The strategies that have helped me write 10 books in 10 years
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1. Always be researching

The bulk of the work is researching—collecting stories, anecdotes, and data to marshal your argument. The writing is stringing those pieces together.

2. Know where you’re going

You don’t “find the book as you write.” You have to do the hard work of solving the problem first. You have to figure out the best route, too.

3. It’s all material

Turn all your bad experiences, your struggles, your pain, your mistakes into material. The obstacle is the way / antifragile…

4. Have something to say

“To have something to say,” Schopenhauer said, “by itself is virtually a sufficient condition for good style.”

Charles Ponzi and the Postal Service

The story of the man who put the 'Ponzi' in 'Ponzi scheme'

/THREAD/

1/ Carlo Pietro Giovanni Guglielmo Tebaldo Ponzi, a.k.a. Charles Ponzi, was an italian swindler and con-artist.

Born in 1882 in Italy, he became notorious for his money-making fraudulent schemes in North America in the 1920s.

2/ He arrived in Boston in late 1903 with $2.50 in his pocket.

After many professional failures, he moved to Montreal in 1907 and started working as a bank teller at Banco Zarossi, where he rose to the position of bank manager.

3/ This is where he first witnessed the bank's scheme, where Zarossi was funding interest payments using deposits from newly opened accounts instead of investment profits.

4/ Ponzi served 3 years in jail for check forgery and returned to the US after his release.

However, he got involved in smuggling illegal immigrants into the country landing in prison for another 2 years, moving back to Boston after that.

Today is my 36th birthday.

To celebrate

Here are 36 hard hitting truths about the world I've learned in my 36 years of living.

Warning: A lot of these are harsh and uncomfortable. Do not read if you are sensitive.

👇👇👇

This took awhile to compile.

If you want to wish me a happy birthday, please RT that first tweet above. It helps.

Thank you and let's get started.

1. You don’t go from A to B in a straight line. You go from A to B in a zig zag.

2. The smartphone took away your need to memorize information and replaced it with an inability to focus.

3. Everyone in their 20s thinks they know everything until they hit 30 and realise they really don’t know anything

As it's #AppreciateADragonDay let's do some classic covers from Dragon magazine!

Tony DiTerlizzi's cover art for Dragon magazine #242, December 1997.

Dragon magazine issue 106, February 1986. Cover by Keith Parkinson.

Dragon Magazine #71, March 1983. Cover by Clyde Caldwell.

Dragon magazine issue 65, September 1982. Cover by Clyde Caldwell.

Daily Bookmarks to GAVNet 01/16/2021

One of my favorite

Forbes estimates that Beanie Baby creator Ty Warner’ net worth is $2.7 Billion. This is an amazing achievement considering a bulk of it was earned during a 3-year time frame selling a $5 per unit stuffed animal.

The fact that Ty Warner’s Beanie Babies were able, without the benefit of a single ad, to outpace the combined annual profits of the largest toymakers in the world for even a few years is unprecedented.

To illustrate how quickly the bubble grew - In 1995, Ty Warner’s company Ty Inc had sales of roughly $28 million. In 1996 sales were $280 million with $90 million in pre-tax income. By 1998, Ty Inc sales reached $1.34 billion with pre-tax income of $700 million.

In Ebay’s 1998 Annual Report it disclosed Beanie Babies as material. “At times, approximately 7% of our listings involved Beanie Babies”. Furthermore, it was said that 10% of Ebay sales at the time were derived from Beanie Babies.

THREAD: 15 of the most useful razors and rules I've found.

Rules of thumb that simplify decisions.

Bezos' Razors:

• If unsure what action to take, let your 80-year-old self make it.

• If unsure who to work with, pick the person that has the best chances of breaking you out of a 3rd world prison.

Skinner's Law:

• If procrastinating on an item, you only have 2 options:

1. Make the pain of not doing it greater than the pain of doing it.

2. Make the pleasure of doing it greater than the pleasure of not doing it.

Luck Razor:

• If stuck with 2 equal options, pick the one that feels like it will produce the most luck later down the line.

I used this razor to go for drinks with a stranger rather than watch Netflix.

In hindsight, it was the highest ROI decision I've ever made.

