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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:

Text Expander Topics shortcut

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.

cold turkey writer

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.

UntitledImage

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.

 

Ramblings (on a timer)

It happens every month or two. I feel like I haven’t published and want to get back to posting things regularly. I usually think of what Seth Godin says: write in the editor.

For me, that’s opening up WordPress and going full screen in the editor. When I’m here, I know that I’m writing something for publishing. I can sort of keep that in mind when I’m writing in Evernote or Google Docs and especially MarsEdit. But none give me the “Okay I’m writing to publish this” the way that writing right in the editor does.

Anyway, some bullets. Actually, first, a pizza

  • Finally ate at Lucali’s — Well, got a pie from Lucali’s at least. Which was great since it meant that there wasn’t an hour+ wait to get a seat. Everything they say is true. It’s really good pizza. My favorite slice in the world is a fra diavolo from Pizza Suprema. But that’s because it has nostalgia as a major topping for me. But really that’s the one I’d want. And it shouldn’t be compared to a thin crust slice since it’s not apples to apples. What I ate today was awesome and definitely gives me a twinge of sadness that we’re leaving New York in a couple months.

    We’ve got some eating to do.

Okay the timer actually ran out so I guess it’s just one bullet for now. Gotta respect the timer.

Today’s listen: BJ Fogg | How the Tiniest Habits Lead to the Biggest Changes (TRAINED by Nike, hosted by Ryan Fisherty) — I read BJ Fogg’s Tiny Habits earlier this year (check out my posts with the tiny-habits tag for more) and have started applying some of the idea in it more recently to get back on the exercise/nutrition wagon (ignore the pizza paragraph above). Now I’m wishing that I really tried applying them earlier. But better late than never.

Anyway, something he stresses is having tiny celebrations for tiny wins. (Rather than no celebration at all.) Getting the tiny habit done and feeling good about it will help to make it stick.

Stopping when the 10 minute timer ends and feeling that satisfaction means I can build my writing habit back up. But it does mean to stop and hit publish.

Ok I’m going to do that now.

Really.

You know something that’s worth teaching (so share your knowledge)

Are you the #1, absolute best in the world at something?

No? Not a problem.

What about top 1%? Top 50%? Have you done something for a year? For a few months? Are you on day one? Still no problem.

You have something worthwhile to share.

It might even be more useful than that #1 best-in-the-world guru’s advice. Jason Fried, co-founder of Basecamp, has a good example from the business world. He was on The Chase Jarvis Live show in 2018 and he talked about people giving advice on things they haven’t done for decades. From “It Doesn’t Have to be Crazy at Work with Jason Fried” (2018):

I think in our world, in the entrepreneurial world, especially, there’s a lot of people dishing advice that haven’t done the thing ever. Or they did it a long time ago. And I think you need to discount that. I think advice goes stale. It has a half life. And it’s pretty quick.

Experts know a lot (but they forget things along the way)

Having access to expert knowledge will help when you’re learning something new. They’ve been around long enough to understand the principles that matter over the course of years.

They’ve forgotten what it’s like to be completely new to a discipline.

Brian Koppelman, co-creator of Billions and co-writer of Rounders talks about how he’s been in the business long enough that he’s no longer an expert in breaking in. From his Q&A on 2/21/19:

A bunch of questions are about how to break into the business. I’ve written some thoughts about this on my blog. But I don’t have a great answer for you. You know, one thing I really don’t like is when people hold themselves out as an expert on something on which they’re not an expert

I’m not an expert on breaking in anymore. I broke in 22 years ago.

And I’m so far away from that moment that I can’t answer the question. My answers feel idealistic. They’re just all about doing the work. They’re all about producing the pages and making something so undeniable, a script or a short, that it gets people’s attention.

But the truth is there are people much closer to the ground who can answer that question better than I can.

As someone works their way up in their career, they’re further removed from the work on the ground. It’s good to have access to resources from people who aren’t so deep into their expertise. They have a better memory of the hurdles immediately facing a beginner.

You can be this resource for other people.

What would you teach yourself 6 months ago?

Let’s say you’ve started making things online and sharing them on social media. You’ve been doing this for a year and now have some systems in place.

Would those systems be useful to you 6 months ago? Yes.

Some other questions that lead to answers that would be useful to you 6 months ago.

  • What have you started doing in the past 6 months to make your work easier?
  • What dumb issues did you face in the past 6 months that have solutions that seem obvious now?
  • What resources have you learned about in the past 6 months?

The great thing, of course, is that there are people who are currently in the same position you were 6 months ago.

Write answers to those questions and share them with others.

See one, do one, teach one (but with your online writing)

There’s a teaching phrase called “See one, do one, teach one” that comes from medical surgery. You see an expert do it, you do it yourself, and then you teach another trainee.

There are arguments against the approach in surgery, particularly in terms of patient safety. I’m not a medical expert or a teaching expert. This paper seems to do a good job pointing out that the phrase is oversimplified but is useful with some modifications.

However, it can be built upon and greatly enhanced with various learning principles, committed mentors, and advanced technology, such as medical simulators. Residents must be encouraged and given the opportunities to learn and improve upon their surgical skills by mentors who continue to improve upon their skills as well.

Here’s my modification for, let’s say, getting better at making things online.

  • Watch a bunch, do it a bunch (while being watched), and teach it a bunch.

Here’s how you can do that by sharing your learning through writing.

  • Watch a bunch (Read, watch, and listen to experts) — Even better if you can talk to an expert to talk about your specific experience. Organize and share these resources with other people.
  • Do it a bunch (Share it so others can give feedback) — If you’re trying to improve as a writer, publish things online and seek out feedback. If you’re learning to make videos, publish them and seek out feedback. If you’re making a podcast… okay same thing. And you can share the different stages. Share an outline with someone to get feedback. Have someone take a look at your interview questions to see if they find them interesting.
  • Teach it a bunch (Awareness helps you correct your own mistakes) — If you capture your thought process along the way, you can review them as you gain more experience to see where your approach was wrong. Then you can help prevent others from making those same mistakes. The old articles you wrote act as proof that you really were in their position at one point in time. And your current level of success can motivate others. As you write, you’ll see the gaps in your own knowledge that you’ll need to fill in and cement.

If you do this for long enough, you’ll work your way up toward the top 50%, top 25%, top 10%.

And you’ll always have something worth sharing along the way.