First, I want to extend my sympathy for you and your friends at Marjory Stoneman Douglas HS and Parkland. No one should have to go through something like that, let alone be thrown into the public spotlight and questioned and mocked by people who disagree with you. You are a brave, impressive dude.
That’s why I don’t think you need college.
A college degree is a signal. The thing is, this signal is not as valuable as you think. It’s a signal to the world of the value you can create in the market. It conveys information about your ability, skill, and intelligence. There is a lot of noise in the world of work, and it’s hard to figure out who’s worth working with. A degree cuts through some of that noise and puts you in a smaller pool of competitors.
College persists for the ambitious — and thus the self-reinforcing data about successful people having degrees — because of a religious-like belief in it’s necessity. But it’s not necessary at all.
Not long ago a degree may have been the best signal most people could get. There weren’t many ways to demonstrate your value to the market, so a degree was one of the better bets.
Things have changed dramatically. Technology has opened up the world. The tools available to you now have lowered search and information costs, and you can create signals of your own that are far more powerful than a degree. Now, a college degree is one of the weakest, least common denominator efforts to doing this and is easy to surpass.
You told Axios that you are thinking about taking a gap year. That is a great idea.
I encourage you to continue throwing yourself into activism, organizing, and speaking. Learn how big events are planned and operated behind the scenes. Learn what different kinds of messaging works best for certain audiences. Continue refining your speeches. Make personal connections. Build email lists, communities, and followings. All of this will help you gain the experience and skills that future employers will value. Don’t spend the next four years in a classroom, wasting the valuable opportunity you have now.
You have forward tilt. You have natural sales skills. You have organizing skills. You have some marketing experience. You know how to work in fast-paced environments. You have a drive and focus that most people your age will never come close to.
At Praxis, we work with hundreds of bright, ambitious young people and help them launch careers without degrees. They’re better than college. You are too!
Rereading The Story of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang.
Going to one of my favorite restaurants, Ssam Bar, and having duck ssam for lunch.
Going fly fishing with Amanda on the Delaware River and having dinner at Uncle Brother on our anniversary weekend.
A week of reading and travel between jobs.
Working with Sara Morrison, Brian Nuckols, and Derek Magill for a whirlwind three days in Atlanta to switch out marketing automation platforms.
Standing by my parentsâ fireplace this winter.
Visiting the Machovina Carlsons, keeping an old friendship alive, and learning about how a loom works.
Emailing Mr. Strohm, a teacher, former boss, and mentor, about books.
Carrying firewood with my Dad.
Making pizza from scratch with family.
Working on my patience, empathy, and humility.
Improving my javascript skills.
Discovering some sci-fi classics for the first time from James Hogan and Philip K. Dick.
More dates with Amanda.
Losing some weight at the beginning of the year and successfully keeping most it off all year.
Meeting so many awesome young people at Praxis Weekend 2017.
Building the Praxis curriculum portal.
Rewriting 90% of the Praxis bootcamp curriculum in my first 6 months.
Having Thanksgiving with some new friends: Bjorn and Pamela.
Preserving a lot of food that we grew or picked ourselves. Using your own ingredients adds a lot of character to the dish.
Fun summer and autumn hikes and picnics with Amanda.
Learning the ins and outs of both Hubspot and Salesforce from Sara Morrison.
Learning sales and marketing skills from Isaac Morehouse, Derek Magill, and Brian Nuckols.
Late night conversations with TK Coleman about technology and philosophy.
Taking primary responsibility for the Praxis bootcamp curriculum.
My Dad taking a new job at the Superintendent of Buildings and Grounds at the school district we both went to. He has my old email address from when I worked on the tech team there!
Buying an iPad Pro and working with it outdoors multiple days a week.
Meeting many of my Praxis coworkers in person for the first time in Atlanta.
Successfully completing the Whole 30 in February and staying primarily low carb after that.
Making conscious decisions about what high carb or high sugar items are worth consuming vs what isnât worth the sluggishness that follows. This Christmas, in particular.
Learning how to coach from TK Coleman.
Spending more time considering other peopleâs perspectives.
Watching Amandaâs professional growth at Convene.
Learning from brilliant people at the NYC D3.js meetups
Making an effort to discover new local places to eat and work. Amanda and I explored many small towns in the Hudson Valley on our Saturday work/play treks.
Visiting my aunt, uncle, cousins, and grandfather in north Georgia and exploring the Chattahoochee National Forest.
Making trips to celebrate family and friendsâ birthdays in Chicago and Ohio.
Writing Christmas cards for the first time.
Making a conscious effort to give more praise.
Making a conscious effort to own all of my mistakes, misjudgments, and miscalculations.
Learning to draw. More importantly, breaking the misconception that I couldnât ever learn to draw.
Writing weekly posts about how Iâm using my CSA vegetables led me to get creative about using uncommon vegetables. I heard more positive feedback about that series than all other Cook Like Chuck posts combined.
Noticing small details like how detailed and interesting sardine packaging is.
Upping my cocktail game with barrel aging.
Visiting the farm where our CSA vegetables came from and getting to know the farmer.
Getting more adventurous with my ingredients.
Taking more time to document my work, cooking, and learning.
Shooting some short videos of my Grandma and aunt talking about traditional family foods.
Getting off the beaten path for coffee and food in cities we visit for the first time.
Set up the automatic texting system with Salesforce, Zapier, and Zendesk to text people when they apply and when their application status changes.
Automating things at Praxis like deliverable notifications, check-ins, Bonjoro tasks, and curriculum tracking.
Ignoring 99% of the news in favor of books and podcasts.
Made the Praxis network map.
Made the Praxis Talent and Opportunities portals.
Listening to my favorite wind chimes on the back porch at my parentsâ house.
Chatting with Grandma in her Sun Room.
Talking through situations with coworkers where we had strong disagreement and quickly resolving them by explaining our reasoning. Everyone I work with is very reasonable, and I couldnât be happier about that.
Amanda and I coaching her brother through the career change and job finding process.
Figuring out how to thaw a frozen windshield washer fluid line during a road trip.
More deliberately taking advantage of inspiration when it strikes, but also not waiting for inspiration to make progress on work.
Cryptocurrency taking off in a massive way.
Coming together as a team to handle curveballs and setbacks, and subsequently growing from that.
Taking a stand against ad tracking by discontinuing use of Google Analytics, Disqus, and email open tracking. I also block trackers in my email clients and browsers.
Taking more time to notice the beauty of the Hudson River and the Palisades.
Watching the snow.
Learning to ask myself, âIs this a drop everything problem?â And setting appropriate priority from there.
Shifting my mindset from fulfilling contractual agreements to providing as much value as possible.
Starting the shift from being at the beginning of my career and jumping in on everything I can to saying no and prioritizing.
Making a dedicated effort to question my own assumptions and take note of when I fall prey to fallacies and illusions.
Hiring my first trainer to align incentives and get my physical fitness in order.
Realizing that instead of driving people toward a certain decision, it is best to lay out the costs and benefits as you see them, have a discussion about them, and have the person reach their own conclusion. Personal buy-in is key.
Deciding to go all-in on personal responsibility and rejecting political solutions and shifting responsibilities to others.
Starting breathing routines.
Using Exist.io to pull in and correlate my activity data and track my mood, and checking in with myself midday to ask, âwhat can I do to make today better?â
Realizing that how you approach problems mentally is more important than the mechanics solving them.
Learning about Claude Shannon.
Realizing that there is a strong connection between your physiological state and your mental state and making physiological changes accordingly.
Visiting Uncle Bernie before he passed away unexpectedly.
Stretching more.
Giving lots of gifts to friends and family.
Upgrading my camera from a 40D to a full frame 6D Mark II.
Finding a fantastic used 24-70mm f/2.8 L series lens.
Selling a bunch of stuff we werenât using on eBay.
Meeting a friend to eat our way around Flushing, Queens. Fantastic dumplings and an incredible tea tasting.
Touring FDRâs homestead, the Vanderbilt mansion, and Staatsburg.
Walking across the Walkway Over the Hudson in Poughkeepsie.
Going to see the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival for the 6th year in a row.
Yesterday I threw down a challenge to the Praxis community: 12 Days of Christmas Blogging. Blog every day from the 13th until Christmas. Flex that shipping muscle in the face of holiday obligations and time constraints. Stay on that grind when it is easy to let it slip.
Iâm playing with fire here because I have to ship, too. Like all good challenges, the blade has to cut both ways in order for it to be any fun.
