May 18th, 2012
Homework
There is a new feature here, as of today, called HOMEWORK. It will be available every Friday.
All homework is designed to be easy to do, and the purpose of homework, over time, is to help you live a better life. Homework will provoke you to do things you should probably be better at, but that you don’t normally do.
We’ll do this one small step at a time. All homework that I ask you to do, I’ve done too. So we’re in it together.
Every time you get your homework, you have the whole weekend to complete it, but the earlier you do it, the better. If you want, you can do it silently, or you can report back. Your call. Ok?
This week there is no homework. We’re only setting it up. But if you want an idea of what HOMEWORK may be like, check out Flinch, which I wrote last year alongside Seth Godin. It’s free.
Or, if you’ve already read it and done some homework, you can comment below.
See you next week.
Filed by Julien at 11:39 am under random
33 Comments
May 17th, 2012
A Short, Incomplete List of the Things I've Done Wrong
1. I spent 6 years in call centres, from about 19 to 25, doing nothing with my life. Looked like shit, felt like shit. No achievements or lasting happiness whatsoever.
2. I believed that I could do everything I wanted alone, without a support structure. I believed in willpower instead of putting systems in place that would help me.
3. I was really anxious about calling my grandmother for a while. She’s 101 if you can believe it. Now I call her every three or four days. So much better. She told me last week that it really meant a lot to her that I called.
4. I am really bad at opening my mail. Like embarrassingly bad. Bills go unpaid, interest piles up. It’s sad.
5. For years I was constantly late, or no-show, to tons of appointments I had with friends or family. Then I would lie about it afterwards. I did this for years. Eventually I realized that no one believed my bullshit. I started respecting people’s time, but it took way too long.
6. While we wrote our first book together, my co-author Chris was blogging and meeting people every day. He became super huge as a result of it. By avoiding his regimen, I slowed my progress by like 2 years at least. Only now am I actually recovering. Huge waste.
7. When I was about 18 years old, I got a branding done– permanent scarification– for no particular reason. This isn’t a big deal but I can’t think of why I did it now, 14 years later. I’m going to get it covered with more tattoos eventually.
8. I quit art school at around age 19 to pursue a dot-com job. My dream then was to become a sculptor. That waited another 10 years to get started again, now I do some on the side and I’m learning to draw again. You know that thing they say, “youth is wasted on the young”? It’s totally true.
9. I didn’t really take care of my first dog when I was a kid. My mom ended up having to do it, pretty much, because nobody else did. We didn’t obedience train him either. There was a lot we could have done better. He had an ok life but deserved a better one.
10. I haven’t yet learned to cook, really, even though I’m better now than I ever have been. It only really started when I had to count calories. I actually spent ten years as a vegetarian without learning to cook. Imagine. What did I eat? I still have no idea. Very glad to be eating meat now though.
11. There were girls that I really liked back in the day that I had no courage to make a move on. Don’t get me wrong, I’m really happy with my girlfriend and everything, but it took me years to figure out that a girl wants you to make the move, not the other way around.
12. Every time I see somebody I respect, I never walk up to them. I’m always too shy. In reality, walking up and breaking the ice is always better because then you get to say hi (in a non-awkward way) the second time.
13. Hey guess what? None of this matters.
Life isn’t made up of the things you did wrong. It’s made of the things you did right.
Filed by Julien at 4:52 pm under random 38 Comments
May 16th, 2012
Welcome back.
Hi, and welcome back to regular writing. :)
I just spent probably three months finishing up my third book with Portfolio/Penguin. It was damn stressful but I’m glad we pushed ourselves. It’ll be out in October.
I’ve pretty much figured out that I can’t write several things at once, at least while caring about all of them. While this blog goes on, I love it and want to pour everything into it. While I have a book going, I suffer like hell to make it as good as I can. I probably lost a year of my life working on the Flinch, but it was worth it. I wouldn’t have it any other way.
About two years ago I was in Paris, renting a little apartment in the 16th arrondissement and reading Hélène Cixous, considered by some to be the best living writer in the French language. She said that all good writing needed to involve some little kind of death. I would say the same for any kind of valuable work.
