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designates my notes. / designates important. / designates very important.

Thoughts

Another one of these 219 mini-chapter books. We’ll see… It ended up being much better structured than Catching the Big Fish or Creative Act. Both of those books are decent, but (Catching the Big Fish in particular) felt disjointed and “tweet-like”.

I really appreciate his focus on “doing the work”. Flow comes from practice. The muse comes from practice. Do your thing every day, even when you don’t feel like it, and eventually you will produce something.

Exceptional Quotes

• But there isn’t a guarantee. In fact, most of what we seek to do will not work. But our intent—the intent of being of service, of making things better, of building something that matters—is an essential part of the pattern.

• trust the process and repeat the practice often enough to get unstuck.

• If the problem can be solved, why worry? And if the problem can’t be solved, then worrying will do you no good. -SHANTIDEVA

• Intentional Action Has a Few Simple Elements
  1. Determine who it’s for. Learn what they believe, what they fear, and what they want.
  2. Be prepared to describe the change you seek to make. At least to yourself.
  3. Care enough to commit to making that change.
  4. Ship work that resonates with the people it’s for.
  5. Once you know whom it’s for and what it’s for, watch and learn to determine whether your intervention succeeded.
  6. Repeat.

• 196. To Be Great Requires Embracing Neglect

• if you’re going to over-index for something, you’re simply going to have to under- index for something else.

Table of Contents

• 01: Trust Your Self
• 02: Generous
• 03: The Professional
• 04: Intent
• 05: No Such Thing As Writer’s Block
• 06: Make Assertions
• 07: Earn Your Skills
• 08: Seek Out Constraints

· Chapter 01 - Trust Your Self

page 14:

• Creativity is a choice, it’s not a bolt of lightning from somewhere else.

page 18:

• Maybe instead of a series of steps to follow, we’d be better off understanding how the world actually works now.

page 19:

• Surprising Truths:
  • Skill is not the same as talent.
  • A good process can lead to good outcomes, but it doesn’t
  • guarantee them.
  • Perfectionism has nothing to do with being perfect.
  • Reassurance is futile.
  • Hubris is the opposite of trust.
  • Attitudes are skills.
  • There’s no such thing as writer’s block.
  • Professionals produce with intent.
  • Creativity is an act of leadership.
  • Leaders are imposters.
  • All criticism is not the same.
  • We become creative when we ship the work.
  • Good taste is a skill.
  • Passion is a choice.

page 23:

• Your work is too important to be left to how you feel today.

page 26:

• Do what you love” is for amateurs. “Love what you do” is the mantra for professionals.

page 29:

• But there isn’t a guarantee. In fact, most of what we seek to do will not work. But our intent—the intent of being of service, of making things better, of building something that matters—is an essential part of the pattern.

· Chapter 02 - Generous

page 40:

• A scarcity mindset simply creates more scarcity, because you’re isolating yourself from the circle of people who can cheer you on and challenge you to produce more. Instead, we can adopt a mindset of abundance. We can choose to realize that creativity is contagious—if you and I are exchanging our best work, our best work gets better. Abundance multiplies. Scarcity subtracts.

page 46:

• trust the process and repeat the practice often enough to get unstuck.

page 54:

• It’s not helpful to only make things for yourself, unless you’re fortunate enough that what you want is precisely what your audience wants.

• He’s said the opposite many times up until now.

page 55:

• There’s nothing wrong with the non-believers. They don’t have a personality disorder and they’re not stupid. They’re simply not interested in going where you’re going, not educated in the genre in which you work, or perhaps not aware of what your core audience sees.

page 61:

• Amateurs often feel like they’re taking something from the prospect—their time, their attention, and ultimately, their money. That, after all, is what car dealers taught us to experience.

• Even if you get paid for it, sales can feel like harrowing work. Small- scale theft, all day every day.

• But what if you recast your profession as a chance to actually solve someone’s problem? A doctor who prescribes insulin to a diabetic isn’t selling insulin; she’s generously saving a life.