This reminds me of my favorite Christmas story: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
The story opens with at King Arthurâs court where he and his men are exchanging gifts and getting ready to feast. A gigantic green figure atop a green horse rides into the court with an axe and a piece of holly. He challenges the court to âa Crystemas Gomanâ – someone can strike him with his axe and he will return the stroke in a year and a day. Sir Gawain rises to the challenge and promptly lops off the knightâs head with his own axe. Not missing a beat, the knight picks his head up off of the floor, reminds Sir Gawain that they have date at the Green Chapel in a year and a day, then rides off as abruptly as he arrived.
I wonât ruin the rest for you. Give it a read this Christmas! The story teems with vivid, meaningful descriptions, double meanings, alliteration, imagery, and symmetry. It is a wonderful read.
To mark the occasion of my own Crystemas Goman, here is a translation I did of my favorite passage. I used Casey Finchâs Complete Works of the Pearl Poet for the text and the Oxford English Dictionary for reference of word meanings.
âNay, on my word, I seek no fight; 279 There are about these benches but beardless children. If I were fastened in armor on a noble steed, There is no man here to match me, for their strength is weak. And so I ask in this court for a Christmas game, For it is Yule and the New Year, and here are many agile fellows. If any in this hall holds himself hardy enough, Be so bold in his blood, mad in his mind, That dare swiftly strike one stroke for another, And I shall give him as my gift this well-wrought guisarme, This axe, that is plenty heavy, to handle as he likes, And I shall endure the first blow as bare as I sit. 290
Details
Frayst: (verb) Ask, seek, try, or test. From Fraisten. (a) To seek or search for (something), esp., to seek adventure or combat, go in quest of; (b) to seek or indulge in (worldly things). – I chose âseekâ here because each definition had this in common and because âto seekâ is an attempt to find something, which captures the uncertainty of the Green Knight barging in to Arthurâs court, even if he were seeking a fight, because he must be uncertain he will find one. Unfortunately, this translation does not preserve the alliteration in the line (frayst, fyÈt, fayth) but I think using the sequence (to seek, fight, on my word) better preserves the meaning, albeit at the sacrifice of some beauty.
fyÈt: (verb) to fight, contend. From Fighten: to contend with weapons, engage in armed conflict (en masse or singly), do battle. Or, (noun) hostile engagement, fight, spiritual or moral struggle. – I think âfightâ works best here because just a few lines earlier in the poem uses a different word (batayl) which can mean battle or contend, so if the poet wanted to repeat that, he could have. He instead used âfyÈtâ (likely to alliterate). Also, âfightâ is more personal than âbattle.â Since the Green Knight came alone looking for trouble, he would be looking for a fight, not a battle (which implies large groups fighting.) Also, âcontendâ today means to struggle with something or engage in a competition, which could have been the case for the Green Knight, but I think âfightâ fits better with the other words in the line.
Finchâs translation throws in âhave I comeâ at the end of this line which does not appear in the ME. While that phrase seems to be implied in the ME, it is not stated, so it does not make a lot of sense to add it in to the translation. Finch seems to add a lot of unnecessary words in this translation.
fayth: (noun) belief, religion, word of honor. From Feith. A formal pledge, assurance, or promise. Also, âa confidenceâ in someone, so itâs both an outward motion and an inward stance. – I chose âon my wordâ here to reflect the tradition of and emphasis on oral oaths that knights had and to take into account the phrase âI þe telleâ at the end of the line. âOn my wordâ conveys the idea of a spoken pledge, which takes into account both âfaythâ and âtelle.â To give oneâs word is a verbal pledge that someone must take in faith.
telle: (verb) from Tellen. tell, speak, say, describe, express, utter, report – See explanation for âfaythâ above.
Hit: it, there, etc. – Paired with âarnâ it is appropriate to translate this as âthere areâ since the line is about all of the men (plural) on the benches.
Aboute: (adv) about, around, towards every side, in all directions, in every part of something, everywhere, throughout – About gives the idea that they are on and all around instead of just around the benches. Also, âaboutâ is a concise way to both alliterate with âareâ and to portray the idea that the only people the Green Knight sees on and all around the benches around the table are âberdlez chylder.â
Bot: but, only quite, except; Alternate definition: a parasite affecting the skin. – I chose âbutâ here as it seems the most likely translation for âbotâ and it alliterates with âbenchesâ and âbeardless.â I found it interesting, though, that âbotâ is also a skin parasite. It is possible, if this parasite was common, the Pearl poet could have a little laugh at the idea of beardless youth/puny men being parasites upon Arthurâs benches. I think it is unlikely that this is the first meaning of the line, but it is interesting nevertheless. âButâ better fits the idea that the only men around Arthurâs bench are âberdlez chylderâ and the Green Knight is poking fun at them.
Berdlez: (adj) Without a beard, beardless, not having reached manhood, underage. – âBeardlessâ is both alliterative and a concise way to call out Arthurâs men as being puny and not worthy to fight a real man like the Green Knight. Calling a man beardless is a pretty good jab at him. It implies – âYou must not be a man because you canât grow a beard.â This leads to the next word.
Chylder: (noun) youth, child, a youth of noble birth, esp. an aspirant to knighthood – The Green Knight does not actually mean there are children sitting around Arthurâs table. He is poking fun at the strength and size of the men. They are all likely around the Green Knightâs physical age, but he is saying he is stronger than they are and they are not worthy to be called men. Using âchildrenâ here is more of a jab in modern language at the men around the table than calling them âyouth.â Calling a losing football team âyouthsâ will get you yelled at. Calling them âchildrenâ will probably get you beat up. When the Green Knight says these first two lines, he is basically saying he is not seeking a fight because there are only little boys here, not men worthy enough to fight him.
Hasped: (verb) from Haspen: To fasten (a door) shut; to fasten (a helmet), buckle or lace; to wrap (oneself) in a garment; enclose (in armor, clothing); to embrace (someoneâs neck), clasp. – Taken together with âin armesâ I translated this as âfastened in armorâ because being wrapped or enclosed in armor does not make much sense. A warrior or knight fastens his armor in preparation for a fight to make sure it does not fall off.
Armes: arms, armor. Taken together with âhasped in armsâ would then mean to be fastened or buckled in oneâs armor. (See previous explanation.)
HeÈe: (adj) high, lofty, noble, excellent, tall, great. – ânobleâ – See explanation for âstedeâ below.
Stede: A splendid, noble, spirited horse; a riding horse, a steed; (b) a war horse, charger; – I preserved what this word becomes in modern language, âsteed.â Paired with the previous word, I translated this to ânoble steed.â The Green Knight is a big, powerful knight and thus should be paired with a large, noble steed on which to pursue glory. The word ânobleâ encompasses high, tall, and lofty in itself, so I think it appropriate.
Note: This line is somewhat factious because the Green Knight just charged into the room on his massive steed in his armor. The âwere Iâ is a conditional and a roundabout way to say that he can beat anyone in the room. Since he is in armor on his steed, he is saying that no one in the room is as powerful as he is. Also, a note on Finchâs translation: âon a heÈe stedeâ does not really match up to âwarlike on steed.â HeÈe refers to the steed, not the Green Knight. Finch takes a lot of liberty with this line.
Mach: (verb) from macchen: To be an adequate opponent for, equal; be equal to, to match. Or: To marry; to become familiar with; to be paired with, work for, serve. Or: To fight, oppose, attack; also, to attack and overcome. – I chose âto matchâ here, but with the different definitions it could go multiple ways. Referring back to a hypothetical fight, âto matchâ works well here because it can mean an opponent that the Green Knight is paired with or that there is literally no one in the court to match the Green Knightâs skill and strength. The word play is interesting here, though: the âwork for,â or âserveâ can mean that there is no one in the court that the Green Knight would even let work for or serve him. Basically, the idea I tried to capture is that there is no one in this court, by the Green Knightâs opinion, as great as he is.
MyÈtez: from myÈt: might, can, may, will. Or: physical energy, vitality, vigor; exhausted, unconscious; very vigorous; physical strength. – I chose âstrengthâ here because, paired with âso wayke,â âmayâ does not make sense and the idea of âfeeble physical energyâ is not very appealing. The idea that no one can match the Green Knight because their strength is so weak makes a lot more sense and fits in with the storyline. Also, see part of the explanation for âwayke.â The potential word play here is interesting, though, if âexhaustedâ or âunconsciousâ is taken to be the translation of myÈtez, because we get the line to mean something like: âThere is no man here to match me, for they will be exhausted because they are so weak.â It adds a little different meaning. I think âstrengthâ here fits better, though, because the Green Knight is continuing his jabs at them by calling their strength weak.