If you aren’t dying for it, it’s bullshit. If you die with any life left in you, you’ve wasted it. You should die entirely empty and spent. That’s my view.
If there is anything I could wish upon you, that is it. I wish for you the ability to find work worth dying for, worth going to prison for, worth suffering for. It isn’t easy. But it’s worth it.
The problem with finding work to do that is at that level is that you literally avoid it. You will do anything to quit. You may even avoid finding it on purpose.
Just recently I thought up an idea so big that it did two things. One, it was such a big, ambitious idea that it made me terrified of failure. Second, it is so big and ambitious that it makes everything else feel small.
Both of these things, by themselves, aren’t problems. The problem is that the idea is one of those ideas that’s “just so crazy it might work.”
Do you have work like this? Where are you right now? What are you trying to be? Can I help? Please let me know.
Filed by Julien at 2:10 pm under random, taking action 37 Comments
May 15th, 2012
A Question About Staircases
Imagine that you were running a race on one of three escalators. Which race would you rather be in?
1. An escalator that is helping you up.
2. A broken one that is not moving at all.
3. An escalator that is going down while you head up, making it harder to reach the top.
Lots of people are racing, and you want to win. Which race do you choose?
Filed by Julien at 10:41 am under challenge, random 78 Comments
February 22nd, 2012
Lessons I Learned Reading Over 200 Books
I recently realized that I’d been reading a book every week now for about 5 years straight.
It kind of made me wonder: what did I really learn? Am I smarter than I used to be?
I started to wonder, and this is what happened. 140 characters per book, for 200 books… 200 things you may not know.
Are you curious? I sure was when I started. Here we go.
A Walk in the Woods
The Appalachian Trail is a trail in the woods that’s over 2000 miles long. In 1990, Bill Irwin became the first guy to ever walk it– BLIND.
The Millionaire Next Door
Those that are wealthy are not those who ACT wealthy. Those that look wealthy are usually in just debt, while the rich tend to act broke.
Blink
“Sometimes we’re right about things– especially when we’re experts. Other times we’re wrong.” With a bunch of examples.
How To Succeed in Anything by Really Trying
The three A’s of careers are Ability, Ambition, and Attitude. If you have those three down, you’re good.
The No BS Ruthless Management of People and Profits
If your employees suck, nobody is happy. So fire them– fast. Stop being so bleeding-hearted about it.
The Dip
The real rewards come to those who can outlast the competition. If you can do that while staying unique, you win.
The Little Red Book of Sales
People do business with people they like. So if make it easy to be someone they like, you’re a big part of the way there.
Crash Proof
The US is carrying massive amounts of debt. This may or may not reduce the value of the dollar over time, so invest to compensate for it.
On Writing Well
Simplicity matters. Clarity matters. “Writing improves in direct ratio to the number of things we can keep out of it.”
The Little Teal Book of Trust
Trust matters, but more importantly, Jeffrey Gitomer is a master salesman, and it is always possible to write a new take on an old subject.
Everything Bad is Good for You
Even culturally “stupid” things like reality TV can have lots of value. In fact media is getting more complex over time. Don’t dismiss it.
The Myth of Multitasking
Do one thing at a time or you’re wasting your time. Man, I could still really learn this lesson. So could you.
What Would Google Do?
Companies that embrace Google-like qualities win over “closed” companies. Free, open, etc. wins.
Old Masters and Young Geniuses
There are two ways to success. Either be young and have a huge insight, or get older and gradually improve.
Pow! Right Between the Eyes
Surprises create emotion. Emotions create memories. Information has nothing to do with convincing someone.
Emergency
Learn practical skills or you’ll regret it when you need them. Being useful matters.
Lance Armstrong: Every Second Counts
Persistence is everything. Ignore detractors and push forward no matter what.
Problem Solving 101
It’s easy to sell a little book to a bored guy in Chicago O’Hare airport… yeah, that’s all I remember.
Talent is Overrated
Work matters more than talent– this is like a much better version of Outliers. Focus on the work, always.