Bragging Razor:

• If someone brags about their success or happiness, assume it’s half what they claim.

• If someone downplays their success or happiness, assume it’s double what they claim.

The map is not the terrain.

(Sorry, long, rambling, unthought-out thread here) I've lost count of the amount of times I have been proud to call myself an Unioner, and of their commitment to direct, and often local action instead of parrotting nebulous and often ultimately meaningless phrases.

I know personally people at the club who take very seriously their commitment to eradicating racism from the club, as well as from football itself. But I have seen and heard racism in the stands, as well as on the way to and from games too many times before.

I have always shied away from acknowledging it. I've accentuated the positives, I've said it comes only from a small minority (which is also true), all because I don't want my own romantic image of the club to be tarnished, and I don't want to be guilty through association.

Or, to be honest, to endanger my privileged position of being able to write about the club I adore in the city I love.

When it happens it is a reflection of a broader racism in Germany, and in football, but that is no excuse for my inaction, for my sitting on my hands and hoping the problem goes away, so I can just go back to hailing them as a rebellious club from a rebellious city.

Would anyone like to admit why he cc'd himself in an email Wei Dai would see at ibiblio's host address? I have a few ideas.

was the .ae ccTLD a nod to Tim Berners-Lee/registries that issue top level country code domains? Is that why Tel Aviv is a place I commonly find OTC/Bitcoin related companies and DAC/dev protocols and operations based? Why UAE/Israel have opened commerce bilaterally in 2020?

Bitcoin is worldwide P2P software and growing into a network of the same ilk, what it can send without interference we can't even grasp yet. Even if you don't like another person, or their religious beliefs, bitcoin doesn't care. I lived through 9/11, my friends died in war.

But even I don't want Bitcoin just for the people I am more likely to have similarities too. And in working with the @_Devcoin guys for a few years now, officially since 2020 - I realized people from all spots on this globe and I share much more in common than everyday Americans.

And I haven't turned my back or spurned Americans either. I'm just saying we need to change our mindset. We want things but we won't admit it takes a whole world to pull off what it is we seek. The media is to blame for this but I also think we're at the point for grownups to act

The beauty of the broadening of sense perception during the process of awakening is unique.

I still remember my ceremonies every galactic marker, every solstice and every equinox, I was delighted when beloved elementals entered my body and activated my sensations on crazy,absurd

and magical levels!

Taste makes me delight in every flavor that exploded in me with thousands of new sensations, so I enjoy enormously every bite, every inhalation, every kiss seems to be the last one always! lol

My sense of smell ... I could and I can see the colors associated with each smell, feeling its origin and the mixture of smells is confused as an infinite, powerful and unique amalgam that generates a deep pleasure and enervate my senses.

The sounds. Wow. I could hear miles away, and every step of the insects, the whispers of plants and elementals mocking my perceptions so limited that they were offered unique and isolated in which each sense was only a piece apart. not way... sound are magical an powerful

The amplified view is a monumental and unique phenomenon...not only being able to see at great distances, but seeing every detail until I enter the microscopic niel and see the heartbeat of every cell, the piezoelectric sensation of every movement, and when I close them and

@simonbarrow @Ekklesia_co_uk Some thoughts on Fintan's piece.

Can Joe Biden make America great again?

Since the day Trump was elected America as we thought we knew it was over, there was no way back, there would only be a way forward. This was not necessarily bad, bc the old imperial America did much harm in the world. 1/

The fissures O'Toole points to have always been there. White supremacy has structured our society far more than ppl realize bc it's been internalized as a communal assumption about who should wield political and eoconomic power. 2/

The task facing Biden is enormous, perhaps the most challenging any president has ever faced and O'Toole captures the complexity of someone who knows suffering being able to lead/offer us vision in this moment. I have consistently underestimated him . . .3/

but perhaps he is the bridge to what comes next. I think it is undeniable that we are now sliding toward open civil war, being held hostage to the guns we allowed to proliferate, but Biden, if he sees clearly, could help. Public facing rhetoric of healing is fine, 4/

THREAD:
1) I’m a Democrat, running for Congress in 2022 from Wisconsin’s Sixth District. This is (part of) my story.

