Always, always write in the editor.
That’s the conclusion I come to over and over and over. I write notes and record audio across all sorts of apps. Docs, Evernote, Notion, Otter, Descript… I’ve even added the somewhat cringe thing of recording video journals (cool for Will Smith in “I am Legend” but he was trying to save humanity) so there are a bunch of thoughts on various SD cards around the house. (So untouched by the cloud…)
Anyway. I should get to some book notes.
From “Ego is the Enemy” by Ryan Holiday:
Let’s flip it around so it doesn’t seem so demeaning: It’s not about kissing ass. It’s not about making someone look good. It’s about providing the support so that others can be good. The better wording for the advice is this: Find canvases for other people to paint on. Be an anteambulo. Clear the path for the people above you and you will eventually create a path for yourself.
Just want to capture that I had to look up anteambulo. It’s a forerunner. Let’s see how Midjourney handles this…
I think it turned “
Okay at first I thought it turned it into “fantasy team” or something. No idea why it turned it into some kind of UI.
Here it is with a little bit of a description of someone running toward a screen like the 1984 Apple commercial.
Alright I better just move on to another book highlight. Let’s see what else I can get going here.
I’m currently at Philz, writing on a 25 minute timer. So here’s a highlight from “The 3 Alarms” by Eric Partaker
I recommend taking frequent breaks during creative time; otherwise, you may feel your energy and focus begin to wane. I work in hour-long blocks of time, setting a timer for fifty minutes to prompt a ten-minute break after each period of work. Then my afternoons are used for manager time or simply interacting with others.
Pomodoros seem to work pretty well for me but everything seems to work in different scenarios. Everything also seems to not work.
I’m realizing I’m covered in dog hair right now. When I’m at home, it’s like I don’t see it and then it takes a few minutes outside to realize it. Or not just outside—I can actually not notice the hair on myself if I’m on driving or walking with Booster.
But once I’m around others without dogs around, it starts to become very apparent.
That said, no one actually cares. I was listening to David Senra on the “My First Million” podcast this morning. They talk about how little other people think about anyone other than themselves. Even if something’s cringe, it’s only a moment.
The internet does make it possible to make people cringe at scale, though.
But on the other end of things, David points out that even if someone is your absolute hero… you still maybe think about them for like maybe a minute during the day.
With a podcast, you’re in someone’s ear for 30 to 90 minutes each week. That’s more than most people talk to anyone in their lives that they don’t share a roof with. Their best friends, their family. And they/re very much opting in to listen.
Okay I need to order some more beans and get out of here.
Last highlight. To set it up—a few hours from now I’ll be on a plane to head to my mom’s retirement party. Time flies.
Time melts even faster when staring at screens. More and more I’m noticing I’ll end the week and, even if I spent time out of the house away from the screen, a lot of my thoughts are still about things that are happening on screens. Projects I need to be chipping away at.
I don’t want a decade to go by and think that it all just melted away while I stared at screens.
(I write as I type this outside of the house but very much at a screen. Covered in dog hair.)
So here’s Jordan Mechner in “The Making of Karateka”, reminding himself in his journal to savor a period in life, college, that very much has an end date. He writes this because he was experiencing screens melting time away in the 1980s. A pioneer.
Savor the changeover, J., savor it; you only get four years at Yale, and you’ve already done two.
My goal: savor this weekend.