I'm finally reading Do The Work, Steven Pressfield's poetic third installment after The War of Art and Turning Pro. It's hard to believe he shot to my top 5 half a decade ago.
I got the book for my coffee table back in January, yet I still don't have a coffee table. I also had trouble powering through chapter 1, in which Pressfield appropriately rehashes his signature theme: Resistance.
While rearranging furniture, I opened it up again and noticed this time that the book's curation makes a difference. It's shorter, condensed and punchy—I made it through to the unfamiliar second chapter. I also noticed "Do You Zoom, Inc." in the publisher's fine print. Hmmm...
I've stalked Seth Godin enough to realize that something interesting was going on here... And indeed, a quick search revealed the historic significance of this collaboration—more iconic than Ed Sheeran feat. Justin Bieber!
I got the book for my coffee table back in January, yet I still don't have a coffee table. I also had trouble powering through chapter 1, in which Pressfield appropriately rehashes his signature theme: Resistance.
While rearranging furniture, I opened it up again and noticed this time that the book's curation makes a difference. It's shorter, condensed and punchy—I made it through to the unfamiliar second chapter. I also noticed "Do You Zoom, Inc." in the publisher's fine print. Hmmm...
I've stalked Seth Godin enough to realize that something interesting was going on here... And indeed, a quick search revealed the historic significance of this collaboration—more iconic than Ed Sheeran feat. Justin Bieber!
SP: Do you realize that you’re inventing a whole new product category that has never existed before? Was that the whole idea?
SG: Steve, I’ve been inventing new categories ever since I was sort of thrown out of/left business school. That’s the whole point, isn’t it?
I remember dropping by the MIT Bitcoin Club sometime 2014-2015 and hearing buzzy ideas around campus like blockchain-enabled micropayments for content pre-Substack. As a myopic tech bro, it's often easier to look ahead and rare for me to look back at history like this. How fascinating and fun to discover Seth on the bleeding edge of media back in 2010:
This is the opposite of traditional publishing, where the publisher has decided that the unit of transaction is $20 and the length of the work is 250 pages.
The difficulty of pioneering things and really pushing them forward (to ship a million+ copies) resonates with me, especially right now as we ponder the future of our business. I also came across some further inspiring pithiness from this article on Derek Sivers and the part he played too:
Success comes from persistently improving and inventing, not from persistently promoting what's not working.
Mashing him up further:
“Revolution” is a term that people use only when you're successful. Before that, you're just a quirky person who does things differently. When you're on to something great, it won't feel like revolution. It'll feel like uncommon sense.
Business is not about money. It's about making dreams come true for others and for yourself. Start now. No funding needed. If you're not saying “HELL YEAH!” about something, say “no”.
Why do I love these people and the things they say so much?
Others do too, sure, but I in particular find their ideas evergreen and remarkable—worthwhile to repeat on my own blog—over and over again.
Derek, Seth, and Steve all touch on the deep struggles that define us as humans.
Writers of emails.
Artists.
And this is more relevant now than ever. We are all going to contend in big ways with what makes us human in the coming 5 years. Perhaps as soon as July 2027:
"Everyone knows something big is happening but no one agrees on what it is."
So we should stop persistently underestimating... everything... including ourselves and the compounding tools (and habits) that we build.
In these times of change, I'd love to read your blog! Sharing is hard and shipping is messy, but it shapes the world in short order.
"Stars and galaxies come into being amid the release of massive primordial cataclysms. Conception occurs at the primal level... The most highly cultured mother gives birth sweating and dislocated and cursing like a sailor."