| Jan 04 |
3 ways to hijack the creative part of your brain:
1. Morning Mud
we mistakenly think greatness is clean.
Like you're supposed to wake up, meditate, cold plunge, sip green tea -- and then produce brilliant work.
Nope.
You gotta work like a pig. Wake up, and roll in the mud.
Seinfeld spent the first 2 hours of his day writing jokes. Why? because if you want great jokes, you gotta write a lot of bad jokes.
He did that everyday, for 40+ years. Less than 0.1% of those jokes ever made it into his standup set.
Quantity is the mother of quality.
b..bu..buut what about writer's block?
"there's no writers block" he said. "there IS scared. there IS lazy. But there's no writers block."
You can cure writers block like it's a simple case of the hiccups: "just sit down and accept your mediocrity"
Translation: the harder you try to be great, the more you paralyze your creativity. Instead, be willing to roll in the mud. Make bad stuff, everyday.
Ed Sheeran: "I don't try to be great. When I walk in the studio, I remind myself 'today, I must dare to suck'...you can never make a great song, if you're afraid to make a bad song"
The first 2 hours of the day. Sit down and create.
Before you check the news, twitter, and stock market. BEFORE YOU PUT ANYTHING IN YOUR BRAIN... make something.
Coders code. Writers write. Musicians play music.
It's not going to be good. It's not SUPPOSED to be good. Good comes later.
You will only be as great as you're willing to be bad.
2. Engineered Rest
If you're reading this - you work too much, and it's suffocating your creativity.
All great work is on the other side of a breakthru idea.
How do you get a breakthrough? 3 places:
1) in water
2) in motion
3) after a nap
Ever notice you get your best ideas in the shower?
That's because your brain shifts from Executive Mode (doing tasks) to Default Mode (connecting dots)
"Creativity is just connecting things" - Steve Jobs
Aaron Sorkin (writer of west wing, social network) showers 8x a day when writing scripts.
Einstein used to float on a boat without a motor at sea. The coast guard was worried he'd drift away. He said "good, more time to think"
Darwin used to go for long walks in nature. He'd kick a stone every lap. He started calling his problems "4 stone problems" and "5 stone problems"
JK Rowling came up with Harry Potter on a train.
Edison, Einstein, Salvador Dali all took very short naps, and woke themselves up (holding a key, or metal ball that would drop and clang when they fell asleep) - because the brain enters a hypogogic state which allows for creative connections.
Showers, Naps, Swimming, Walking -- these look lazy.
What's more important to you: Looking productive or being productive?
Just like athletes and bodybuilders use sleep to grow their muscles - you must give yourself permission to relax.
Clock out so your subconscious mind can clock in.
3. THINK INSIDE THE BOX
Creativity loves constraints.
Dr. Suess was an up and coming writer. His editor bet him $100 he couldn't write a book using less than 50 words.
"it was damn tough. but that's what made it fun. It gave it that bounce"
The book (Green Eggs and Ham) went on to be his all-time best selling book.
The lie we're told is that you need to "think outside the box"
If you study the great ones, you see they do the opposite. They put themselves INTO a tight box.
Fewer options. Tight deadlines. Less features.
^these are the tools of the master creators
that's just a taste, reply DM if you want me to DM you the full list
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| Aug 13 |
“I thought I had a great work ethic when I was working with Larry Ellison, or when I had my own company… but no company has the same work ethic and the commitment and the sacrifice factor as an Elon company.” - Hayes Barnard https://t.co/ExySNtfPMK
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| Jun 24 |
this guy decided he wants to do 100 pushups in a row this year. He randomly DM's me each week's stats.
honestly, one of the better DMs I get.
I appreciate a man who sets an arbitrary goal for himself, and then chops wood every week to make progress.
🫡 https://t.co/ng7hCUZcy1
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| Feb 14 |
new blog: stop working so hard https://t.co/p4za1EdyBh
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| Sep 08 |
I've never had a big success in any project where I start off by thinking of "plan B's"
My plan A is the plan.
If Plan A fails. Then I will think of a new Plan A.
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| Aug 25 |
Action is a skill.
How to become high-action: https://t.co/ma1qUeZLF4
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| Jun 21 |
you have no idea how badly you needed an exec assistant, until you get an exec assistant
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| Jun 18 |
How do you become the type of person who makes great decisions?
I fill this out everytime I make a major decision (eg. big investment, start/sell a company, etc.)
Then I re-visit it ~1 year later and look at my line of thinking. Without writing it down, I lie to myself later https://t.co/xDxGW02HRF
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| May 17 |
RT @ShaanVP: Whenever I hear someone wants "life balance", I know they will end up dissapointed.
Not only is life balance nearly impossib…
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| May 16 |
New essay : The Life Balance Lie
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| May 15 |
Integration multiplies your time. If you feel like there's not enough time, that's really just 'not enough integration'.
We all have ~16 waking hours, but if you're using 1 hour to fill up multiple buckets (eg. exercising with friends) - then you've multiplied your time.
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| May 15 |
What's hard about doing this?
The biggest blocker for most people is 'work'.
You spend ~8 hours a day working (half your waking life) and for most people it is:
- not fun (would rather be doing something else)
- not with people they like hanging with (doesn't fill friends bucket)
- not flexible (don't control own schedule/time)
this is like a huge collission on the highway to happiness. It creates a giant jam. So the biggest unlock would be to figure out what work you:
- actually enjoy doing
- with people you enjoy being with everyday
- that pays you for results, not hours of butt-in-chair,
This unblocks your life, and gives you a powerstrip to start plugging in various life integrations.
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| May 15 |
Whenever I hear someone wants "life balance", I know they will end up dissapointed.
Not only is life balance nearly impossible to have -- it's the wrong goal. They're shooting at the wrong target.
Here's how I think about it isntead..:
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