Wayke: (adj) Weak, feeble. Of combative strength: ineffectual; deficient in bodily or muscular strength – I picked âweakâ as it has the connotation of the rest of the possible definitions. âDeficient bodily or muscular strength simply means âweakâ in modern usage. (This also strengthens the case for using myÈtez to mean âstrength.â) Calling someoneâs strength weak in modern language has a little more of a sting to it than calling their strength feeble or ineffectual. See part of the explanation above.
Note: Finchâs translation of this previous line is intriguing, especially since he takes the last part to mean: âthough mighty and sure.â The mighty part works well, but nowhere did I find wayke to mean âsureâ – Finch in the back does not even translate it that way. In the back, it is translated similarly to above.
Forþy: (conj) For that, on that account, therefore, consequently, accordingly, and so. – I chose to translate forþy as âand so.â This one was somewhat difficult for me because I think the meaning of âthereforeâ might have changed from ME to modern english. When I think of âtherefore,â I think of something logically following from the previous statements. This does not: I am not here for a fight, therefore I am here for a game. âAnd soâ captures the idea that the Green Knight is not here for a fight, âand soâ he will reveal what he is actually here for. This is one spot where I really like Finchâs translation. Finch translates it as âNo! I come to this courtâ¦â This captures the idea that the Green knight is reaffirming that he is not there for a fight and he reveals what he, therefore, is there for. (Ha, couldnât resist.)
Craue: (verb) From craven: to ask or beg for. Or: To long for, desire. Or: (noun) neck; throat; crop of a bird or fowl, craw. – Given the context, I think the neck/crop of a bird meaning is right out. In this case, I think it is either to ask, beg, or desire. I translated it as âaskâ because it fits in with coming to the court to âseekâ something⦠ask and seek go hand in hand. There is potential word play here and it can go multiple directions. For example, if craue is taken as âbeg,â we get a very different situation with the Green Knight. Instead of the GK being in charge of the given situation, he is at the mercy of Arthur if he is begging. Also, if we take craue as âdesireâ we get another meaning (explained in gomen below.)
Crystemas: Christmas
Gomen: game, festivity, revelry; a pastime, amusement; or joy, happiness. – I chose âgameâhere for the mystery associated with âChristmas gameâ that gets the reader wondering what this game is. There is wordplay going on, however. Should we take gomen to mean festivity or revelry, we get a different meaning because Christmas festivities and revelries are exactly what is going on at the court. Of course, when we read ahead, we understand that he is looking for more than revelries, but a game which he will spell out. If we take gomen to mean joy, we get yet another meaning, especially if we choose craue to be desire and gomen to mean joy. In this case, the Green Knight would have came to the court desiring Christmas joy, which could be a number of things. Again, if we read ahead and find out what he is really looking for, the âChristmas joyâ must be a very strange notion of joy. I think game fits best.
Èol: Yule, the Christmas season generally, Yuletide or Christmastime; specif. the festival season from Christmas Eve to Epiphany
Nwe Èer: New Year
Èep: Physically agile, skilled at a physical activity, adroit; nimble, active, quick; vigorous, lively; also, youthful in appearance or manner Or: Mentally agile, sharp-witted, astute, clever; also, as noun: clever fellows; full of stratagems, wily; also, full of sleights, crafty, cunning – I chose âagileâ here to preserve the poetâs open-ended meaning. Agile can refer to either mentally or physically agile – we will only know when the Green Knight reveals the game. (When he does, we realize it is a sense of both.) For either mental or physical, agile covers the other possible ways of translating this word. There is also a word play going on here with relating the mental or physical agility of the men to the season. A new year is seen to be lively, vigorous, and agile. Also, strangely, the poet says in this line that there are agile or lively men in this court, right after he pokes fun at them for being âberdlez chylder.â I havenât quite figured out what to make of this except that he is possibly tempting them into his âgameâ with this statement.
Mony: many, many a one; Or money; Or moon. – I was unsure about this word because I could not find a clear definition of it. There are a number of words in the MED that looked like they could work, but none of them made sense in the context (like money or moon.) I just settled on many because that is what the reference in the back of Finch used and it works well with the the idea that there are many agile fellows in Arthurâs hall. I suppose the translation could be something like âand here is cunning moneyâ but I am not sure that fits in the poem.
Hardy: (adj) Physically tough, hardy, enduring, brave, bold; of actions, faith: requiring resolution or courage, firm, fierce; Or: Audacious, presumptuous, rash, foolhardy – I translated this as âhardyâ – the same as in ME, because it preserves the open-ended meaning of the word. The word play here is interesting⦠it could mean bold, tough, brave, or firm on one hand, or presumptious and rash on the other hand. Of course, these seemly different meanings go hand in handâpride is a double-edged sword.
Hous: (noun) house, building, hall, etc. Or a covering for the back and flanks of a horse, horsecloth; also, a saddle cloth; a protective covering, case, sheath; – I translated this as âhallâ since these scene takes place in Arthurâs hall. Also, I wanted to preserve alliteration here: (hall holds himself hardy.) Another possible meaning emerges if we takes this as either a protective covering or a saddle cloth: the Green Knight could be poking fun at the men that act bold when protected from blows by armor or when they sit high on a horse, but would get defeated easily.
Holdez: holds, claims, thinks, views. – I chose âholdsâ for holdez in order to preserve the alliteration in this line. Changing from holds to claims, thinks, or views has a slight change in meaning, but nothing of depth. Since these have close to the same meaning in the context of the line, I chose the one that alliterates the best to preserve the alliteration from the ME.
Hymseluen: himself
Bolde: bold, valiant, daring. Of persons: brave, courageous, daring, fearless. Or: overconfident, forward, rash; brazen, presumptuous, shameless, impudent; – I chose âboldâ here because bold has multiple meanings in modern language, just as it does in ME. Again, there is good word play here with the line between boldness and overconfidence.
Blod: blood, emotion, anger, passion, (sexual) desire; courage, mettle, spirit; temperament, nature; Or: A living being, a creature, a person. – I chose âbloodâ here for two reasons: alliteration with bold and one of its modern meanings: temperament or disposition. We can choose any of these words and get the line to mean something slightly different, but having a bold temperament pretty much covers most of these. The poet could be pulling in a critique of knights under the rug if he had in mind that bolde in blod could mean bold or shameless in sexual desire.
Note: It is important to keep in mind that tweaking any of the words in a line could give the line a different meaning every time. Since each of these words in ME has multiple meanings, the meaning of each line (not to mention how each line interacts with each other line) starts to cover a wide range very quickly.
Brayn: (adj) mad, reckless, insane. (noun) brain (body part) – This has two different meanings depending on if we use it as an adjective or a noun. If a noun, then we get the end of the line to be: âbrain in his headâ-which is a fact, but not very insightful. We all have brains in our heads. If we take it as an adjective, however, we get âmad in his head,â which points to insanity. I chose to treat it as an adjective and translate it as âmad in his mindâ in order to preserve the alliteration of the line (though as Ms instead of Hs) and so that it adequately reflects the beginning of the line. (boldness and insanity can be different sides of the same coin.)
Hede: head, the seat of the mind; the mind; heart and mind; headstrong rashness; impetuously, rashly, unadvisedly. – I chose âmindâ here in order to create some alliteration and to help convey the idea of insanity. Given the other possible meanings of âhede,â I think this is justified. (headstrong rashness; impetuously, rashly, unadvisedly)
Dar: (verb) dare, to have the courage to, to be able to, or shrink, cower, bow down, submit. – I chose âdareâ here to portray the idea that someone might be mad enough to have the courage (read: dare) to take the Green Knight up on his offer. The interesting possible word play here is that instead of dare, one might be mad enough to âbow down,â âshrink,â or âsubmitâ to the Green Knightâs game. This could be pointing back to the beginning of the Green Knightâs monologue where he makes fun of the men for being weak. He could be suggesting that if they give in to his game they are weak in yet another way and can be easily manipulated.
Note: What is intriguing here is that the one who is âmad in his mindâ and âdaresâ to take the Green Knight up (or is manipulated by him) initially is only King Arthurâ¦
Stifly: Staunchly, steadfastly; unwaveringly; without ceasing, persistently; also, refractorily, stubbornly; boldly, swiftly, valiantly, courageously; also, proudly; also, loyally. – I chose âswiftlyâ here for alliterative purposes and to portray the motion of swinging a large axe through words. Also, it gives the connotation of someone stepping up without hesitation to exchange one blow for another (because stifly has more than one meaning in this situation and I tried to preserve that.)
Strok: (noun) A stroke, a blow delivered with a weapon; a slash, cut; a thrust or stab – I chose âstrokeâ here because a stroke is just one swing, which preserves the rules of the Green Knightâs gameâone stroke for another.
