Building a Personal Monopoly: (thread)

How to combine competence, curiosity, and character to create a category of one.

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10 ideas that changed my life: (thread)

Illustrations by @visualizevalue.

1/ Get more done by doing less.

2/ You can't get better unless you get started.

3/ Zoom out. It's getting better. (IP via @behaviorgap)

4/ 'Normal is an illusion. What is normal for the spider is chaos for the fly.' — Charles Addams

Circle of Competence 101:

@SahilBloom x @jackbutcher

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1/

A Circle of Competence is the set of topic areas that align with a person's expertise.

If the entire world of information were to be expressed in a circle, an individual's Circle of Competence is the small sub-circle that represents their expertise.

2/

The idea surfaced in the 1996 BH annual letter.

"You don’t have to be an expert on every company...you only have to be able to evaluate companies within your circle of competence. The size of that circle is not very important; knowing its boundaries, however, is vital."

3/

A Circle of Competence is built over time.

It is built through experience, reading, dedicated study, and effort.

It is dynamic, not static.

It can expand as you deepen your knowledge in new areas. It can contract if you fail to nurture your existing areas of expertise.

4/

To engage this mental model in your life, there are two key processes to go through:

(1) Identify what falls within your circle
(2) Identify the boundaries of your circle

(1) is all about figuring out what you know, while (2) is about humbly admitting what you don’t.

Why you need to be selfish: (thread)

I have had countless conversations with people looking for a way to build a brand/audience/community online.

Here's the one thing I think everyone asking that question should be thinking about.

You need to be selfish.

Why?

Because (at a high level) if it helps you, it will eventually help others.

At a tactical level, it's provides the motivation to keep going.

The lack of instant feedback on what we share publically is enough to extinguish most projects before they even get moving.

But allow me to reframe the idea:

You need to do things that benefit you even if no one sees them.

Did posting @visualizevalue images into a void 18 months ago do anything for my career as a designer?

Yes.

Would I have kept going if there wasn't some selfish drive to be more competent? (and make more money, work with better clients, etc)

No.

10 ideas that changed my life: (thread)

Illustrations by @visualizevalue

1/ Get more done by doing less.

2/ You can't get better unless you get started.

3/ Zoom out. It's getting better. (IP via @behaviorgap)

4/ 'Normal is an illusion. What is normal for the spider is chaos for the fly.' — Charles Addams

Why promoting yourself/your business/your ideas feels uncomfortable:

You must repeat things that are obvious to you until they become obvious to others.

This is why most people hire marketers or outsource the amplification of their message.

The problem with that is no one is an invested as you are, and no one knows your message like you do.

And why those who break through their discomfort reach an escape velocity that eludes most.

This is a difficult and unnatural process, hence the upside on the other side.

Another way to think about it is the famous shelf analogy:

No one wants a drill they want a hole, no one wants a hole they want a shelf, no one wants a shelf they want to a place to put books to look smart, etc.

People care about the 2nd, 3rd, 4th order effects of your work.

Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, A Whistle Is A Wish, 75.56 x 70 cm, oil on canvas , 2018

The essence is in everything & all is within the essence.

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Sharing the learnings I've gathered over the years working in Design, as one-liners.

Starting here ↓

If a state is important to be communicated on a screen, use multiple avenues to reinforce it. Don't mention it once and assumer users will read it where you've put it.

Users glance around and catch loose cues. Multiple avenues increase the odds of successful conveyance.

Take the Pointer approach to designing. Point to where the info is by spreading links across the UI, instead of repeating the same information across multiple screens.

(break this rule sparingly)

Not all screens will need the primary CTA. Don't use your loudest button first just because it's the default style you have in your system.

Modals & bottom sheets work better than painting a fresh page via a reload when conveying additional information.

Fresh pages put the burden of reorientation and of relearning a new screen layout on the user. Keep users on the same page as much as possible.

1) Why do I use VHS in my Art?

It's not to just look "retro."

Combining obsolete and cutting edge technology is an aesthetic intervention that lets me transport the viewer outside of their present reality. It's not Here, and it's not Then, so it makes you ask... When?

2) I evoke these mediums of the past in my unique way to serve as a method of conveyance, so you receive my transmissions differently from the multitude of images beaming into your brain at any given moment.

I want to transport you to a dimension of my own definition.

3) From this techno-mystical space, new perspectives emerge.

The Weirdness and the Humor of our Now can be enjoyed from outside looking in – we can gather around the shadow puppets and laugh at our folly in believing any of it to be real.

4) Analog Video Art has a long tradition, and I see my digital-analog hybridization as a means of carrying its torch forward with us into the metaverse.

I use VHS, the last of the physical image mediums, as a reminder to bring our souls with us into the landscape of the spirit.

5) As @erik_davis says in "Techgnosis,"

"The analog world sticks to the grooves of the soul – warm, undulating, worn with the pops and scratches of material history. The digital world boots up the cool matrix of the spirit: luminous, abstract, more code than corporeality..."

Scar tattoos ... a thread /1

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