Culture Smart:Japan
There are at least 5 ways to talk to people in Japan, based on their status and yours. In America, we’re lucky to have social mobility.
Thank You and OK!
Even Zen Buddhists can be messed up. No single path will make you perfect.
The Way of Zen
Japanese Daruma dolls are really cool symbols for persistence. Keep real objects around you that remind you of your purpose.
Stumbling on Happiness
The stuff we think will make us happy usually doesn’t. We need to be clear on what those mistakes are or we waste a lot of time.
Not Always So
Enlightenment is about the practice, not the talking. You can’t intellectualize insight.
Walden
Simplify your life and you’ll appreciate what you have more. Yes, it’s that simple.
The Five Secrets You Must Discover Before You Die
Most of the answers to happiness have been figured out by old people. Ask them, they’ll tell you.
Nudge
Simple environmental changes can radically alter behaviour. It’s how change happens. So don’t blame yourself or your weaknesses.
The Game
Girls like confidence, and confidence is hard to fake.
How To Sell
Girls apparently like jewelry too. But not as much as confidence.
Six Pixels of Separation
Mitch Joel is an under-appreciated asset to the whole social media community. This book has secretly outsold every single other social media book out there, by the way.
What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20
Frankly, this was not memorable. If you are reading a book and can’t come up with any significant quotes or ideas from it, you should probably stop. Trust me.
Mastering Your Hidden Self
Do yourself a favour and don’t read books about spirituality. They’re usually crap and are trying to sell you on something.
Man’s Search For Meaning
Between stimulus and response there is a space, and in that space lies our growth and our freedom. (This was the largest inspiration for my book The Flinch.)
Feel the Fear… And Do It Anyway
If you feel fear in non-dangerous situations, you should just go forward anyway. It’s rare that bad shit happens.
Blue Ocean Strategy
Low competition means it’s easier to win. Always search for the easiest, least competitive way.
What Should I Do With My Life?
Follow your passion or you’ll regret it. Speaking from experience, this is true.
Enough
Stuff doesn’t make you happy, but you’ll never stop thinking it will.
She Comes First
Lol. I can’t believe I’m admitting that I read this. It was good though. You should read it.
Purple Cow
Being remarkable means your customers will notice, and being noticed is the first step on the way to being successful.
50 50
Doing the impossible is often easier than you think. Most people don’t try to find the real limits– they just trust what others say.
Presentation Zen
Stop putting walls of text on your Powerpoint slides. Everyone knows this now, don’t they?
Getting Things Done
Having a system in place is necessary to facilitate completing lots of tasks. Otherwise, you get lost. But if it’s too complex, the system itself gets you lost.
Open and Shut
The Canadian government never would have let Obama win, or even run, because he’s an outsider. This stifles innovation from the Canadian system.
Rules of Thumb
Any lesson is easy to learn… but applying it is hard.
When I Say No, I Feel Guilty
Saying no to something is actually very hard, so learn social “techniques” to help you say no when it matters.
Crush It
Fact: It’s possible to talk into a microphone and have it be made into a bestselling book.
Status Anxiety
It’s programmed into our brains to seek higher status, and when we can’t do it, we feel like crap.
The Architecture of Happiness
Our physical environment is important. How we feel in a place influences our behaviour in it, so try to create a space you love.
Connected
Even if people are outside your social network, you influence them. In other words, humans aren’t like wolves, we’re like bees.
The Cluetrain Manifesto
Hyperlinks subvert hierarchies. (This sounds simple but it’s in fact very profound.)
Gambling Scams
Amazing book. Crazy stories. Most scams are about getting the mark to feel like they’re getting away with something, not the other way around.
Zen and the Art of Archery
Reading short books helps you get ahead on your reading list. Don’t underestimate this. :)
The Numerati
The world of the future will be controlled by those who have, and understand, the numbers. Intuition is no longer good enough.
Vagabonding
Traveling full-time is easier than expected. You, yes you, could probably do it… just not as you are now.
Hagakure
If you have trouble with a book, persevere anyway. It’s worth it.
Your Money or Your Life
Your spending habits are changeable. Stop letting them direct your life. What seems “essential” usually isn’t.