Anoþer: another, a second. – Though there is not much here, I think choosing âanotherâ over âa secondâ needs an explanation. One strike for another gives conveys the idea of that âanotherâ being a reciprocal strike rather than a second strike from the hand that struck first. Though âa secondâ would have added to the alliteration, I donât think the meaning was clear enough to warrant using it.
Schal: (verb) shall, will, must. – I chose âshallâ here because the meaning of shall in modern language expresses a strong assertion. The Green Knight is giving his word (back again to the importance of oaths) and will not break it. This is a theme in the rest of the poem.
Giserne: A long-shafted battle ax or halberd with a knife-like point rising from the blade â or the gizzard of a fowl; the liver of a fowl or a hare; the entrails of a fowl. – I chose guisarme here because that is the modern word for the weapon the Green Knight had and gives the reader a definite idea of what it is. If giserne did, in fact, also mean the entrails of a fowl, then this line has comical undertonesâthe Green Knight giving one of Arthurâs men gizzards as a gift. It is almost certain the GK meant his axe, but the potential double meaning is comical.
Ryche: (adj) rich, splendid, ornate, fine, noble, costly, precious, well-wrought, well-made. – I chose âwell-wroughtâ here because it assumes and subsumes the other adjectives I found for ryche.
Innogh: (adj or adv) enough, plentiful, generous, abundant, great, very. – I chose âplentyâ here because not only is the Green Knight expressing the weight of the axe, but he is making another statement here as well. Earlier he said it is ânobleâ or âwell-wrought.â The weight of it could be a sign of its authenticity. âPlentyâ is the Green Knightâs way of assuring the men that it is indeed well-wrought and its weight alone might be sufficient to display that.
Hondele: (noun) A handle of a container, implement, etc.; a grip or hilt of a sword.
Lykes: likes, pleases, wishes, chooses, approves
Schal: (verb) shall, will, must. – Again, I chose âshallâ here because the meaning of shall in modern language expresses a strong assertion. The Green Knight is sure he will endure the blow and he is making a promise to his hosts that this is the case.
Bide: (verb) remain, wait, stay, endure; from Biden: to experience or undergo (sth.); to suffer or bear (hardship, etc.); to enjoy – I chose âendureâ here to express the idea that not only will the Green Knight take the blow, but he will patiently take it, he will not be harmed by it, and he will wait a while year before he retaliates (as we find out a few lines later.) To change âendureâ to suffer or bear would be to irretrievably lose some of this meaning.
Bur: (noun) from burre: onslaught, blow, force, or strike. – I chose âblowâ for alliterative purposes.
Bare: (adj) bare, naked, without armor, unprotected, or open. Also, unadorned, unornamented; simple, plain, crude, laid waste, destitute, or poor. – I chose to keep this as âbareâ because it portrays the idea that the Green Knight is not going to have extra protection, pull any tricks, or try to defend himself. Bare can mean without armor and unprotected, but also open, which helps the idea that he will not protect himself. He will be under the axe just as Arthurâs men see him.
I try to take time every day to read. Here is how I go about reading and taking notes on different mediums.
Physical books
Underline and take bullet point notes as I go through
Revisit my underlines and bullet points a few days after finishing the book to write the takeaways in my own words. I sometimes publish these at http://www.cagrimmett.com/book-notes/
eBooks
Highlight and take bullet point notes as I read.
Revisit my underlines and bullet points a few days after finishing the book to write the takeaways in my own words.
I listen on 1.25–1.5x speed. Most audiobooks are just too slow for me. I wish the Audible app had Overcast’s Smart Speed feature built in to reduce pauses.
Every 30 minutes or so I pause my listening and jot down a list of notes from the last listening session. I listen to audiobooks a lot while I’m driving, so on long trips I tend to pull over at rest areas for a few minutes to take notes. If I’m out on a walk, I just wait until I get back home.
Online Articles
I consume and immediately move on from most articles I casually read.
If I found the article because I’m doing research, I usually take what I’ve learned and use it immediately. I then bookmark the article for later reference.
I rarely take notes on articles. Sometimes I’ll edit the bookmark description on Raindrop.io, but that is usually the extent of it.
The exception when I do take notes is when I learn something really useful from the article. Those notes tend to get appended to a long-running topical document with a link that I can refer to later. Examples: Marketing, project management, investing, health, etc. It is useful to keep long-running documents with things you’ve learned that you can turn to when you are having trouble.
The moment you consider a possibility, you are responsible for it. You can choose whether or not you do something about that possibility, but you must own that decision.
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.
Creating is awesome. Creating consistently is even better. Here are some strategies for being consistent in your creative endeavors.
I’ve spent the last month blogging every day, but this isn’t the first time I’ve regularly put stuff out online. I posted every single day in 2010 and I’ve averaged a post a week since 2011.
Here are some strategies I use to create content consistently. This applies to writing, painting, podcasting, and other creative endeavors.
Harness Inspiration
When you have an idea, stop and get it down. If you have move things around enough to write the full post, that is great. If not, spend 5 minutes making an outline that you can flesh out later.
Amanda and I have made this a regular part of our lives. It is not uncommon for us to pause our conversation in the middle of dinner to get down bullet points that we can return to later.
Don’t Wait for Perfection
Getting over your fear of shipping is necessary to producing content consistently.
I don’t have a lot of advice here other than:
The more you do it, the easier it is.
Not everything needs to be groundbreaking. People are encountering something new for the first time every single day. I bet you have many things you can introduce people to.
Ignore other people. Constructive feedback is one thing, but if it isn’t coming from people who also consistently produce content, ignore it and move on. In the words of Phife Dawg in Scenario:
Bo knows this (what?) and Bo knows that (what?) But Bo don’t know jack, cause Bo can’t rap
I reread The War of Art or Turning Pro, both by Steven Pressfield, at least once a year to get back on track with shipping.
Remove Barriers
When you are tired and don’t want to produce, any barrier can be turned into an excuse to wait until the next day. Remove as many barriers as you can.
If you write on Medium or WordPress, download the mobile apps and post directly from your phone.
If you are a drawer or designer, carry your sketchbook around with you.
If you paint, carry a mini watercolor set with you.
If you podcast, record voice memos to while you walk or drive that can be spliced into usable segments.
If you are a web developer, use Keyboard Maestro or Text Expander to automate launching your entire development environment.
Take every piece of your creative process and remove as much friction as possible. Creation shouldn’t be something that only happens when the stars align. The easier you make it to get to work, the more work you’ll get done.
Take Cues from Daily Life
Everything you do in your daily life presents you with a chance to create. Writing is the most obvious because you can write about situations, problems, and things you’ve learned. You can also apply this to other forms of creation:
Both Amanda and I write about problems we solve at work.
I spend a part of every work day solving tech problems, so I generalize the specific issues and write tech tutorials that others can use.
I take photos whenever I cook anything new, so if it turns out really well I have visuals that I can turn into a full post on Cook Like Chuck.
I take photos of what I eat out and write down tasting notes so that I can use those flavors in my own cooking.
If you are a visual artist, take lots of photos of things that inspire you throughout the day and make a point to revisit them each time you sit down to work.
If you are a podcaster, take 5 minutes out of every hour to make voice memos about what you are thinking about.
If you build houses, keep architecture notes and take photos of things that inspire you. Go through them before you start drafting your next project.
Keep Lists
Whenever I have an idea for a post but can’t write it immediately, I put it in my Blog ideas Trello board. I have a list for each blog I can post to. If I have an outline, I put it in the comments.
I bet visual artists, podcasters, journalists, and creators of all types could do the same thing with their craft.
Play the Long Game
Playing the long game can mean two things:
Doing small things consistently build up into a large body of work over time. I started posting my reading notes back in November and have already built up 15 entries.
Notes and photos taken today can be combined and used any time in the future. If you get in the habit of building things up over time, you will set future you up for success.
Here are some cases where I’ve played the long game on Cook Like Chuck:
I took notes and photos of my kombucha experiments over the course of a year and turned it into a long post at the end of the year.
I took photos of every weekend breakfast I made for a few months, then noticed a trend and wrote a recipe for Breakfast Bowls.
I took progression photos of pear brandy aging for two months and it made a nice gallery.
I collected my favorite cocktail recipes for a few years and turned them into an online cocktail library.
I also love creating personal cheatsheets. Every time you have to look something up, explain it in your own words and add it to a note or document. You can publish these over time. Here are a few I’ve made:
Twice a day the waters of the Atlantic rise higher than the levels of the Hudson. At high tide, salt water pushes up the Hudson, raising the water levels. When the tide goes back out, the Hudson switches back to its normal flow direction back out to sea.
