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Done Well x Fulfilling

June 12, 2021

Check out the full notes for “Wanting” by Luke Burgis

From “Wanting” by Luke Burgis

The storytelling process that I use involves sharing stories about times in your life when you took an action that ended up being deeply fulfilling. Today it’s one of the first questions that I ask in any job interview because it helps cut through the thin stuff and goes straight to the essence of the person. “Tell me about a time in your life when you did something well and it brought you a sense of fulfillment,” I ask.

I just spent the last couple hours going through old posts on this site and adding books to the Book Notes section.

Activerecall co book notes
#First version of this book notes page#

I can’t say it was deeply fulfilling or done well but I feel some satisfaction. Through the past, maybe, 15 years I’ve rolled up my sleeves and written some PHP and CSS to hack on the WordPress installation of whatever site I was writing on at the time was.

Often times the things that have been deeply fulfilling have been side projects. Other times it has been work projects. I have noticed in the past few years that often times prototyping and demo’ing to teammates can be more fulfilling than digging into the details required for a public release.

These things are challenging in different ways.

It’s not an original comparison, but the past couple hours really felt like digital gardening.

And relating this to the mimetic desire topic of “Wanting”—I’ve always wanted to have a book notes page like Derek Sivers has. He continues living a lifestyle that matches up with values I want to have.

Not all mimicking is bad, so maybe this small step of making a book notes page and cleaning things up is a step in the right direction.

  • Book Notes
Derek SiversLuke BurgisWanting

Podcast outline: Storyteling

June 12, 2021

Posting this right now. I’m doing an experiment where basically anything I’m making that’s public should start from the blog.

An outline post before the podcast episode, an outline post before a video, a blog post before turning it into a Twitter thread, etc.

So this is an outline for a podcast episode, which I can happily say that I actually recorded and just need to edit. (“Just.”) 

What do humans have that other animals don’t?

In Sapiens, Yuval Noah Harari writes about the power of storytelling. Not to unlock the power of your imagination, but to get huge groups of people working together:

Telling effective stories is not easy. The difficulty lies not in telling the story, but in convincing everyone else to believe it. Much of history revolves around this question: how does one convince millions of people to believe particular stories about gods, or nations, or limited liability companies? Yet when it succeeds, it gives Sapiens immense power, because it enables millions of strangers to cooperate and work towards common goals.

That said, with the podcast, I’m sort of looking to write more for the former—I just want to entertain one person at a time.

Even if that person is me, it could still be worth it.

In Storyworthy, Matthew Dicks explains a 5-minute exercise he calls homework for life.

Take 5 minutes and write down the answer to this question: what made today different?

Five minutes a day is all I’m asking. At the end of every day, take a moment and sit down. Reflect upon your day. Find your most storyworthy moment, even if it doesn’t feel very storyworthy. Write it down. Not the whole story, but a few sentences at most. Something that will keep you moving, and will make it feel doable. That will allow you to do it the next day. If you have commitment and faith, you will find stories. So many stories.

From there, you can relate your own stories to problems the audience relates to by connecting to a shared mental model.

Create a gap

I was watching some blackhead extraction videos the other day (because I hate myself). The formula is the same: the doctor comes in with a scalpel to open a gap, removes some junk, adds some cleaner, then closes it up again.

And if you can learn to become surgical with gaps, you’ll be a better storyteller.

In Made to Stick, Chip and Dan Heath write about why some ideas stick around and others die. They write about six principles of sticky ideas. Principle 2 is unexpectedness—creating gaps in people’s heads then filling them in. 

How do you keep students engaged during the forty-eighth history class of the year? We can engage people’s curiosity over a long period of time by systematically “opening gaps” in their knowledge—and then filling those gaps.

Create an opening, remove any of their misunderstanding, fill the gap with a clear explanation. Make it stick.

  • Podcasting Log
Made to StickSapiensStorytellingStoryworthy

Atomic essay in a few minutes while lying down on the couch

June 11, 2021

Here’s the raw output from a dictation session.

Now, I’m not arguing that it’s good, but some seeds of good ideas are there. I’ve certainly spent more time struggling, writing at a keyboard and gotten worse results.

Every time I dictate, I become convinced I should only dictate to start published writing. The speed could outweigh the negative tradeoffs.

Maybe I can…

  • Do a very quick outline
  • Smooth it out for a post
  • Record a podcast
  • Add show notes below the original post (and maybe a cleaned up transcript)

And eventually add some visuals for a thread.

Then the most popular threads can become videos.

  • Weblog

A few quick ideas for rebuilding the podcast

June 11, 2021

Quick brainstorm for how I can improve the podcast with some segments.

UntitledImage

I started listening to the “Make Noise” audiobook by Eric Nuzum. It’s another reminder that it’s all about storytelling.

Sometimes I’ve thought “well some of these are just nonfiction books that I’m sharing things from, no need to tell a story”.

Except that’s really the direct way to entertain. And I do believe entertainment is the first thing with a podcast before the actual information.

I loved Eminem in high school and it blew my mind that someone might like rap music but not enjoy Eminem all that much.

Me: But the lyrics man the lyrics blah blah blah.

His very good point: If the song as a whole isn’t something I want to listen to, the lyrics don’t matter.

Anyway. I need to start practicing some segments.

  • Podcasting Log

June 10, 2021 Quick Link

Liana Finck going through her illustration process

Currently reading ‘Wanting’ by Luke Burgis. Actually I’m trying the method of listening to the Audible version but adding highlights to the Kindle version. There are some fun illustrations in the book so I wanted to see who made them and came across this video showing the work.

In the personal theme of the week of looking at everything I want and figuring out where that desire comes from…

I have a bunch of gear and have been striving for the perfect desk setup to write and draw. Which means I’ve definitely spent more time watching desk setup videos than writing or drawing.

Much better to at least watch people talking about their writing or drawing process.

  • Quick Link
  • Weblog
DrawingLiana Finck

#18 Book Stack: Creativity (The Notepod)

June 10, 2021

Trying something new: book stacks.

Quotes from 3-5 books centered around a single topic. For this one: creativity.

I also talk about the 3×3 practice I’ve been doing

Books in this episode

  • Creativity by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
  • Creativity, Inc. by Ed Catmull and Amy Wallace
  • Creative Confidence by Tom Kelley & David Kelley
  • Principles by Ray Dalio

Other links

  • 3×3: https://twitter.com/activerecall/status/1397693640382640129/photo/1

 

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