[THREAD]: Here are 10 (painful) lessons I've learned writing 3,000+ articles on the internet over the past 7 years.

On writing advice, growth hacks, going viral, and feeling fulfilled in the process 👇

20 Writers Who Created Their Own Category:

(and the books that put them on the map)

1/ Ryan Holiday: Stoicism

Book: The Obstacle Is The

2/ Tucker Max: Fratire

Book: I Hope They Serve Beer In

3/ Eckhart Tolle: Practical Spirituality

Book: The Power of

4/ Malcolm Gladwell: Pop Sociology

Book: The Tipping

Over the past 10 years, I have read over 500 business books.

99% were 1 idea stretched across 300 pages.

They should have been blog posts.

Save yourself the time and just read these 10 👇

1/ Marketing

The vast majority of tactical marketing books become outdated after 1-2 years.

Some, after 6 months.

Positioning by Al Ries & Jack Trout is some of the most mind-bending and timeless strategic marketing thinking out

2/ Growth

Did you know the top 10% of consumers in your category can drive 30-70% of the revenue growth?

Superconsumers by @eddiewouldgrow will completely change the way you think about growing your biz.

You don't need "all consumers."

Just

3/ Motivation

Shoe Dog by Phil Knight, founder of Nike, is one of the most inspiring business stories you'll ever read.

And it all started by selling high-quality, low-cost running shoes from Japan.

(A style nobody thought was "cool" at the

4/ Leverage

The Self-Made Billionaire Effect by John Sviokla & Mitch Cohen is all about how Producers can combine conflicting, opposite ideas at the same time to create massive value.

This is the playbook for thinking like a

The first-time founder playbook 🧵:

1/ Build in public

Too many founders want to build "in stealth"—so they can do a grand reveal to the world.

Unfortunately, stealth =

• Slower
• Very expensive
• Harder to iterate
• More pressure to make it "perfect"

Building in public = speed & easier to iterate.

2/ Always be "in beta"

Don't ever think your startup will reach an end.

Don't strive for "done."

Even at 600,000 employees and $1.5 trillion in market cap, Amazon still operates as "it's always Day 1."

Greatness should be a forever journey, not a destination.

3/ Name & Claim your category

Before a customer can care about what you do, or what you've made, or what you sell...

THEY HAVE TO KNOW WHAT IT IS.

You should be able to name & claim your category in 2-3 words.

And those 2-3 words should be the nucleus of everything you do.

4/ Hire slow, fire fast

Your first hire is the most important one you'll ever make.

Because that hire is what unlocks:

a) More of your time
b) The future culture of the team

Hire this first person slowly. Make sure it's right.

If it's not, get rid of them ASAP & try again.

[THREAD] How To Find A Mentor (No Matter What Industry You're In)

I have attracted dozens of mentors since I was a teenager. As I've gotten older, I've realized these relationships were the secret to my growth.

Here's how to find mentors of your own 👇👇👇

1/ Don't obsess over finding The Expert.

This is the BIG mistake anyone looking for someone to "mentor them" makes.

All you need is to find someone who knows the very-next-thing you want to learn. Technically, anyone "a little bit further along" can be your mentor.

2/ Start to see everyone around you as A Mentor

- Your co-worker with 1-2 yrs more experience is a mentor
- Your family friend who is always telling "war stories" is a mentor
- Your neighbor, cousin, aunt, uncle who has done what you're trying to do, can all be mentors

3/ Start with 1 question

Mentorship isn't a formal agreement. You don't ask, "Will you be my mentor for life?"

The key is to ask 1 question. See if the person gives you guidance.

Take that guidance. Apply it. Go back and ask a 2nd question. See if they reciprocate.

Repeat.

4/ True mentorships are mutually beneficial

Mentors want to share what they know with people who listen carefully & apply their wisdom.

Why?

It allows the mentor a "2nd chance" at walking their path, imagining what might have happened if they'd known what they know now, sooner

LARPing Our Way To Armageddon

The intense and present danger of fantasy

a thread

One of the interesting things about the scifi / fantasy writing community is that it contains many people who have much higher tolerance for fantasy than the norm.

People who can be around fantasy a lot, without losing track of reality.

Counter intuitive perhaps. But people who deal with fantasy at a professional level become expert at recognising its stench.