Of the Dawn of Freedom
Black people had it really bad, you guys. We are all lucky to be alive when we are right now.
Drive
Motivation from inside gets you moving. Motivation from outside stops you dead cold.
The Social Contract
There are implicit and explicit “contracts” that occur between people all the time, without people even talking about them.
Shop Class as Soulcraft
Working on things (vs, say, ideas) is rewarding, because you can see the results of your work and how it improves the world.
Escape From Cubicle Nation
Quit your horrible job. ASAP. Trust me.
The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work
Unfortunately, all work sucks at least a little. But life is still good, so don’t worry about it too much.
The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius
Amazing things will happen, and terrible things will happen. Deal with both in the same way.
The Paleo Diet
Removing sugar and grains from your diet is one of the best things you can do for your health.
7 Days in the Art World
Art is all about personalities and technique is no longer that important. Often, big artists don’t even make their own work anymore.
Switch
Change is about working with three things: intellect, emotion, and environment. Get all three and change is easy.
Linchpin
I read this while in Cuba. This is the book I wish I had written. I was both impressed and upset when I read it because it was what I had wanted to do.
Simplicity
Simplicity is often harder than complexity, and often, there’s a lot of garbage that can just remain unsaid.
The Art of Eating In
If you’re doing it right, food in the house can be just as great as eating at restaurants. Take time to work on your cooking skills.
The Fighter’s Mind
People that fight intimately understand something that we do not.
The Greatest Salesman in the World
Mindset is everything.
The Creative Habit
One of the world’s most famous choreographers gets in a cab every morning to bring her to the gym to make sure she works out. In other words, high achievers have more than just “willpower” to make it happen.
Rework
Books that say a little are often way better than books that say a lot.
Do More Great Work
Getting people to do exercises makes them think about things more than if they just read about them.
Stranger in a Strange Land
Starting a cult is easy. :)
A Million Miles in a Thousand Years
Think about your life as a story. How would you make it worth watching? Also, a character is what a character does. This is very important.
Zen Wrapped in Karma Dipped in Chocolate
Zen Masters are just normal people that sit around a lot. They aren’t saints. I spent a month in a Zen monastery in Japan, so I know this is true.
Global Citizens
Don’t downgrade your standards for books just because you’re getting on a plane in New Zealand. Just garbage.
Ogilvy on Advertising
People used to be very gullible I think. A wall of text used to convince people… wait, maybe it still does?
Tao Te Ching
This book made me appreciate Chinese writing. The fashionable thing is to like the Japanese, but honestly I think ancient Chinese philosophical writing is far superior.
Louis Riel: A Comic-Strip Biography
History will distort what your message is, or it will forget you. Focus on making the people near you happy instead of your “legacy” or whatever.
All Marketers Are Liars
The story you tell yourself (and others) is really important.
In Defence of Food
If it doesn’t need to be refrigerated, it may not actually be food. So never go through the aisles of a grocery store– go around the edges instead, where the fridges are.
I Am Not a Gadget
The web is making you into a commodity and narrowing your thinking without you knowing it.
5 Love Languages
Behind the things your spouse does is a way of thinking. Aligning yourself with that will help you understand them.
The Vegetarian Myth
I was a vegetarian/vegan for 10 years and there were lots of talking points I believed without researching them. So the lesson here is, read up on sound bites before repeating them.
The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King
Big bets either pay off or wipe you out. But even if they wipe you out, you can still come back from it.
A Brief History of Everything
Systems look very different from the inside than they do from the outside.
The Gift of Fear
Your instincts have been honed by millions of years of evolution. When your intuition tells you something, don’t ignore it.
Three Steps of the Ladder of Writing
In order for great art to emerge, you must suffer. (I have also experienced this firsthand.)
Se liberer du connu
Any habit, no matter how stupid, will end up with religious significance if unquestioned.
The Primal Blueprint
One book on the paleo diet is enough. Stop re-reading the same information over and over again. (This also applies to social media books.)
