[02:09] “We Don’t Need Roads” note
[06:51] “Apprenticeship Patterns” note
[10:46] “Every Tool’s a Hammer” note
72: “Quarantine”
Books we talked about (some Active Recall CLASSICZ)
- “The Obstacle is the Way” by Ryan Holiday
- “Stillness is the Key” by Ryan Holiday
- “Grit” by Angela Duckworth
The Notepod #6 – Hackers and Painters
This week I’m talking about “Hackers and Painters” by Paul Graham.
- “Do Things that Don’t Scale” – Paul Graham’s essay.
“When you only have a small number of users, you can sometimes get away with doing by hand things that you plan to automate later.“
- “Revenge of the Nerds” – Paul Graham essay.
- That Tim Ferriss & Derek Sivers thing about The Magic of Thinking Big:
“And, it’s also one of those books, sorry, but I’m getting defensive. But, it’s one of those books that I read in around 2000, maybe a year or two after college, and I was in a shitty 100-plus hour a week job, where I was sleeping at my desk, and sitting the the fire exit, because that’s the only place they can fit me. But, yeah, it has to catch you at the right time.”
Podcast Note | The Ready State Podcast: “S1EP7: John Berardi”
John Berardi talks about self experimentation:
If you’re not trained in science, you don’t know how to do it properly. So people like find out what a great cliche is in the nutrition world. Find out what works for you, right? Well, who the hell has the tools to do that? A tiny percent of people, right?
It’s like saying here’s the secret to getting in great shape: dunk a basketball.
There’s only certain people can do that. You have to have, you have to be a certain height, you have to have a certain ability to produce force.
To me, finding what works for you is a skillset they need to develop—not just a thing everyone has access to.
So what I like instead of self-experimentation is guided experimentation. Get some guidance. Yes, it’s good to find what works for you.
Have someone help you through it.
I own John Berardi’s Change Maker: Turn Your Passion for Health and Fitness into a Powerful Purpose and a Wildly Successful Career but haven’t read it yet. This podcast definitely bumped it way up in the to-be-read list.
I flipped through it in Amazon Books (back when malls were open) and the thing that got me in the book was a really straightforward description of the Jobs-to-be-Done framework. I’ve read a bunch of explanations of it in startup books and things like that, but the section in Change Maker made it stick.
Oh yeah, some thoughts on the excerpt above.
Self-experimentation is good so that you can learn what works for you. But I like Berardi’s reminder that it doesn’t have to be all or nothing. It doesn’t have to be (all-by-your)self-experimentation.
Have an expert help you figure out what works for you.
Or just someone who isn’t as biased as you are. Everyone gives some advice that they don’t follow themselves.
Speaking of, I’ve gone way too long trying to self experiment when I could bring in some expert help. In the past few years, I’ve started to look toward experts a bit more but there’s still way more room for it. I’ll start looking for opportunities to get some coaching with kettlebells (gotta fix my swing) and other hobbies. I enrolled in a writing course last month and it’s been pretty transformative. Now I should do the same with design and anything else where I want to grow.
Anyway!
Podcast Note | Shea Serrano: Grit and central points
Podcast: Finding Mastery
Episode: Shea Serrano on Why It All Comes Down to Grit
I was excited to see Shea’s name pop up on my podcast feed. I’ve got Movies (And Other Things) on the bookshelf. I’ve listened to the Rewatchables Bloodsport episode more than a few times. And I’m definitely looking forward to The Connect, his upcoming podcast with Jason Concepcion.
One of my favorite exchanges on any podcast is Chuck Klosterman asking Bill Simmons about what you’d want to hear from a young writer:
Klosterman: “Let me frame it like this: You’re at a book signing. A kid comes up to you. You can tell the kid is smart. Just from his demeanor and the way he talks, the way he looks, the other books he has with him. Which compliment makes you feel better? ‘You’re my favorite writer’ or if he says, ‘I’m a writer. I want to be like you.’
Simmons: “I just know that when the roles were reversed, the writers that meant something to me were also the writers that made me want to write.”
I’m many years past being a kid at a book signing. But Shea is one of those writers that makes me want to write. (And one of those podcasters that makes me want to podcast.)
Here are a few takeaways:
- Some writers are born to do it (most aren’t) — This is a talent vs. hard work perspective that I can get behind. Some people are born to do certain things. But it’s not many people. You can still separate yourself from the rest of the pack with hard work. Shea says he can just outwork people. He’ll sit and write for however long it takes to write the piece.
