The most common advice from authors for other authors about being successful is: “Read a lot, write a lot.” I’ve always believed this but I didn’t put it into practice until recently. Last year I read more books in one year than the previous three years combined. This year I set my 2018 Reading Challenge…
Productivity
Maker's Schedule, Marketer's Schedule, and Manager's Schedule: How Creative to Organize Your Day as a Writer
One of Y-Combinator founder Paul Graham’s most popular essays for startup founders is “Maker’s Schedule, Manager’s Schedule.” The basic premise is that tech startup founders, who have typically come from programming backgrounds, have to make a mental shift from a maker’s schedule to a manager’s schedule where more time is spent in meetings. At some…
For the Love of the Game
We watched a lot of football this weekend. Even when we weren’t watching football, we were watching football when We Are Marshall came on TV on Sunday morning after church. One consistent theme seemed to continue to pop up in the stories we heard and the successful teams we watched. It was articulated best by…
Planning vs. Playing
When someone introduces you to a new board game for the first time, it can sometimes take ten or twenty excruciating minutes of explanation before actually start playing the game. Finally, after what seems like forever, someone says, “Let’s just start playing. You’ll get the hang of it.” I suppose planning for a new year…
My 2017 Annual Project Report
Elon Musk keeps track of every minute he spends at work. He runs multiple billion-dollar companies in highly competitive markets. In addition to SpaceX, Tesla, and Solar City, Musk started yet another business in late 2016 called The Boring Company. He was asked in March 2017 how much time he spends on this new fourth…
