Zig…
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Life is a team sport
When I interviewed Annie Duke, we discussed the writing process for her first book, Thinking In Bets. Duke had made writing a team sport, firstly by recruiting a friend with a Juris Doctor degree, who was also a writer, to be her editor—outside of her editor at her publisher. This friend helped serve as a…
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Do more, think less
Gapingvoid recently published a piece entitled, “Do more, think less.” It touches on one of the premises of Creative Doing, which is that new insights emerge from doing, not merely thinking. The phrase was drawn from a phrase I mentioned in an episode of Infinite Loops I did with Jim O’Shaughnessy. Jim introduced the phrase,…
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The 451 day project
I wrote a guest post at #The100DayProject, one of my favorite daily creative challenges. I just plugged the dates into a counter, I’ve published a post every day for 451 days! 🤯
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Getting to know a business
If you’ve ever wanted to start a company, or write a book, or make something meaningful, it helps to go through the process as the person who’s paying for it. If you’re starting a company, figure out your potential competitors and see if you can work with them as a customer. If you want to…
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“What would you recommend?”
Whether it’s selecting an item at a new restaurant, or mapping out the 10 year vision for their business, the other person—your boss, your customer, your client—doesn’t always know what they want. They’re waiting for you to tell them. That’s when preparation meets opportunity; it’s your chance to provide them with the information they need,…
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Contentions: Names set expectations
What’s the difference between a book, an ebook, a digital book, a pamphlet, a booklet, a brochure, and a bulletin? By strict definition, they share a lot of common traits. They are all documents that hold words on them. The main difference is what each word leads a person to expect. For example, a book…