The salinity levels vary by location and time of year. In the spring, the fresh water line is around Yonkers. At the end of summer, the river is salty all the way up to Newburgh.
2. The Hudson has lots of blue crab
Maryland isnât the only place that has blue crab. Commercial and recreational fisheries up and down the Hudson catch blue crab from June through October.
They migrate up the river in the summer to feed as the salt line moves further north, then they migrate back into saltier waters by the bay in the winter.
I regularly see blue crab around marshes at low tide in Yonkers in the summer.
3. Tappan Zee Bridge is at the riverâs second widest point in order to keep toll revenue going to New York State
The Tappan Zee Bridge, which goes from Rockland County to Westchester County near Tarrytown, is at the Hudsonâs second-widest point, even though the river gets much narrower closer to NYC.
The reason that the location neat Tarrytown was chosen was because it is just outside of Port Authorityâs 25 mile jurisdiction. That means toll revenue would go to New York State, not Port Authority.
4. The Union used The Palisades for Target Practice during the Civil War
When the Union Navy build the ironclad USS Passaic, they needed a safe place to test its cannons. They picked the New Jersey Palisades. On November 15, 1862, the crew sailed the ironclad up the Hudson and pointed its cannons at the rock cliffs. As James M. Madden writesArchived Link,
It misfired several times, to the amuse- ment of those officers aboard who had predicted that the shipâs turret design would interfere with effective gunnery. And then, on the fourth attempt, the Dahlgren fired. That first round splintered the rock wall and produced a massive echo that witnesses likened to the explosion of a powder mill. Despite the noise, the navy was satisfied, as there was no concussion or smoke inside the shipâs gun turret, despite dire predictions from critics. Three more shots produced as many more echoes and showers of shattered rock. An Irishman aboard, awed by the destructive demonstration, declared the Passaic a âfloating divil.â
5. Oysters are coming back
Oyster beds once stretched from the mouth of the Hudson all the way up to Tarrytown. Due to pollution and overfishing, theyâve been almost absent for the last few decades.
Good news: The river is cleaner now than it has been in decades and at super low tides, you can see evidence of oyster beds making a comeback.
We all understand the importance of setting deadlines at work. Everything revolves around intentionally set deadlines and there are consequences if they aren’t met. Deadlines are a useful tool at work to keep progress moving forward. If there were no deadlines and no consequences for missing them, how many projects would realistically get done?
Apply the same thinking above to your personal life: If you don’t intentionally work at improving yourself, how can you expect that improvement to happen?
PDPs
At Praxis, our favorite self-improvement tool is the PDP: A self-chosen 30-day challenge with tangible benchmarks and outcomes. The best PDPs involve doing something tangible every single day for 30 days. These daily deadlines, if taken seriously, produce results.
Here are my PDPs so far for this year:
January: Circadian rhythm fasting. Fast for 13–16 hours starting after dinner each day. Try to have dinner as close to sundown as possible. Outcomes: Lost 7lbs, Easier to wake up early.
February: Continue fasting and complete a Whole 30 — eating only real fruits, veggies, and meats for 30 days straight. No sugar, dairy, grains, additives, or desserts. Outcomes: Lost 9lbs more, down a jean size, more energy.
March: Read for at least an hour every day. Outcomes: Finished one new book each week.
April: Writing a valuable blog post every single day, either on cooklikechuck.com, cagrimmett.com, Medium, or the Praxis blog. Outcomes: 26 new blog posts and counting, higher website traffic.
May (planned): Build and launch LeonardRead.org. Do one thing each day to digitize, OCR, edit, publish, and market Leonard E. Read’s journals and writings.
You don’t necessarily commit to doing something every day for 30 days. I like doing it because it leaves no room for excuses. That said, it isn’t for everyone. Some people work better with weekly goals so they can dedicate their weekends to it. Others like to dedicate one morning or evening each week to self-improvement projects.
No matter which path you choose, remember these two keys to self-improvement:
Challenge yourself. Push the limits of your abilities and force yourself to learn.
The deadlines need to be clearly defined, not nebulous.
Never let yourself skip. Sometimes this is brutal. Yesterday this meant I worked from 8am to midnight with a break for dinner. Saying, “I don’t have time” actually means, “It isn’t a priority for me.” If you don’t give yourself room to use that excuse, you won’t make it.
On Missing a Deadline
Like any good manager, don’t fire yourself when you miss a deadline. Make sure you are falling forward, identifying why you missed the deadline, and put systems in place to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
Maybe you are the sort of person who finds it hard to motivate yourself to take on such goals. If that’s the case, taking a flexible approach might be best for you.
I don’t think that flexible goals are good for anyone. They signal that:
You don’t take your goals seriously enough to put systems in place to overcome your fear and follow through on them.
You are unwilling to commit.
We are capable of more than we give ourselves credit for. Set rigid goals and give yourself the chance to rise to meet them. That is what growth is about.
We don’t get ahead by being easy on ourselves. We don’t get ahead by going through the motions. We get ahead by intentionally working on things that improve our skills and abilities.
Set clearly defined personal deadlines and hold yourself accountable for meeting them.
Two weeks ago I had a problem I wanted to solve with Zapier: Only running a particular Zapier action during business hours and delaying everything that happens outside of business hours until the next day.
I tried multiple approaches to make this happen, but each one fell short:
Filtering up front for business hours meant that everything outside of business hours stopped due to Zapier’s Continue Only If filter.
Only checking that the time was before 5pm meant that zaps could go through at 2am.
Only checking that the time was after 8am meant that zaps could go through at 11pm.
Zapier is really great at handling linear workflows (if X happens, then do Y), but it isn’t really set up to handle nested workflows (if A, then 1, else if B, then 2, else if C, then 3). In order to correctly handle only running zaps during business hours, individual zaps would need to have nested logic. This is unlikely to happen on Zapier any time soon, so I thought I was out of luck.
After thinking about it for a few days, it hit me: Why not use two different zaps simultaneously? As long as the zaps are configured in a way that one always works and the other one always gets filtered so they never conflict and duplicate actions, it can work! Yes, this doubles your zap usage, but it is a great way to get around not having nested logic in individual zaps.
By combining the Date/Time formatter, Only continue if… filter, and the Delay Until action with different settings in two different zaps, I achieved what I wanted.
Here is a sketch of the solution I’m using:
Zap 1: Handling actions between 00:00 and 17:00
After the trigger (a form submission), I immediately set up three actions:
Zapier Formatter’s Date and Time Formatter to get the time the zap triggered and transform it to a usable format in my time zone.
2. Zapier’s Only Continue If filter to check the time of the previous step and only allow it to continue if the time is before 17:00. Anything that happens after 17:00 gets to this point in the zap and stops.
3. Zapier’s Delay Until action to delay actions until 08:00.
The way that the Delay Until action works is that if the time is before your specified time, the action will be delayed until the time you specified. If the current time is after the time you specified, the action will continue immediately. Understanding this ended up being the key to this workflow design.
Everything else I want to occur during business hours comes after this step in the zap.
Zap 2: Handling actions between 17:00 and 23:59
For 17:00 through 23:59, I use the same three actions and filters, but with different settings.
Zapier Formatter’s Date and Time Formatter to get the time the zap triggered and transform it to a usable format in my current time zone.
Zapier’s Only Continue If filter to check the time of the previous step and only allow it to continue if the time is after 17:00. Anything that happens before 17:00 gets to this point in the zap and stops.
3. Zapier’s Delay Until action to delay all further actions until 08:00 the following day.
Here’s how it works
Both zaps get triggered from the same form submission. The way we’ve set them up, one of the two zaps will always run and the other will always get filtered out by the “Only continue if…” step. Our cutoff point is 17:00. Whatever happens before 17:00 gets handled by Zap 1 and Zap 2 gets filtered. Whatever happens after 17:00 gets handled by Zap 2 and Zap 1 gets filtered.
Examples:
Form submission at 3:21am: Zap 1 kicks in and delays the action until 8am. Zap 2 gets filtered and does not run.
Form submission at 8:41am: Zap 1 runs immediately because it is before 17:00, but after 8am, the Delay Until time. Zap 2 gets filtered and does not run.
Form submission at 2:15pm: Zap 1 runs immediately because it is before 17:00, but after 8am, the Delay Until time. Zap 2 gets filtered and does not run.
Form submission at 6:08pm: Zap 1 gets filtered and does not run. Zap 2 kicks in and delays the action until 8am the next day.
Form submission at 11:52pm: Zap 1 gets filtered and does not run. Zap 2 kicks in and delays the action until 8am the next day.