That's a useful skill in 2021, when the world, and particularly America, is being sucked into a vortex of unreality.

Because human beings do not, as a rule, have good tools for distinguishing fantasy from reality.

This isn't a bug of humankind, it's very much a feature.

Humans are what we are because of our ability to engage in the shared fantasy we call society / culture / civilisation.

Homo Sapiens are the species that LARPs

Which has always brought with it some structural issues

That just got waaaaaaaaaaay more serious

When you report a piece for two years & then write it up in 8000 words, there are obviously lots of things on the cutting room floor

But this 🧵 isn't about that

This thread is about something else not in the piece: what it was like to actually *do* this research & writing

1/

Let's start with the fact that my main paying-job is *not* ethnographic journalist on tech companies. It's being a law professor. I teach property, info privacy, and internet law.

It is a fantastic job, but it is full time, particularly in your first few years teaching.

2/

That means at the same time as I was traveling back and forth across the country on red-eyes to be at FB to do this work I was also giving 26 two hour speeches about adverse possession and eminent domain to 70+ 1Ls.

Would not recommend.

3/

But how did I even start doing that? How did I get access inside Facebook?

I will tell you the secret: *I asked.*

4/

I went to a PR person at FB & one of the people who does stakeholder engagement in early 2019 & I said:

"Listen, I think that this Oversight Board thing is going to be a big deal and you are telling people you are doing this transparently. So you should let me report it."

5/

Flying is accidentally the best ever environment for DEEP work and reflection.

Writers like @rickygervais do their best work on airplanes.

Here's 6 reasons why.

THREAD...

What looks like a bug - can often be a feature.

“A change of perspective is worth 80 IQ points.”

The restrictions we face on airplanes is what makes the experience so liberating.

AIRPLANE FEATURE 1 - HIGH EXIT COSTS

You can't find any escapes.

If you try to escape, you face death.

Negative incentives are built into the system.

"Incentives are a super power." - Charlie Munger

AIRPLANE ADVANTAGE 2 - NO INPUTS

There's no newsfeeds to refresh. No emails to reply to.

It's like knowing your heroin dealer is in a coma.

Boredom is built into the system.

Your monkey mind can't access dopamine - so it starts creating its own.

It is a distraction-free environment:

1. No socialising - You don't know anyone. No small talk.

2. No sound inputs - The engine acts as white noise.

3. No visual inputs - The seating structure means you see barely anybody.

The closing keynote from @davidjalmond at @The_UKLA Writing for Pleasure conference was just so wonderful. I feel like i'm going to explode with inspiration and excitement. I was too hooked to tweet at the time but some key thoughts that stood out to me...

On ideas: 'Stories are everywhere, they are ordinary human things that happen to each one of us. Within the boringness are the most extraordinary tales.' Also, 'We are an imaginative species, even deciding what you are having for dinner is an act of imagination.'

On the writing mind: 'The terrifying thing about a book is that it doesn't look like a mind. They look at the book and think it's perfect but they don't see what comes before [the notebooks]. People think writers must have a special type of mind but we all have the same minds.'

On bringing writing out of the head: 'Stationery, notebooks and pencil cases make writing physical. Thinking through a problem in a story can make it harder. Doodling and playing [in a notebook] can help to release the imagination.'

'It's important to remember how close the written word is to the voice. If you can speak a sentence without stumbling it's probably okay, if you can sing it without stumbling it's probably really good. It accentuates that words are not just beautiful black marks, they are sounds'

So, you’re a writer and you’re worried about writing outside your immediate experiences and identities.

Here is the thread of practical advice for you.

EXAMINE YOUR MOTIVES. Why do you want to write this?

Are you trying to solve racism/sexism/colonialism with your work?

As writers we love stories about heroic writers whose work has changed the world. And as such we like to look to our own writing to solve societal problems.

And I understand this completely, not the least because I’ve felt the pull.

But if you’re looking to play saviour with your words, it is unlikely that you will do the marginalised people you are trying to save justice.

And I understand this very often comes from place of good intentions, but there is a reason that most of the moralising plays written by white abolitionists are deeply uncomfortable to read.

It is incredibly easy for works looking to play saviour to become patronising or traffic in simplistic stereotypes that ultimately hurt the people they are looking to rescue.