There is no right time to quit a job, have kids, or start something new. If you want something, you have to take the first step immediately and figure things out along the way. The right time will never come. Jump now.
Month: May 2017
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Inge Druckrey: Teaching to See
Awesome video on design thinking:
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Takeaways from this week’s Breaking Smart newsletter, Betting the Spread on Inexorables:
- Try multiple ultra short-term bets around a shared assumption.
- Don’t stick with something you don’t find valuable just so you “aren’t a quitter.”
- Constantly question whether or not the next step is what will produce the best results.
- Bet the spread, then switch between parallel bets as data changes. Work isn’t the horse races. You can change bets whenever you want.
- There is a difference between unfocused dabbling and betting the spread around a central inexorable trend. That difference is that learning and outcomes around that single trend compound. Unfocused dabbling doesn’t.
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Derek Magill on Activation over Awareness
Great stuff on marketing from my coworker Derek Magill:
“Hold off on new marketing efforts and let’s fix your funnel first.” Oftentimes the most promising “marketing” strategy is not to focus on growing awareness and traffic, but in making the most of the existing awareness and traffic you already have.
Read his full post here. Scroll down to May 5: Awareness vs Activation.
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Ignore the Rules and Be True to Yourself
“Writers write every single day.” “If you aren’t writing code every day, you can’t call yourself a developer.” “The best in every field get up at 4am and start working by 6am after a workout and an hour of reading.”
Rules are so fun to state. They make you look hardcore, driven, and disciplined. But if you are on the other side of that exchange and are the one hearing those rules, ignore them.
Seriously, fuck those rules.
Don’t get me wrong, I love hearing about people’s processes. I love reading books like Daily Rituals. But you won’t get anywhere by worrying about following someone else’s process. You have to figure out with works for you and be ruthless in following it.
I personally see a lot of benefits of showing up and doing things daily. I don’t wait for inspiration to find me, I spend time consuming great stuff and thinking about it. I’ve recognized that I need space to think, walk, read, and listen. Inspiration always comes, and when it does, I’m ready.
That said, I don’t stress out too much over it. While I do get stuff done every day, that isn’t necessarily when my best work hits me. Sometimes I’ll have weeks where I get tons of ideas and am excited to work on some cool stuff. For example, I had the idea to build this WordPress theme this week. This is the first full WordPress theme I’ve done all on my own. I couldn’t get it out of my head until I got the templates done and shipped it. My Jekyll blog template was the same way last year. So was the Sol LeWitt project, the Slack Toggl slash command, the Apple Photos analysis project, and the Cocktail library.
Other times I’ll go a few weeks without being moved to do anything beyond the daily tasks I’ve set for myself. I’ve learned to be okay with that. Fuck what works for other people. These are my projects.
What I can never forgive myself for, though, is not doing the work when I feel the call.
Not following the traditional rules is totally fine. What is inexcusable is not staying true to your own terms and getting your work done.
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Cool writing prompt from Cheryl Strayed on the Tim Ferriss Show: Pull out your keychain and write about the history of each key. https://overcast.fm/+BmGWAa3Lc
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I just made a WordPress theme made to be used with Micro.blog. It is simple, minimalist, and includes a small tool to verify your site with Micro.blog. You can download or fork it here: https://github.com/cagrimmett/simplemicroblog-wp
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Testing out this Twitter cross-posting bot from http://micro.blog/cagrimmett
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Great Falls
Yesterday Amanda and I visited Great Falls in Paterson, NJ.
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Testing a new post from Micro.blog’s iOS app.
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Cooking Rice
I got a tip today from a Persian chef about cooking rice the Persian way: After it boils for a few minutes, drain and rinse it. Then put it back in the pot for 25 minutes. You get a nice crispy layer at the bottom and rice that is completely separated, not gummy.
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Leonard E. Read’s bookplate
Check out Leonard E. Read’s sweet bookplate that I found:
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Scratch your own itch
The best projects are ones that build something you want to use or solve a problem you actually have. They don’t need to be big or new. Almost every project starts out as small and a remix of something else. Then you take it and build on it.