Sixty Million Frenchmen Can’t Be Wrong
The French are best appreciated as a deeply distinct culture. They may have cars, McDonald’s, and shopping malls but they are not like you.
The Art of Non-Conformity
I could learn a lot from Chris Guillebeau. You can too.
UnMarketing
When things go viral, it’s because they touch upon emotion, not logic. This is actually a big message most web people forget.
The Happiness Project
It’s shocking how much this book has sold. I guess it goes to show what happens when you put “happiness” in the title. It’s good, but…
The Little Black Book of Connections
Your network is everything. Access to the right people accelerates everything you do.
The Paleo Solution
Another paleo book may not have been the right thing to do, but it does prove that presentation matters. This book is the best presented of all the ones I read.
Hamlet’s Blackberry
People have encountered new technology many times before, so looking to the past can help you understand how you should deal with it when it happens to you.
The End of Food
Unless it’s local and needs to be refrigerated, the food you eat had a terrifying ride to get to your plate.
Tactics
I think I’ve read enough Edward de Bono books. This was about success, but whatever. Why do I keep reading about the same things?
Maus
Old people have tons of amazing stories– but most of us don’t know them because we just don’t ask.
It’s Not Just Who You Know…
Pull other people up. Be considerate to everyone.
Good Calories Bad Calories
Native people all over the world, before being introduced to Western food, had significantly less chronic disease.
Making Ideas Happen
The productivity system you use must be available everywhere and give you your tasks only for today, not for next week.
Work the System
You should not be working inside your company putting out fires. You should be improving its efficiency instead. This book is like a better 4-Hour-Workweek.
Food Rules
When you name something a “rule,” everyone believes it even though it may not be true.
Foucault for Beginners
Michel Foucault was gay and came up with the panopticon.
A Treatise on Elegant Living
What you wear isn’t just surface– it also displays your personality and what matters to you.
Why We Get Fat
Science writers usually write a complicated book, and then a simple one after that. Always read one or the other. Never both.
The 4-Hour Body
Do the minimum possible to affect the largest possible change. Everything else is wasted energy (unless you want to master a discipline).
Emotional Intelligence 2.0
I was in Thailand while reading this. Skip it and go to Thailand instead.
What Technology Wants
Technology is a force and it’s going in a certain direction. If you work on the web, you need to understand what direction that is.
How I Became a Famous Novelist
Thailand again… this was the funniest book I ever read. It made me want to write other things than business books for the first time.
One Small Step Can Change Your Life
Large change is best done in small steps, because it doesn’t set off your emotional alarm system.
The Alchemist
Have a quest.
Program or Be Programmed
Most people on the web are writers, not programmers, and in so doing, they are less powerful than they could be.
As You Think (and other short books)
Writing down goals has power.
Poke the Box
Become a person that initiates. Others will follow.
What the Psychic Said to the Pilgrim
People give up extremely easily. If you don’t, you automatically win.
The Thank You Economy
Social media is all about basic human interactions, so being as human as possible means you have the most impact.
The Long Walk
All Stephen King books are about a regular thing that becomes evil. Carrie is a high school girl that becomes evil. Christine is a car that becomes evil. Cujo is a dog that becomes evil. The Long Walk is about a walk that becomes evil.
How to Get a Grip
Most self-improvement is in fact very basic to do. Stop kidding yourself.
Do the Work
Just sit on your ass and do it. It’s that “easy.”
Go Forth and Kick Some Ass
eBooks are quick to read and people will probably buy lots of them.
Against the Gods
Insurance companies (and others) understand risk in an extremely sophisticated way– but most individuals do not. They consider risky things safe, and safe things risky.
The God Delusion
Richard Dawkins is not nearly as much of an asshole as some think he is.
Five Little Pigs
Agatha Christie is the greatest fiction writer in the history of mankind. She is a master.
Rules for Aging
Amazing short book about important life lessons. Very funny.
The Places That Scare You
“Drop the storyline.”
Born Standing Up
Even if their movies are bad, celebrities usually aren’t idiots… especially the comedians. Also: read more biographies.