I grew up in Southfield, a city in the suburbs of Detroit, MI. My brother still lives in the Detroit area, but our parents are deceased.

2) My undergraduate degree is a BA with a major in political science (with an emphasis in political economy) and a minor in public administration, from Albion College, in MI. I got my JD (law degree) from Washington & Lee University School of Law, in VA.

3) I practiced law for nearly 20 years, taking time off now & then for various reasons, including when my grandmother died & I handled her estate, & from August 2018, when I lost my job after being diagnosed w/Stage Four uterine #cancer, which I beat, to the present.

4) My husband was born and raised in this district. We lived here, and got married here, from 2003-10, then moved to Milwaukee for work, then moved back to the district in August 2018, when we bought a house here. We’re staying.

5) I have an extensive skill set, based on a broad range of experience, including: having worked as an attorney, a human resources manager, an administrator, a researcher, & an author.

Grade Awarding 2021 - a thread.
1. For pupils and parents; it sounds daft but there isn’t much you can control right now. Teacher will play the main role in awarding grades, and there may well be some time or formal exam for subjects. But we don’t know exactly what yet.

2. What we do know is that all work pupils have done, their resilience over such a difficult time, their drive to keep going will make a difference to them. It’s never been more important for pupils to keep going, and keep engaging with the provision a school provides.

3. To our pupils? Have faith that the work you are doing will pay off. Please don’t lose heart right now. We love you lots and we all want you to excel. We are always here for you.

4. For school leaders - we need to build a year story. Right now they need a narrative that stresses the need to keep engaging in lessons. A letter every two weeks won’t get that job done. It’s never been more that pupils and parents feel connected to a school and we have clear

5. Communications cycles. Media - twitter/YouTube etc are vital tools for keeping our pupils and parents connected to school. This news cycle is vital for building a cultural expectation of what will happen when pupils set foot again in our school buildings.

@MarkYoungTruth @chuckwoolery 1) What would you say if a BLM/ANTIFA activist (attached) was paying people in 2020 during BLM/ANTIFA "protests", I mean riots. Could that same man have been at the Capitol helping plan the fake MAGA people (attached)?

It’s funny how, when Black people leave toxic church spaces we are the ones called “divisive.” We always have to bear the weight of judgment and have to explain ourselves.

When you see Black people leaving a predominantly white church space en masse, you should be asking...

Why are so many people walking away? Why are their stories all similar or exactly the same? Why is this not being addressed by leadership? Why does it feel like it’s being swept under the rug? Why is Black folks’ departure deemed as their issue or fault?

Why does the leadership of my church or organization only take the slightest of responsibility (if any at all)? Why do the sermons end teaching in my church seem to change for a season directly after departures? Why are the Black folks who remain given promotions or visibility?

I have observed a pattern of behavior around Black folks leaving white Christian institutions.

There’s a lot of folks who leave who won’t make public (or private) comment about their departure. Often it’s out of fear of what opportunities that it could cost them.

This allows the institution to shape the narrative around the departure and make it seem more amicable than it actually was. I’ve seen this pattern multiple times.

The errant Christian participation in the Capitol insurrection has its roots in the apocalyptic craziness espoused by the likes of the late Hal Lindsey and Tim Lahaye. Their 'end of the world' mania misled many, laying the foundation for conspiracy theories...

... and the horrid view of the civil government so many trapped in the maze of this nonsense espouse. In an odd-couple marriage, Christian post-millennialism was then married this movement to a 'save America', all in the name of a mythical 'lost' Christian America and hopes for a

... future Christianized state, a theocracy in the Christian sense. Opposition to Christian positions on moral issues was equated w/ opposition to God. How? Paul Weyrich and the Reagan-era GOP saw this as an opening to win the Evangelical vote for themselves & beat Carter in 1980

EVs had voted for Carter in large numbers in 1976, Carter identifying with them as a Baptist and Sunday School teacher, a humble, gracious, country boy. The GOP wrangled that support to itself by taking up the fearful millennialism of the EVs and making the Democrats...

... an embodiment of the Beast of Revelation. American could be a Christian Republic, saved from evil - from the Democrats in particular - and, later, from the swamp, the deep state, or whatever label worked best. Because a majority of people would never accept these wild views