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43 Folders: Sample Chapter from "The Creative Habit"

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 18:20:10 -0500

The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life (Free 1st Chapter)

As long as I’ve outed myself as an obsessive fan of Twyla Tharp’s The Creative Habit, it seems sensible to point you to this free excerpt of the book, which includes the full text of the book’s first chapter.

While it doesn’t capture the clear-eyed usefulness of the book nearly as satisfyingly as each subsequent chapter does, it will give you a feel for why this book’s different from your garden-variety aspirational artist porn — this woman does not believe in “natural genius,” and she damned well expects you to work your ass off, every day:

After so many years, I’ve learned that being creative is a full-time job with its own daily patterns. That’s why writers, for example, like to establish routines for themselves. The most productive ones get started early in the morning, when the world is quiet, the phones aren’t ringing, and their minds are rested, alert, and not yet polluted by other people’s words. They might set a goal for themselves — write fifteen hundred words, or stay at their desk until noon — but the real secret is that they do this every day. In other words, they are disciplined. Over time, as the daily routines become second nature, discipline morphs into habit. […]

The way I figure it, my work habits are applicable to everyone. You’ll find that I’m a stickler about preparation. My daily routines are transactional. Everything that happens in my day is a transaction between the external world and my internal world. Everything is raw material. Everything is relevant. Everything is usable. Everything feeds into my creativity. But without proper preparation, I cannot see it, retain it, and use it. Without the time and effort invested in getting ready to create, you can be hit by the thunderbolt and it’ll just leave you stunned.

Yep. And, as Samuel Goldwyn said, “The harder I work, the luckier I get.”

Have a look at that excerpt and see what you think. More on this soon.

”Sample Chapter from "The Creative Habit"” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on December 01, 2008. Except as noted, it's ©2008 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"

43 Folders: Photography, and the Tolerance for Courageous Sucking

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 18:20:10 -0500

As I’ve started shooting photos more often, I’ve picked up on some interesting patterns: habits, if you like. And, as I struggle to absorb the insane physics of capturing light with some glass and a black box, I accept upfront that the improvements to my actual photos will be slow, incremental, and, largely undetectable to anybody but me — a fact that’s never more painfully clear than when I swoon over the work of the more talented friends who inspire me (Heather, Ryan and Chris each come to mind here).

But, being instantly great at this couldn’t be further from the point. Although I started taking photos to become a better photographer, I keep taking them because I’ve learned to love the process. And, luckily, at least as far as I can tell, dedication to the process can’t help but make you a better photographer — or a better whatever, for that matter.

An Urge to Push

I lug this clunky camera around with me every day because I want to, and because turning this hobby into a project that I work on a little bit every day ensures continuity and helps my modest bumps in skill to accrete — to make new friends with one other in ways that often surprise me (“Low ISO + giant aperture + standing very still? Wow, check that out!”).

I’m especially learning to embrace a priceless habit of shooting way more photos than I’d ever even process in Lightroom (let alone share with others). So, I’m getting more comfortable with trying different combinations of angle, framing, lighting, aperture, speed, and ISO. The calculus of capturing a “tack sharp” image encompasses an astounding combination of science, observation, and, in the fullness of time, intuition. But, to get there takes time and clicking. So, that promiscuity with the volume of photos I capture teaches me that it costs nothing to just get something in the viewfinder and shoot, shoot, shoot. Maybe something will turn out if I get enough of ‘em, right?

Cleft Unto the Suck

And, even if a given shot is shit — and, most certainly, the vast majority of all my photos are varying degrees of shit — you still learn from the bad ones and no damage is done. Truth is, at the level I’m playing, there’s no real cost associated with failure. Unless, you count the damage of working with unrealistic expectations or the paralyzing joylessness of the conventional wisdom that only some are “Blessed with Creativity…” [insert Tinkerbell glissando]

So, maybe, that’s what really grabbed me last night, when — depending on your perception of how this stuff works — I either started to lose The Fear, or I became one of those horrible little people who doesn’t realize how stupid they look fiddling with a camera.

It Starts with a Shoe

Yesterday evening, the three of us went out for pizza. And, at some point, as my wife and I took turns carrying our daughter home, Eleanor lost a shoe. This happens a lot with a 13-month-old. Of course, we didn’t notice the shoe had gone missing until we got back to the house, where I was quickly re-dispatched on a reconnaissance and rescue mission. Heading for the door, I started to grab my camera �' but then stopped and winced a little.

“Oh, Jesus. Really?” some voice whined. “Now you’re That Guy? Can’t you just walk out there like a grownup, retrace your steps, and be back here in 5 goddamned minutes? You really need to drag your giant, douchey camera out for a four-block walk? Who’re you now, freakin’ Diane Arbus? Jeez, get a life.”

But, you know what? I told myself to shut the fuck up. And, I grabbed my camera and started downhill, into the darkness, toward one MIA Croc.

Fortunately, it was an easy enough trip, because there was Ellie’s shoe, upright and undisturbed, on the sidewalk at the end of the block. Of course (having the giant, douchey camera with me), I started snapping some photos.