Born to Run
Marketing, especially when applied to things we have been doing for millions of years, can really screw things up. People with expensive shoes, for example, get more injuries than minimalist shoe runners.
The Dip
Wow, I read this twice! Well, this one was an audiobook, so I guess that’s different. Kind of like being on the Camino de Santiago with Seth Godin.
How to Win Friends and Influence People
After finishing this book, I realized that I should be reading it every single year. It’s that good.
A Whole New Mind
The mind necessary in the 21st century is not like the one we were taught to use. We need to learn to think and learn differently.
Getting Unstuck
Godin also recommended I read some Pema Chodron. He was right.
The War of Art
This is the perfect writing book. It’s so good it makes you never want to compete with it.
The Thing About Life is That One Day You’ll Be Dead
Sickness and aging happen very slowly, so you never actually notice it happening. Plan accordingly.
Your Dog is Your Mirror
Bad dogs aren’t bad for no reason. They have been with us for longer than any other animals, so they are uniquely attuned to our emotional states.
The Consolations of Philosophy
Most of our basic human problems have been solved a long time ago. If you start digging, you can solve them pretty easily.
When Things Fall Apart
Even though pain may seem catastrophic, it’s actually temporary. And again, “drop the storyline.”
Evil Plans
When you draw, you can say a lot with a little. I plan on drawing a lot of my work in 2012 and beyond.
Uncertainty
I read this because I was asked to blurb it, but it was actually a good primer.
Read This Before Our Next Meeting
Most time in offices is wasted. I heard the other day most people actually “work” around 2 hours per day. Meetings are partly responsible.
Purple Cow
When I read this for the second time, it was because I was trying to “distill” the Flinch. It worked.
Self-Reliance (Domino edition)
Always read the original.
The Power of Myth
Joseph Campbell, although not “undiscovered,” is still under-appreciated. The dude did things his own way in a time when conformity was the norm.
The 22 Laws of Marketing
Tim Ferriss was right. This book is simple yet awesome.
Zarrella’s Hierarchy of Contagiousness
People who give you simple formulas are spoon-feeding you. Be skeptical.
L’art de la sieste
Some books are inappropriately titled. I thought this book was about napping, but it isn’t. It’s about people napping in paintings. No kidding.
End Malaria
The most easily marketed work is the one that is publicized collaboratively. In order to facilitate this, you should also write collaboratively. (See Godin’s What Matters Now for another example.)
The Pilgrimage
Universal themes in books never get old, and Paulo Coelho is a master. As he visited each town, I remembered how I felt while visiting them.
The Warrior Ethos
Throughout history, there have been cultures that have been hard, and others that have been soft. We are soft. The Spartans were hard.
5 Minds For the Future
The most appreciated people in the 21st century will be those who do the jobs that computers are bad at.
We Are All Weird
Find a little tribe that is like you, be yourself to them. Build yourself a business around it. (See also: 1000 True Fans.)
Accidental Genius
Freewriting unlocks ideas that your brain may never have otherwise encountered. Read this and try it for yourself.
Rum Socialism
I should go to Cuba again. You should too, probably. It’s going to change a lot soon. Foreigners just got the right to buy property there.
Falling While Sitting Down
You can radically change your writing and still keep a lot of your audience.
The Game Master
Yes, I still play Dungeons and Dragons. Yet there is little writing about how to write a game. This was a good one. You can download it here for a donation or for free.
Cognitive Surplus
When you free up a lot of your time, or give yourself many more options than before, your creativity and that of society is entirely transformed. Kickstarter and Sokap are great examples.
Willpower
Each fact in a book should be considered separetely. For example, Willpower says glucose depletion is a primary cause of making bad decisions. Not sure about that.
The Education of Millionaires
I should be going to more events. Summit Series, for example.
The Lean Startup
There is a methodology behind exploration of new concepts. Don’t just do it chaotically– have a method behind the madness.
Spark
Get advice from people who have been there before. Don’t reinvent the wheel.
Sway
This is a kind of Gladwell-style book, but much more interesting. I also learned here that there are about a million books about psychological errors that people make.
The Power of Eye Contact
It literally took me a year to finish this. I started in January and finished in December. Anyway, eye contact is important for relationships.