- Shooters shoot — Shea tells a story from when he was a teacher and watching a kid get rejected on Valentine’s Day. It’s a different kind of expectations/reality. The expectation for rejection would be that it ruins the kid’s day, week, month. Instead, he shrugged it off and moved on. Be happy with the effort and don’t focus so much on the outcome.
- Find a central question — He writes with structure going into each piece. On the episode, he breaks down a chapter from Basketball (and Other Things) about Michael Jordan. First, assume everyone agrees Michael Jordan is the best player ever. Then figure out which year Michael Jordan was the best Michael Jordan.
But it starts out very clearly: This is the point I’m trying to make, so every sentence that I write should help me arrive at that point. If it doesn’t help me arrive to that point then I delete it and keep it moving.
I’m just, like, carving carving carving until I get where I’m trying to go. It’s the same thing with anything that I write.
Keep carving. Keep shooting.
5 tips for writing daily (and mayyybe publishing)
1. Email yourself
You’re going to open your email inbox more often than you’re going to open your text editor. Email something to yourself. It can feel like much less pressure. Respond to yourself to practice writing single ideas in a thread. If you use Evernote, you can add notes through email. Use Readwise to get highlights and that will make it easy to both review book highlights and start writing.
2. Set yourself up to publish from your phone
If you’re trying to set a publishing goal on top of just getting the writing done, see if you can publish from your phone. Don’t make it the main way that you publish — there are too many distractions on your phone so try to avoid those. But make it possible (and if you make it easy, even better) to publish from your phone so that you can do it when necessary. Keep those streaks going.
3. Use TextExpander for quick outlines
I write ;topics and here’s what I get:
I can write a topic and some sub-topics. It makes it really easy to get a quick 3-point outline out. It’s just enough structure to keep things moving during a writing session.
(If I’m on my phone, I use Shortcuts to do something similar.)
4. Use Cold Turkey Writer to stay focused
On Tim Ferris’s podcast, Neil Gaiman talked about writing or doing nothing, with no options in between:
Neil Gaiman: Yeah, ’cause I would go down to my lovely little gazebo at the bottom of the garden, sit down, and I’m absolutely allowed not to do anything. I’m allowed to sit at my desk, I’m allowed to stare out at the world, I’m allowed to do anything I like, as long as it isn’t anything. Not allowed to do a crossword, not allowed to read a book, not allowed to phone a friend, not allowed to make a clay model of something. All I’m allowed to do is absolutely nothing, or write.
What I love about that is I’m giving myself permission to write or not write, but writing is actually more interesting than doing nothing after a while. You sit there and you’ve been staring out the window now for five minutes, and it kind of loses its charm. You’re going, “Well, actually, let’s all write something.”
Cold Turkey Writer lets you set a word count goal or a time duration goal and then it locks you in a text editor. You can’t switch to other apps. You can’t force quit it. You can either reach your goal or restart your laptop.
You can write or do nothing.
(Or check your phone and do everything, but don’t do that!)
5. (Digital) Location location location
Write in the editor.
I’m writing this in MarsEdit. (I’m guessing I first learned about it through Daring Fireball.)
I know that MarsEdit is for publishing. It acts as a constant reminder that I’m writing with the intention for publishing. The WordPress editor gives me the same reminder. (But being in a browser can be tempting…)
To contrast, Evernote makes me think I’m writing a private note, Docs makes me think I’m writing a draft to share for revisions. (Apple Notes makes me think I’m writing a public apology to screenshot and tweet out later.)
All useful, but if I want to get a quick post out, I’ll write where I can publish. I also always make 2-3 small edits after publishing so this is why I find myself using MarsEdit over Ulysses or iA Writer—those have good integrations with WordPress but once it’s published I can’t edit.
I promise Tim Ferriss isn’t the only podcaster I listen to, but here’s another quote from an interview with Seth Godin:
I feel the same way about my blog. If I am in the Typepad editor, I know exactly what my brain is supposed to feel like. And then the writing happens.
(Seth publishes daily and encourages others to as well. You, too, can get to 7000 posts.)
Learn what your brain feels like when you’re in writing mode. Figure out where, when, and how it gets into that mode. Then find ways to re-create that environment.