Keep 'em short and sweet

I already wrote about concision [https://elliotbonneville.com/the-virtue-of-concision/] recently, but I've been continuing to notice a strong temptation to write longer posts, as if the value I get from writing these posts and the value you get from reading them is directly proportional to word count and reading time. I really need to internalize that the point...
Read more →

Two months of freedom

How will I spend them? I took two months off of contracting – January and February. I have enough saved up that this won't be a major burden, and I'm confident that I'll be able to find work when I return, if I don't end up going back to work with my previous...
Read more →

2020

I guess everybody is writing their 2020 in review posts, so I'll add to the noise (and hopefully a little of the signal) with mine. Here are some things that happened, roughly in chronological order: 1. Fasted on just water for three days (72 hours) for the first time 2. ...
Read more →

Originality

I've been reading the blogs of a lot of people that have goals similar to mine. They have all started to seem like an echo chamber, if an unconscious one. Just a couple of days ago, I went through three different blogs that all extolled the virtues of writing and how it promotes...
Read more →

Motivation comes from alignment

If I don't feel like doing something, it's often because what I'm working on is not important, and I haven't realized it yet. For a long time, I believed that I was uncommonly lazy and unmotivated. I've since realized that often when I feel like this, the problem is that I've failed to make...
Read more →

The virtue of concision

Seth Godin's blog posts [https://seths.blog/] are short and authoritative. There are no extra or needlessly long words, and his writing flows well. He delivers high value per minute spent reading by communicating his insights concisely. He is not in love with the sound of his own voice, and he does not write for the...
Read more →

Questions

If I could ask the world every question I had and get answers immediately, my path to success would be considerably smoother. Alas, I do not have any such ability – but I still need that information. In absence of instant answers, I often forget or fail to consider my most important questions. Since the...
Read more →

Digital Purple Cows

I just read Seth Godin's Purple Cow [https://www.amazon.com/dp/B002RI9S9M/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1] . It's about engineered virality, and it really got me thinking. I decided to read this book after hearing about it in an article about a programmer who applied the Purple Cow principle to quickly build a reputation and start pulling in great work.[1] The Purple Cow principle...
Read more →

Teaching is about mind reading

It's not hard to teach – you just have to be a time-traveling mind reader... Today, while reading through my Twitter feed, I came across this absolute gem of a Tweet: > Teaching is perhaps 100x harder than we expect. The common misconception is that it’s about sharing your knowledge; it’s not. Rather, it’s...
Read more →

Clear Thinking

Many of the people that I respect and that are doing well in the business world have mastered the art of thinking clearly. Ex.: Daniel Vassallo Jordan O'Connor Derek Sivers Mike Lynch Shawn Wang (swyx) Seth Godin Rohan Gilkes David Perell Rob FitzPatrick Jack Butcher Drew DeVault In reading their writing, I have been struck time and again by how insightful their observations are....
Read more →

I'm giving up on bootstrapping a SaaS

I thought for a long time that my path to financial independence was through building a SaaS. I'd keep it a one-man shop, get it to around $10,000 a month and let it grow slowly after achieving sufficient traction. I'd write incredibly good documentation, have only a small amount of support requests to...
Read more →