Never Eat Alone
You are not networking as much as you should be.
Strong Enough?
Incremental change can make you amazingly strong. (This applies to all areas of life.)
Think Twice
We make cognitive errors all the time without knowing it. Correcting them usually means big rewards.
How To Be a Man
In an anarchist state, manners would become the main substitute for laws. So be polite.
What I Talk About When I Talk About Running
Many famous and well-respected writers have copied, or translated, other people’s works. See also: Hunter S. Thompson.
18 Minutes
Set your phone to ask you once an hour whether you’re being productive. Watch massive change occur.
Grouped
Influence on the web comes from working with regular people, not “influencers.”
Spent
Almost all decisions we make are influenced by our biology.
Filed by Julien at 10:53 am under experiments, random 119 Comments
February 13th, 2012
A Short Contest
Hey, happy Monday. I have a cool idea and, if you have a minute, I’d love your help.
I’m looking for the best quotes from the entirety of this blog for an experiment I’m going to try out.
My theory is, I can take them, present them in a cool and unique way, and have them do really well on social networks– much better than they would do inside of a blog post.
I’d love your help to find them.
You’re probably new here– most of my readers have joined this site within the past month– so it’s highly likely that you’ve never visited my archives. There’s a lot of good stuff there.
I’d like to offer you the incentive to check them out.
So in one week, I’m going to give away between 5 and 10 prizes (not sure yet how many) for finding the best quotes from old posts on this blog.
They can be of any length and come from any post, but you’ll probably notice that anything before 2008 or so is not worth going through. (Just being honest.) :)
How to “enter”
Find a quote in an old post, and tweet it out mentioning my name, like so. Bam! You’re done!
Prizes!
To those who come find the best stuff, here’s my offer. Your choice of:
A Kindle Fire. The price for this baby is currently at $199. I’ll send you one! Yay!
A hardcover, signed version of my most recent book, the Flinch. There is no hardcover of this book available at any price, but I am printing a few for personal use and will send you one, signed, numbered, etc.
A one-hour phone conversation about your company or project. This can’t be bought either, but I have done things like this for large corporations at rates of near $1000 per hour. I’m, like, a total genius so this is huge too. If you want we can talk about kittens.
Something else? Honestly I haven’t thought this out that much, it’s kind of an experiment. Have something else you’d like? Add it in the comments and I’ll see what I can do. :)
We now return you to your regularly scheduled program. Thanks! :)
Filed by Julien at 10:11 am under experiments, random 39 Comments
January 25th, 2012
Making a Million Bucks vs. Reaching a Million People
“Thank you my friend I have never met. […] I found your blog post “fuck the internet” on a day I was in a bad way.
[…] You know what the best part is? You didn’t even charge me a dime. Thank you so much. I could never have heard what you had to say if you were charging admission. I would be glad to pay you now but I’m currently broke. :) I’m going be doing real good real soon and I will help you out if you need it then.
I get a lot of emails from people, it’s true. But this one really hit home.
Some people I know charge $300 an hour for their time doing basically what I do on this site for free. I met a guy last week who charges $15,000 a year or something for mentoring a few people. I hear they’re very good at it too.
I actually could do these things. I know that I could because I kind of do already with some people that I know– I just do it for free– but I know that people would pay. Sometimes I’ll get an email going “are you coaching so-and-so? I can hear your voice coming out of his mouth,” and I’ll reply, “we talk every little while, yeah,” or “he reads my blog I think.” Not that I’m saying that I influence everyone with a voice like mine, not at all.
Anyway, I had a conversation with someone last week where they kind of hinted that I have “issues around money” or whatever (I’m paraphrasing) because I would rather get a great book out for free to 100,000 people than make a dollar or two per copy and sell 10% of that number. It’s the truth though, and I’m not sure it’s because I’m awkward about it, I just really believe that amazing stuff should be available for free. This is the internet, I figure you can charge if you want as long as you’re ok with competing with free.
