“The first step is you have to say that you can.” — Will Smith
10 Ideas Worth Sharing This Week
How To Tell A Powerful Story
“The filmmakers I most admire recognize the value of teasing. People are in such a rush to get the action sequences going fast that they forget there’s pleasure to be had in the sneaking around part.”
How To Fix Internet Publishing
“This is the single most immutable rule of media, folks. Publishing is community. And if you don’t know who your community is, you’re screwed.”
Art Is Theft
“Great things are done by a series of smaller things brought together. Steal from around you — it’s not where you take things from, it’s where you take them to. Those who do not want to imitate, produce nothing.”
4 Ways To Remember The Information You Consume
“Don’t just learn for the sake of learning. Be a practitioner. Use the information you consume. It’s only as good as what you do with it.”
Five Books You’ve Never Heard Of That Will Change Your Life
“Most of us read the wrong things. As Haruki Murakami put it, reading what everyone else reads means you’re probably going to think what everyone else thinks.”
How To Be Calm Under Pressure
“The secret to calm and focus is knowing the next step. Ignore thoughts that aren’t helpful. Make a decision. Focus on the next step and you won’t panic.”
Most Risk Takers Are Actually Risk Averse
“Humans love rags-to-riches stories. We worship college dropouts like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Oprah Winfrey. We love how they risked it all and made it big. But is that really how things happened? The truth is, successful risk takers are often very, very risk averse.”
How Louis CK Tells A Joke
“There are 207 words in this joke and not a single one is wasted. They’re used either in meaning or in rhythm to contribute to the overall effect, an effect that lets us see the world from a different angle. Like great poetry, great standup comedy is language distilled to its most potent form.”
A New Way To Use Your Calendar
“I’ve always defaulted to the idea that my main work would fit in the empty slots, after everything else has been scheduled. (Just writing that out makes me realize how silly that was.) Instead, I very much recognize the value in having the most important things scheduled.”