· Chapter 03 - The Professionals

page 72:

• If the problem can be solved, why worry? And if the problem can’t be solved, then worrying will do you no good. -SHANTIDEVA

· Chapter 04 - Intent

page 99:

• We can return again and again to this simple narrative:
  1. This is a practice.
  2. It has a purpose.
  3. I desire to create change.
  4. The change is for someone specific.
  5. How can I do it better?
  6. Can I persist long enough to do it again?
  7. Repeat.

page 102:

• Intentional Action Has a Few Simple Elements
  1. Determine who it’s for. Learn what they believe, what they fear, and what they want.
  2. Be prepared to describe the change you seek to make. At least to yourself.
  3. Care enough to commit to making that change.
  4. Ship work that resonates with the people it’s for.
  5. Once you know whom it’s for and what it’s for, watch and learn to determine whether your intervention succeeded.
  6. Repeat.

· Chapter 05 - No Such Thing As Writer’s Block

page 104:

• Credentialing is a form of signaling, a stalling device…

• If you’re headed to graduate school to get a master’s, you might be better off spending those two years actually doing the work instead.

page 105:

• From an early age, high achievers are taught to sacrifice independent thought for a good grade. We’re taught that compliance will be rewarded by being picked.

page 106:

• Rejecting the trap of credentialing opens the door to fake experts. If no credential is needed, if everyone is qualified, leveraged, and able to do this job, aren’t we inviting hacks and charlatans in to do important work? I think the opposite is true. Credentialing lulls us into false confidence about who is actually an expert. The fact that you have a degree doesn’t mean you have insight, experience, or concern. You’ve acquired a piece of paper, but that doesn’t mean you care.

page 121:

• Isaac Asimov published more than four hundred books. How did he possibly pull that off?

• Asimov woke up every morning, sat in front of his manual typewriter, and he typed.

• That was his job, to type. The stories he created, the robots and the rest, were the bonus that came along for the ride.

• He typed when he wasn’t inspired. The typing turned into writing and he became inspired.

• We don’t write because we feel like it. We feel like it because we write.

page 124:

• If you want to create your work, it might pay to turn off your wi-fi for a day. To sit with your tools and your boundaries and your process and nothing else.

page 125:

• Flow is the result of effort. The muse shows up when we do the work. Not the other way around. Set up your tools, turn off the internet, and go back to work.

page 126:

• Consider two kinds of batting practice. In one, the pitches are chunked into categories—twenty-five fastballs, twenty-five curve balls—in a predictable rhythm. At the end of this practice, hitters reported feeling a sense of confidence and flow.

• The alternative involves mixing up the pitches randomly. Here, the batters reported frustration and less satisfaction. But teacher Torre’ Mills points out that the random method, where desirable difficulty is at work, actually improves players’ skills more than the chunked approach.

page 128:

• Befriending your bad ideas is a useful way forward. They’re not your enemy. They are essential steps on the path to better.

· Chapter 06 - Make Assertions

page 141:

• “I see the situation and I’m offering something to improve it.” Find your audience, then share a point of view and an invitation to connect around a new idea.

· Chapter 07 - Earn Your Skills

page 149:

• 196. To Be Great Requires Embracing Neglect

• if you’re going to over-index for something, you’re simply going to have to under- index for something else.

· Chapter 08 - Seek Out Constraints

page 161:

• 216. Elements of the Practice
  • Creative is a choice.
  • Avoid certainty.
  • Pick yourself.
  • Results are a by-product.
  • Postpone gratification.
  • Seek joy.
  • Understand genre.
  • Embrace generosity.
  • Ship the work.
  • Learn from what you ship.
  • Avoid reassurance.
  • Dance with fear.
  • Be paranoid about mediocrity.
  • Learn new skills.
  • Create change.
  • See the world as it is.
  • Get better clients.
  • Be the boss of the process.
  • Trust your self.
  • Repeat.