Form submission at 12:02am: Since it is now a new calendar day, Zap 1 kicks in again and delays the action until 8am. Zap 2 gets filtered and does not run.
“Send a thank you note” is one of those pieces of common wisdom we always hear, yet an astonishingly low number of people actually do it.
Let me give a recent example of how a thank you note (even a digital one!) can shape someone’s view of you.
A Tale of Two Groups
Over the past few weeks I emailed the same message to two different groups.
Group A is generally earlier on in their careers. Group B is generally more established in their careers. The email content, open rates, and link clicks were the same, but what stuck out to me was how differently the two groups acted after logging in. Only 2.4% of group A sent me a note afterward, whereas 55.5% of group B sent me a note afterward.
Building Social Capital
The majority of group A read and archived the email. The majority of group B took the interaction as an opportunity to build some social capital.
I didnt expect a reply and I don’t think less of those who didn’t reply. I don’t want to be presumptuous and think I’m important enough to warrant a reply. Heck, there are dozens of emails I just read and archive without responding to every single day.
That said, those who did reply gained some social capital with me. They stick out because they did something very few others took the time to do: Send me a nice note. With a 30 second email, they changed the way I think about them. I haven’t met any of them in person and I don’t interact with them on a daily basis, but I’m willing to go out of my way for those who did actually reply the next time they need help with something.
There is a strong correlation between those who replied and career success (even early in their careers). They know that consistently doing little things to build social capital makes asks and connections easier in the future. Most in group B (and a few in group A) have learned this lesson and made doing little things like this part of their standard operating procedure.
Even though sending a thank you note is common wisdom, few people go through the trouble of actually doing it. With Praxis, I work with a lot of bright young people. Most, even the ones who excel, never send a thank you note. The minority who do stand out.
What opportunities are you missing because you didn’t take 30 seconds to say thanks?
A big thanks to Isaac Morehouse for regularly encouraging me to follow this principle and for his notes and suggestions on an early draft of this post.
In a single day I might get asked about technology recommendations, programming syntax, software integrations, business processes, locating files, and how to set up WordPress. I don’t mind answering these questions, and I try to do so quickly and politely.
Here’s the kicker: At least 80% of these questions can be answered with a simple web search. There already dozens of tutorials, Stack Overflow threads, Quora answers, blog posts, FAQs, and documentation sections covering these topics that can be reached in a few clicks. Most of the time the person asking has not made any attempt to answer the question themselves. I consider these stupid questions.
Back in 9th grade, I asked Mrs. Dispenza a history question while I was doing my homework. She politely asked, “Where have you already looked to find that answer?” I sheepishly admitted that I hadn’t looked anywhere. What she said next has stuck with me ever since:
“You should never ask someone else a question without first attempting to answer it on your own.”
Of course there are exceptions to this. Someone assisting a surgeon in the middle of a surgery shouldn’t stop to research the best way to stop bleeding, he should just ask the surgeon. Sometimes asking a veteran staff member the best process for doing something is better than spending an hour figuring it out through trial and error. There are costs and benefits to every decision. Make sure the comparison lands on the “benefits” side of that scale if you are using someone else’s time and energy.
Do This Before Asking a Question
Before you ask someone a question in the future, follow this mental checklist to make sure it isn’t a stupid question:
Is the answer this question worth taking someone else’s time and energy for? Will I waste social capital by asking this question?
Did I make a good faith attempt to answer this question myself?
Did I demonstrate to the person I’m asking that I tried to answer the question myself and try to pinpoint the source my confusion?
Instead of asking for a solution to this specific problem, can I ask to be pointed to a resource so I can solve it myself? (Documentation, a specific book, a website)
How to Answer Stupid Questions
Answer politely and quickly
If your first instinct is to tell someone they should have looked the question up before asking you, The Dude has a message for you:
Always answer the question politely and quickly. Be nice and be helpful. Don’t be an asshole.
A crisis is not a time to teach a lesson.
Tensions run high when money and reputations are on the line, so clear thinking is rare during a crisis. When there is a crisis unfolding and someone asks you for help, step in, stay calm, and fix the problem. Don’t waste time teaching people how to research and solve issues on their own–you’ll only frustrate yourself and everyone else.
Follow up afterward with an after action report for the person or team. Detail what happened, what caused it, what the solution was, and what can be done to prevent this issue in the future. Also suggest some resources the person or team can study before the next crisis hits so that they will be better equipped to respond. This report should be added to your documentation or knowledge base. It will likely help everyone in the future.
Follow up with resources that person can use to dive deeper
After answering the question, pass along a book, article, video, or a guide where the questioner can learn more and refer to later.
If the same person asks the same question again in the future, consider responding, “Hey, I remember that we talked about this last week. Did you check out the blog post I sent you? Here is that link again: http://example.com/blog-post/”
Sometimes a dialogue is the best approach
Sometimes dialoguing leads people to answer their own question and sometimes it helps me figure out the source of their misunderstanding. I like to ask,
“Where have you looked?”
“What have you tried?”
“What do you think the best solution is?”
Do you need better documentation?
If you keep getting the same questions over and over, your company or your project might need better documentation. This can come in many forms: Training materials, FAQs, instruction manuals, user guides, standard operating procedures, a wiki, etc.
If you have documentation, keep it up to date and make sure that all staff are kept up to date on additions and changes. Everyone needs to know it exists and referring to it needs to become part of the culture. If you don’t have documentation, make it a priority to write some! Documentation is everyone’s responsibility, not just HR’s.
On January 5, I started using Exist.io to rate each day from 1–5 and jot down a few notes about the day. The scale is pretty simple:
1: Terrible
2: Bad
3: Okay
4: Good
5: Perfect
At the end of the month I looked back at the data I collected and I was a little bummed to see that there were so many 2 (brownish) and 3 (yellowish android green) days.
I’ve always heard that your mood depends a lot on how you choose to interpret and react to situations. This means that we have a profound influence over moods, so I decided to take action and see how I can improve my mood ratings.
Starting February 1, I took a moment to pause each afternoon and ask myself two questions:
1. What is today’s mood rating so far?
2. What can I do to increase or maintain that rating?
Any time I found myself saying that today would be a 2 or a 3, I resolved to do whatever I could for the rest of the day to increase that rating to a 3 or a 4. If I thought today was a 4 or a 5, I resolved to spend the rest of the day doing things that would maintain that rating.
Data scientists typically don’t like it when active viewers influence the outcome of their collected data, but this isn’t science. The goal here is to be happier, so intentionally influencing your mood data for the better is a good thing.
The Results
Over the next two and a half months, these two questions have eliminated the #2 (bad) days, decreased the #3 (okay) days, and increased the #4 (good) and #5 (perfect) days.
Yes, there are still 3s on this chart. February in particular was a frustrating month. But every single one of those 3s were brought up from a would-be 2 that I intercepted with my mid-afternoon check-ins. This made February so much better than it would have been.
How you can implement an Afternoon Check-in
Subscribe to Exist.io or use your current favorite journaling/tracking system to rate you mood from 1–5 every day. You can even use a calendar for this. Something with the ability to see the overall trend is helpful.
Set a reminder on your phone or a calendar alert for 3:30pm every day. When it goes off, as yourself these questions: What is today’s mood rating so far? and What can I do to increase or maintain that rating?
When you encounter anything lower than a 4, write down three things you can do to improve that rating by the time you go to bed. When you encounter a 4 or 5, write down three things you can do to maintain that rating by the time you go to bed. The goal is to make a bad day better or to continue having a good day.
Right before you go to bed, write down the final rating for the day and write down a few notes about the day.
Review your ratings once every two weeks. If you aren’t seeing an overall mood improvement, it might be time to reassess and take a look at the underlying causes of stress, anxiety, and frustration in your life. Then make removing those things the focus of your afternoon check-in.
Remember that you are in the driver’s seat of your own mood, not the passenger’s seat. Take the wheel.
We’ve all been there: It is 4:30pm, our energy is low, we have at least four hours of work left to do, and we feel like giving up and taking a nap.
In that moment, we must make a critical decision: Do we keep going and get our work done or throw in the towel, knowing we will pay the price later?
If it were five hours earlier, the work would be no problem. A fresher, more energetic version of ourselves earlier in the day had what it took to knock this stuff out. The trick is to get back into that earlier state of mind.
Here is what I do to hit reset and keep going:
Change the body, change the mind
“The difference between peak performance and poor performance is not intelligence or ability; most often it’s the state that your mind and body is in.” — Tony Robbins
One of the things Tony Robbins talks about is the connection between your body and your mind. Your physical state has a huge impact on your mental state.
When your mind is feeling in a slump, your posture is likely slumped over, too. Your breathing is probably shallow. If you change these two things, your mindset will shift, too.