I’m not making a secret out of the fact that I’m doing fine financially, and I understand that not everyone can experiment with this. That’s fine. But even if I had sold millions of books I would still probably give much of them away or find a way to give them away for free. I just think it’s the right thing to do.
Free worked for Paulo Coelho. He seeded torrents of his own work and it increased sales.
Free worked for Vice magazine– nobody would have paid for that– and now it’s ubiquitous.
Free worked for Angry Birds. Now people play it for more than 1 million hours per day.
But it’s not just about free. It’s more than that. Soon, it’s going to be GREAT + FREE.
And how in God’s name do you compete against that?
Filed by Julien at 1:54 pm under random, strategy 28 Comments
October 19th, 2011
How to be a good neighbour
The other day I was walking around my neighbourhood when a woman stopped me to ask for directions. “Where is de Courcelle street,” she asked. I pointed her in the right direction, and left with a spring in my step.
There’s something great about being asked to do your civic duty, either giving people directions or helping an old lady with her groceries. I have a feeling a lot of people like it. Yet in this society we are asked to do it less and less. This sense of duty and the muscle that accompany it are atrophying because we are rarely called upon to exercise it.
I think acting global, while still acting local, is possible and within reach for most people. They just have to shift their mindset when dealing with, for example, the web, and then shift again when dealing with a local merchant. The economics of each of those things is different, so your ethical compass should be different for each of them, too.
I have a feeling that the best models lie at the extremes of this line: very global, or very local. It’s just a feeling I have, though. Can’t support it– yet.
But in either place, global or local, you need to be a good neighbour. On the web it means to link to your sources, to ask permission, or to leave comments. In person it may mean picking up the mail when someone is out of town. There is a sense of duty in either one of these places.
As our sense of neighbourhoods change, our duties change. How is it changing for you?
Filed by Julien at 11:57 am under community, random 18 Comments
October 12th, 2011
Everything has been done. Give up now.
The list for what has never been done is very short.
If you’re looking for something new before you even begin, you may as well abandon the quest. You will probably fail.
Everyone has a voice now. Everyone has a camera, too. Every picture at every monument has been taken better by someone with better equipment. You’re screwed.
The picture itself is no longer interesting, because it has been taken already. Objectivity is not useful.
I just recently came face to face with the fact that almost everything I’ve ever done has been done better, before me, by someone else. Has this happened to you yet? If you ever do anything interesting, it will.
When it does, you will be faced with a moment of doubt that may crush you and prevent you from continuing– unless you have faced it before and seen that you can win.
But this fight is one that you can subvert and avoid entirely if you realize that the information is not what is interesting to most people– the story is.
The story is something that people can relate to. The subjective and personal is human. Human is relatable. Information is not.
The best storytellers are translators of information. They take an experience and create layers on top of it, like an onion, that get peeled and reveal deeper insight.
But the depths, of course, are dark. They are hard to map. They contain secret tunnels. They don’t reveal themselves to you instantly. They need time.
But time is not what most people have. They want quick and immediate insight. They want the information so they can move on.
Avoid the temptation to talk about information. Information is the realm in which the how-to rests, and the place where machines can easily replace humans.
If you want to stay valuable, you cannot stay where machines can replace you. The experience you provide has to be uniquely human.
But do you even know how to do that? If not, how will you learn?
Filed by Julien at 11:47 am under challenge, random 34 Comments
September 20th, 2011
You are nothing without effort
You are not born to live a long life. You are not born to succeed.
You are born to go through puberty, reproduce, and die.
Exerting effort for any other purpose than producing more children is a deviation from the natural order. It’s against your programming.
Every push to improve yourself is an act of will against the universe.
So without effort, without willpower, you are just a shell for your genes.
How you behave, how you react to this, is up to you. Making safe decisions for yourself and your children is telling yourself (and them) that what’s important is to survive and reproduce for the next generation.
If you create unique experiences for yourself and your children, if you strongly deviate from the path, you are also creating someone unique, someone who can give back to the world in a singular and powerful way.
We need both kinds of people, of course. We can’t have all iconoclasts, all rebels, or all deviants.
Filed by Julien at 9:51 am under direction, random 17 Comments
