Active Recall!

Podcasts, videos, and iPad art

It’s not them. It’s you. (Even if it’s actually them.)

“Bad crowd out there.”

I was listening to Jocko Willink’s appearance on James Altucher’s podcast and enjoyed a small interaction at the end. They’re cut a little short because of the studio schedule, and James jokes that it’s the producer’s fault that he didn’t schedule enough time for it.

Jocko calls him out. You should’ve done a better job communicating how much time you’d need.

Jocko’s all about claiming responsibility for mistakes. His first book was “Extreme Ownership”. Tim Ferriss often brings up Jocko’s technique of replying “Good.” to bad situations. Not to create false silver lining, but to get your mind thinking about what you learned from this particular failure.

From Tools of Titans:

“Now. I don’t mean to say something clichéd. I’m not trying to sound like Mr. Smiley Positive Guy. That guy ignores the hard truth. That guy thinks a positive attitude will solve problems. It won’t. But neither will dwelling on the problem. No. Accept reality, but focus on the solution.”

I like that Altucher isn’t defensive. In fact, he seems to enjoy whenever he’s called out on something so that he can improve. Then he relates it to stand-up comedians. (Seems like Altucher’s been immersing himself in the stand-up comedy world with all the comedians he’s had on as guests recently.)

They’ll often come back from the stage and talk about how bad the crowd is.

It might be. Some crowds are better or worse for different people.

Still, it’s useful to take ownership over it if you want to improve.

Bad crowd. Good. You’re a live performer so now you can practice switching on the fly, trying a new bit, and seeing if any part of it has wide appeal.

Or you can go through your set as usual and blame the crowd again. Which one would help you improve?

Let’s say you’re a writer and someone leaves a bad comment. You start typing, “You’ve totally missed the point…”

Did they? Did you make it clear enough in the first place?

Take ownership. Don’t blame the audience.

(But if you didn’t like this then you’re a bad reader!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

Will you remember this a week from now? (How about a year from now?)

Probably not. Will you remember anything you read a week from now? Of course.

If you read 25 articles this week, which ones will you remember next week? Of those articles you remember, what percentage will you remember? What ideas will you remember?

Now what about a year from now? What stands the test of time?

Malcolm Gladwell talks about going to the library for research in his writing course on Master Class1. He talks about research and using older sources:

Another mistake people make is they assume that if something is not current, it’s not useful. Nothing could be further from the truth. Right? In fact, I almost feel like the better stuff is the older stuff. Particular the stuff that has stood the test of time.

Here are some things that make me think of standing the test of time.

  • Getting Things Done (by David Allen) is standing the test of time of self-development material. I re-read it recently (a decade after I first read it) and had so many moments where I thought, “Oh yeah… that’s why I do it this way now.” There are things that I still do almost directly from the book (Stopping to think “What’s the next action?” if I’m blocked on a project) and things that were heavily influenced by it (Setting reminders like a tickler file to review certain things a few months down the road).
  • But What if We’re Wrong (by Chuck Klosterman) made me realize just how little is actually remembered as you get further and further out in time. People basically only remember Babe Ruth from 100 years ago. Then again, with technology we’ll be able to remember everything. Which might make it even harder to stand out. Twenty years from now, think of the word “Jordan”. If you’re 20-40 years old in 2040, will you think of him flying through the air, getting your first pair after standing in line somewhere, or a crying face? Do you care about players and games you didn’t actually watch? Maybe, but not as much as games you watched as they were happening.
  • How to Win Friends and Influence People (by Dale Carnegie) stood the test of time. Never forget that it has a sentence starting with “Charles Schwab told me…” The lessons in the book will remain relevant for as long as people enjoy talking about themselves.

If you read enough self-development books you start to see the same things referenced. Eventually you realize that most (not all) of these new books are some version of a book written in the 80s which is some version of a book written in the 60s and on and on.

Go read something old.

Prune your garden (even if you don’t have an actual garden)

Questlove’s garden is his collection of MP3s.

Well, it’s AIFFs now.

He talks about gardening in Creative Quest:

When I’ve had the opportunity to do that, or when I have met people who do that, they find it immensely gratifying. They notice things they wouldn’t ordinarily notice. Their senses sharpen. Their heart rate slows down. Many mornings, I try to do something equally Zen-like, and most of the time that means going into my MP3 catalog and pruning it. I notice song titles. I notice how things are organized. That starts me toward thinking about my own work in a structured creative context.

Later in the book, he talks about all those files missing all their metadata except a title: “Track 1”. He Shazam’s them so he can fill the data in.

First, Questlove must have a pretty incredible music library.

Second, this made me stop and realize how completely streaming services have taken over. If something isn’t streaming, I wait or I just don’t ever hear it.

An MP3 collection is like having a library of CDs 10 years ago. A library of cassette tapes 20 years ago. A library of vinyl 30 years ago.

If you had any of those it signaled that music was an important part of your life.

Music is clearly important for Questlove. His day starts with organizing his music.

So what’s your garden?

Get it out of your head—that’s one of the main points in David Allen’s Getting Things Done. I listened to it recently after more than 10 years since first reading it. And… I’ve actually started taking action on some of the things in it.

David Allen suggests making lists for everything:

They usually, though, only make a list about the specific area that’s bugging them. But if you made that kind of externalization and review a characteristic of your ongoing life-and work style, and you maintained it across all areas of your life (not just the most “urgent”), you’d be practicing the kind of mind like water management style I’m describing.

With that guidance, many many things go out of my head and right into Evernote. A single thought only a few words long? Don’t want to forget that! New note.

Instead of Questlove’s MP3s, I have notes in Evernote. (Which in some cases, where I want to talk to my future self, actually are MP3s.)

Search has become really good. I can find any single note that I need at any time just searching through Evernote.

But when I wanted to use a few notes for something, things were getting messy.

My garden was in disarray

Mind like water, notes like an insane, unkempt garden. So I’ve started pruning. I was trying a thing where I set an hour aside on the weekend to prune it.

A lot of stuff in Evernote is some outline for something I want to write. It’s hard to prune for that full hour because I’ll come across something I want to read or an outline I want to flesh out.

Marie Kondo talks about organizing photos in The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up:

There is a good reason to leave photos for last. If you start sorting photos before you have honed your intuitive sense of what brings you joy, the whole process will spin out of control and come to a halt.

It’s hard to toss any photo then you eventually get distracted just looking at all of them.

I’m going to try doing just 10 minutes each day. Reviewing, tagging, titling.

Pruning.

Decide what you aren’t (even if you haven’t decided what you are)

I am not a world class DJ and drummer.

I am not sending people to Mars. I am not a world renowned in marketing.

In Creative Quest, Questlove talks about looking in the future and figuring out what you do not want to become:

And once I cleared all of that out, the essence of what I was doing—breakbeat drumming, feng shui melodic DJing—became something I could wear proudly, rather than something I felt apologetic about. Deciding what you’re not before you decide what you are lets you stand strong in your own category.

I’ve been trying to write, make videos, and do a podcast. I try to keep them in a format that I’m able to do from start to finish in a few hours. (Short posts, short videos, and a low-production podcast.)

I won’t write books with deep, deep academic research. I won’t be a world class illustrator. I won’t make highly produced podcasts.

I’ll try to learn what I can about being creative and share that with others. It’s not the most niched-down, strong stance, but it feels a little bit stronger now than it did when I started writing this post.

(Check out a few recent posts if you’re interested in space or marketing.)