Here is the physiological checklist I go down when I’m feeling sluggish:
How is my posture? Stand up straight, move from the chair to the standing desk.
Do I need to roll my back? If my posture has been off for a few hours, I like to get out my foam roller and arch my back for 90 seconds and then roll it out for another 90 seconds.
How is my breathing? Am I breathing deeply enough? Do I need to do 2–3 minutes of box breathing? Try breathing in sync with this gif. Breath in, hold, breath out, hold, repeat.
Do I need to stretch? Try doing 30 seconds each of your favorite stretches.
Do I need to get my blood pumping? Try running some stairs, swinging a kettlebell, doing some burpees, or doing some old-fashioned jumping jacks.
Do I need to rehydrate? I’m terrible about drinking enough water. Sometimes I’m just dehydrated and need to drink a glass of water.
Do I need to do a power up? After reading Super Betterby Jane McGonigal, I was sold on power ups: Little things that are easy to do and make you feel better. Mine are 1) Stretching my arms to the sky for ten seconds (physical) and 2) Watering and the house plants (emotional).
Do I need to take a cold shower? A cold shower will radically shift your state of mind. At the end of a normal shower, I like to turn the temperature as low as it will go and stand there for two minutes. It gets me ready to start the day. It will also pull you out of the fog of malaise.
Get a change of scenery
Sometimes working at the same desk all day just doesn’t work well for me. Being in a physically different place helps.
Try moving from your desk to a conference table. Or, if you are like me and both live and work in a small one-bedroom apartment, switch to your kitchen table instead of your desk.
Go work from a coffee shop. Getting out will be nice and and extra caffeine boost won’t hurt, either. I don’t have any good coffee shops within walking distance of me, so when I can’t take the time to drive to one, I go work from the local brewery. I have the wifi password and I order the lowest ABV % beer on the menu and nurse it. Always leave the bartender a hefty tip since you are taking up a seat.
Sometimes a break is necessary. Just make sure the break is helping you reset instead of just prolonging the struggle.
Go for a walk. Sometimes a break is necessary. Just make sure the break is helping you reset instead of just prolonging the struggle. Going for a walk is more likely to get you in a better frame of mind than watching Netflix and surfing Facebook. While you walk, breathe in fresh air, take in some different sights and sounds, get your blood pumping, and let your struggles go for 15–30 minutes. You’ll come back ready to work.
Remove distractions
Our lizard brains love to be distracted by anything and everything. Removing them and making them harder to reach will lower the barriers to focus.
Put your cell phone out of reach. Mine sits on a table out of my normal reach while I’m working so that I don’t mindlessly surf Instagram all day.
Install a social media and news site blocker. I use WasteNoTime in Safari and Chrome.
Close email, Slack, and Skype. Keeping in touch is great, but sometimes you need to disconnect to get real work done.
Get into work mode
Think back to the last five times you’ve had to buckle down and get some work done? Is there something you do that signals “it’s time to work”?
For me it is putting my headphones on and turning on Beaucoup Fish by Underworld. I only listen to this album when I’m working. I’ve done the same thing f0r the last 15 years. It has a Pavlovian effect on me now.
Make a plan
Now that your body is good to go, you’ve gotten a change of scenery, you’ve removed your distractions, and you’ve put yourself in work mode, it is time to make a plan to dig yourself out of this hole.
Pare your task list down to essentials. If you don’t have a task list, make one. Your tasks will seem must more doable once they are on paper and not just lurking around like monsters in your head. If you do have a task list already, put things into two categories: What absolutely needs to get done today? and What can actually be done later? Sometimes we think things must get done today, but in reality there will be no consequences if they are pushed to the next day. Figure out what must be done today so you can focus on that.
Figure out the best order to accomplish these items in. I’m a big fan of eating the frog (doing the most important and difficult thing first), but sometimes things need to be done in a specific order.
Build momentum
Take the first step, then the second, then the third. The whole journey is composed of simple steps.
Once your list is made, take the first step to completing the first item. Then the second step. Then the third. Then the fourth.
Once the first item is completed, don’t take a break to check your email. Keep your momentum rolling and take the first step on your second item. Then the second step. Then the third.
Once a ball is rolling, it doesn’t stop easily. You’ve got this.
Coda by Panic is my IDE of choice. IâÂÂve been using it since it first launched and I stuck through the major 2.0 (and subsequently 2.5) release. It has highlighting, remote editing and publishing, previewing, SQL connectors, Terminal, regex search, and git support built in. Tons of third party add-ons available. IâÂÂve written AppleScripts for it and know most commands by heart, so IâÂÂm unlikely to jump ship any time soon.
TextWrangler is the text editor I launch if I just need to take a peek at something or quickly clean up some formatting. It is built on the BareBones engine and is ancient, but awesome.
Virtual Box + Vagrant + Homestead
I primarily develop on virtual machines to keep my environments separate. I use Virtual Box to run the VMs, Vagrant to manage them, and Laravel Homestead as my base development environment.
Most of my various WordPress sites are hosted on A Small Orange. On ASO, go with the Small version, not the Tiny version.
PraxisâÂÂs high-volume WordPress sites are hosted at WPengine.
Hover and Cloudflare
I use Hover for buying and managing domain names and most DNS management. I use Cloudflare for DNS management on domains that I need SSL on because I love their Flexible SSL plan.
I use CleanMyMac once a week to clean out the junk that accumulates. I keep Hazel rules running constantly to automate organization on my Mac. The MacSparky Hazel Field Guide will teach you everything you need to know about it.
1Password
I use 1Password for secure password management. IâÂÂve also tried LastPass and Dashlane, but nothing can beat 1Password, both in terms of security and easy of use. IâÂÂve also use 1Password for Teams and it works just as well.
TextExpander
TextExpander has radically changed the way I work. If you ever type something more than once, make a snippet for it and save your keystrokes. I also launch scripts and templates from a few keys with this tool. We also recently adopted it at Praxis to keep our customer service answers consistent across staff members.
Raindrop.io
IâÂÂve searched for years for good bookmark management. Raindrop.io is exactly what IâÂÂve been searching for. I dropped Pocket and Instapaper entirely in favor of this.
Private Internet Access
We all need a good VPN, both for privacy and for development QC testing. IâÂÂve been using Private Internet Access for the past four years and am happy with it.
Setapp
Setapp is a subscription tool for Mac apps. $10 a month gets you access to a ton of great apps. Here are the apps I regularly use from the Setapp bundle:
I got the chance to spend a week driving from coast to coast with my parents last summer. We started just north of Seattle, took Route 2 across Washington, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, then went across the UP and drove down through Michigan, then across Ohio and Pennsylvania on I-80 to NYC.
Day 1: Bellingham to Coeur dâAlene
We left Bellingham after meeting a friend for an early lunch and decided to cross Washington all in one day. It went like this: The Cascades, apple orchards, then endless wheat fields. Somewhere in the middle of apple country we found an awesome burger shack and decided to stop for dinner. The cheeseburger and a banana shake hit the spot.
We thought weâd drive to Spokane and just Priceline a hotel when we got there. Rookie mistake. Since it was the summer season and there was an unforeseen issue at the airport that grounded all flights, literally every hotel within 50 miles was booked. Even the casinos were booked. Thankfully, some gracious friends from college, the Herseys, offered to let us stay with them an hour away in Coeur dâAlene, ID.
Days 2â3: Coeur dâAlene to Glacier &Â Waterton
The first thing we did the next day was book hotels for the rest of the trip. We werenât going to get lucky with nearby friends while going across the plains. We then took a leisurely route through the mountains to get over to Glacier National Park. We explored Lake McDonald, the Trail of the Cedars, and Avalanche Creek.
The next day we got up early, went across Going To The Sun Road, and drove up to Waterton, Glacierâs sister park in Canada.
The drive took longer than expected, so I had to sprint to buy us tickets for the boat tour of Upper Waterton Lake. It was well worth it. We saw some incredible scenery and caught a glimpse of a momma black bear and her cubs. I got a proper sunburn, got my shoes wet, and took hundreds of photos. A good day, all in all.
Day 4: Glacier to Minot, ND
We got up early, drove around the southern edge of Glacier, saw a moose, and settled in for a long drive across the plains. We set Minot, ND, as our destination for the day, which was a 15 hour drive across hot, dry, flat, featureless land. Thank goodness for podcasts! Lunch options were slim, so we found a grocery store and bought stuff for sandwiches, which we assembled and ate in the parking lot.
Dinner options were slim, too. The plains are an empty place. We had dinner at The Taco Shack in Glasgow, MT, the only town we saw for hours. I got their special, âThe Emmetâ: a plate of tater tots covered in taco meat and cheese.
Day 5: Minot, ND, to Marquette, MI
After a short night of sleep (we arrived late in Minot), we got back on the road and made for Marquette, MI. After about an hour and a half on the road, we cruised through Rugby, ND, and made a quick stop at the geographical center of North America.
I had to work for the last four days of the trip, which was challenging. I got up early, stayed up late, took phone calls at rest areas, and answered emails in the back seat when I wasnât driving.
We stopped at Duluth TradingArchived Link in Duluth, MN, then kept on trucking. I was exhausted by this point, so all I remember is 1) how many bugs hit our windshield in the UP and 2) how flat the UP is. I expected it to be more hilly for some reason. We rolled in to Marquette around 1:30am and passed out immediately.
The next morning, we realized that there were so many bugs splattered across the windshield that we had to wash it at the next gas station.
Day 6: Pictured Rocks to Cleveland, via Zingermanâs
We had planned on spending the day exploring Pictured Rocks and the Sleeping Bear Dunes, stay the night up there, and drive to Cleveland the next day, but we were so exhausted that we opted to skip the dunes and drive to Cleveland that day. We took our time around Pictured Rocks, then I shot a hyperlapse of going across the Mackinac Bridge and we cruised all the way down to Zingermanâs in Ann Arbor for dinner. After stuffing our faces with fantastic sandwiches, we drove the last two hours back to the Cleveland area.
Days 7â8: Cleveland to Yonkers
I stayed at my parentsâ house for two nights, which was just enough time to visit with family and get my favorite pizza.
I took I-80 across Pennsylvania back to NY by myself on day 8, completing the trip. Iâve taken that 8 hour trip dozens of times over the past 5 years, but after driving 12+ hours a day for the previous week, I was ready to get out of the car. I didnât even take any photos!
Tips for planning your own trip
If you plan to do a trip like this, Road Trip USA has a great guide that you can use as a starting point.
Make sure you build in rest time along the way.
Get off work entirely. Juggling deadlines while driving is stressful.
Take snacks.
Get fuel when you can. The plains are desolate.
Book hotels in advance so you donât get stuck somewhere.
To document the trip, make sure you do something fun like shooting little video clips or doing panoselfies (our medium of choice) along the way.
Do you want to be on top in your field? The bar is lower than you think, but few people even attempt to jump it. They will talk about jumping over it, but when it comes time for them to make the leap, they step back.
You don’t have to be smarter than your peers, start out with more money than the other people in your class, or have better tools than the competition.
You just have to be more persistent than them. Show up and do the work every single day. Keep pushing forward when others stop.
Attributing success to luck is an excuse we tell ourselves. Saying, “You are lucky to have made that huge sale!” ignores the reality that sales are more likely to happen when someone puts in the work to generate and follow up with leads.
Whatever it is you want to be the best at, go out and do more of it. Take it a day at a time. Move forward in a meaningful way each day.
It takes a lot of work. Determination won’t be enough. You’ll need to build habits and design systems that keep you on track. On the days when you are sick, didn’t sleep enough, and just don’t feel like doing it, you’ll need routines to turn to that allow you to keep moving forward.
What you have going for you is that very few people are willing to do this. If you actually show up, push through, and ship more work than everyone else, you’ll be surprised at how much easier it is to reach those rungs above you on the ladder.
It doesn’t matter whether you are a manual laborer, financial analyst, server at a restaurant, executive, budding author, carpenter, or musician. The path to the top is the same:
Do more. Improve on the things that don’t work. Repeat this process every single day.
Build more apps. Streamline their architecture and increase your user base.
Write more blog posts. Tighten up the language and work on your SEO.
Paint more paintings. Become more efficient with your brush and find the best paint.
Stock more shelves. Optimize the order in which you stock items in your section.
Take more photos. Improve your framing and use of light.
Fix more cars. Repair each transmission with fewer steps. Leave your shop cleaner than it was the day before.
Shovel more manure. Optimize the size of each scoop to minimize the strain on your muscles. Learn the best way to fill each wheelbarrow.
Follow up with more leads. Figure out what language works the best and which channels they are coming from.
Cook more meals. Be more creative to make the most of what you have on hand. Learn how to clean as you go.
Brew more beer. Make each batch taste a little better than the last one.
Build more tables. Refine the edges and cut each board with more precision than the last.
Write more journal articles. Refine your arguments and provide more proof.
Make more sales calls. Keep improving those introductions and do more research on each lead.
Play more chords. Improve your timing with each play-through.
Market in more channels. Cut the weak ones and double down on the strong ones. Test new channels each week.
Run more miles. Cut one second off of your route each time you run it. that is less time than it took you to read this bullet point.
Wait on more tables. Improve your people skills to get more tips and repeat customers.
Clean more bathrooms. Become a little more efficient each day.
Write more content. Improve your wording, explain things better, and make it a better fit for your audience.
Throw more pottery. Work on your trimming precision and the steadiness of your hand.
Make more cocktails. Memorize the recipes, learn which tastes work well together, and work on getting your proportions right without measuring.
Read more books. Take better notes, read faster, and work on your retention and recall.
Create more videos. Work on your timing, transitions, angles, and lighting.
Plant more seeds. Learn which depths, soils, temperatures, and weather conditions lead to the best crop, then double down.
Deploy more code. Be more efficient with CPU and memory usage, minimize the number of bugs you ship, and improve your automated testing.
Write more songs. Improve your melodies, word play, and length.
Install more cabinets. Improve the fluidity of each hinge. Sand each rough edge more judiciously.
Get the picture?
You know what you need to do. Stop wishing you were doing it and go out and do it. The only thing standing in the way is you.
Your stuff in the cloud could disappear at any time. Here is how to download a copy of your data from popular online services.
Do you use Gmail? WordPress.com? Fitbit? Facebook? How about Twitter? Your account could be shut down and you could lose all of your stuff there at any time.
This Dennis Cooper situation is a good reminder that you need to be prepared to lose anything and everything stored by online services at any time. Mr. CooperâÃÂÃÂs art may not be my cup of tea, but I feel for him. Losing 14 years of work is devastating.
If you use free services, you have no reasonable expectation of guaranteed access to that service. Read the Terms of Service closely. Unless you are paying for them, the services donâÃÂÃÂt owe you a thing. The best approach to controlling your data is to back it up regularly.
Even if you do pay for the service (like Outlook 365 or Dropbox Pro) your safest option is to have a local backup of your data. Again, back it up regularly.
Below are links to export options for popular online services.
After you export this data, back it up. Leave a copy on your computer, then buy an external drive (affiliate link // non-affiliate link) and move a copy to it. IâÃÂÃÂm a big fan of the 3âÃÂÃÂ2âÃÂÃÂ1 backup strategy and this passes it. Three total copies of your data, two are saved locally (your computer and external drive), and one is in the cloud (on the service).
These services are in alphabetical order. If there is something I didnâÃÂÃÂt include that I should, leave a comment with a link and IâÃÂÃÂll add it to the list! (Last updated July 19, 2016, with suggestions from James WalpoleArchived Link)
FacebookâÃÂÃÂâÃÂÃÂâÃÂÃÂClick âÃÂÃÂDownload a copy of your Facebook data.âÃÂàat the bottom of the General Account settings page.
FitbitâÃÂÃÂâÃÂÃÂâÃÂÃÂLimited to a month at a time unless you pay them.
TumblrâÃÂÃÂâÃÂÃÂâÃÂÃÂI havenâÃÂÃÂt found a great way to export Tumblr posts. They donâÃÂÃÂt seem to have an export tool. There are scripts on Github if you are a techy, otherwise I suggest using IFTTT to automatically copy new posts to Day One.
TwitterâÃÂÃÂâÃÂÃÂâÃÂÃÂExport option is at the bottom of the Account screen once you log in
I suggest you back up your online presence at least once a month. More often if it is business-critical like Slack, Trello, Toggl, Wunderlist, etc. Losing your work means losing money.
You can also do automated incremental backups of your social media accounts. I set up IFTTT recipes to automatically back up posts to my Day One journal and Google Drive. You can see the recipes I use here.
If you donâÃÂÃÂt do this already, take this as a reminder to back up your computers, phones, and tablets. I make full clones of my hardrives weekly and back up hourly changes with Backblaze (affiliate link // non-affiliate link).
If you donâÃÂÃÂt know how to back up your devices, here are instructions on wikiHow:
IâÃÂÃÂm sure there are popular services I missed. If you leave a comment with a link to instructions or export tools for a popular service, IâÃÂÃÂll add it to the list!