First, I got a couple eye-level photos of the optimistic little shoe that turned out about as badly as most eye-level shots of the ground do. But, on review [always review the first few shots and zoom way in], I thought the color looked cool on the dark street, so I got on one knee to take another. Yeah, better. But, it still looked like a lame overhead snapshot that was way too dark and noisy. So, I did something that surprised me.

I laid on the sidewalk. All the way down. On my gut on 50° of western San Francisco concrete.

And, I took my time, thinking about the aperture (all the way open for depth of field) and the available light (very little, so I put the the camera right on the ground to steady it). I snapped a dozen or more shots with slightly different settings. No idea what I was doing. People walked by, cars passed, the L barreled by, but I kept shooting until I was satisfied that I might have something. Then, I grabbed the shoe, stood up, and trotted back up the hill, triumphant, with a recovered piece of footwear, plus what I suspected might be at least one pretty good photo.

I like how it turned out.

Yeah, I know, it’s no masterpiece, but I’m proud of it for reasons of my own. Because, last night, as I was splayed prone in the fog along Taraval Street, I realized I was getting a little better at this.

Not because I’d been magically touched with mythical creativity and skill, but because for a moment I was thinking more about how to use what I’d learned to get a good photo than I was about how I might have looked while doing it. And, that felt like a small turning point.

Tolerance for Courageous Sucking

Nobody likes feeling like a noob, especially when you’re getting constant pressure on all sides to never stick out in an unflattering way. And, in this godforsaken just-add-Wikipedia era of make-believe insight and instant expertise, it’s natural to start believing you must never suck at anything or admit to knowing less than everything — even when you’re just starting out. Clarinets should never squawk, sketch lines should never be visible, and dictionaries are just big, dumb books of words for cheaters and fancy people. Right?

I think finding your own comfort with the process (whatever that process ends up being) might just be the whole game here — being willing to put in your time, learn the craft, and never lose the courageousness to be caught in the middle of making something you care about, even when it might be shit and you might look like an idiot fumbling to make it. What’s the worst thing that could happen?

Well, you could quit, because it’s too hard to make stuff you aren’t already great at. You could convert all that pointless effort and practice back into MySpace updates and the production of funny cat pictures. No, it’s not technically the worst thing that could happen, but it’s a damned common pathway for fear to molder back into an emotional impulse to put on jammies and watch Judge Judy.

I’m not doing anything special here, and I don’t claim to have a magic formula for creativity, let alone for getting a half-decent photo of a rubber shoe. All I know is that sticking with things that don’t arrive with instant mastery does have its own reward, even if you’re the only one who ever collects it. Because the more you push through the barriers for these little avocations, the easier it becomes to remember you always have everything you need to just keep banging until you’re satisfied with any work that’s thrown at you.

Next time I need inspiration to get through a bad patch, or to get past that persistent feeling that I’ll always be stuck in the lowest creative gear, I hope I’ll remember to stop and ask myself what exactly is keeping me from just laying on the sidewalk until I get my shot. Even if it’s cold, even if I look like an idiot, and even if I risk missing the first crucial minutes of Judge Judy.

”Photography, and the Tolerance for Courageous Sucking” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on December 01, 2008. Except as noted, it's ©2008 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"

43 Folders: Real Advice Hurts

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 18:20:10 -0500

In the wonderful Bird by Bird, Anne Lamott talks about the incredible, ripping pain she felt after having her tonsils removed. All she wanted to do was chug pain killers and let the stupid thing heal, but, Anne’s doctor gave her some advice that she found as unbelievable as it was painful: he told her to chew some gum.

Turns out that, as with a lot of injuries, the entirely sensible impulse to protect and baby a wounded area was the opposite of what Anne actually needed in order to fix the problem. So, by enduring the excruciating pain of chewing gum for just a few minutes, the muscles in her throat suddenly unclenched, and Anne’s pain went away forever.

The advice Anne wanted wasn’t the advice she needed. And, like we all eventually learn, the best advice you’ll get in life hurts like hell at the time. Because it has to.

And, maybe that’s part of what what bugs me about all the “tips.”

Today, the web is littered with sites pumping out a high volume of advice on every conceivable topic. And a lot of the pathological patrons of these sites will tell you that a daily surfeit of snack-sized information helps them with what they really need in order to be successful and happy in life — to be better at their job or to be a well-rounded person or to become a more talented programmer.

I don’t doubt for a moment that the right tip at the right time can make all the difference in the world. And I have certainly been both a (reformed) producer as well as an ardent consumer of “tips,” by any definition of the word. But, here’s the problem:

In more instances than we want to admit, tips not only won’t (and can’t) help us to improve; they will actively get in the way of fundamental improvement by obscuring the advice we need with the advice that we enjoy. And, the advice that’s easy to take is so rarely the advice that could really make a difference.

A tip is like…what? A little scrap of a map. Not only is it not the actual destination, but the part you can hold in your hand will only make sense when you understand its place in a much bigger picture.

So, sure, you might get a kick out of gazing at the pretty colors and reading the funny names to your cat, and, heck, once you’ve collected enough little maps, you may even start fancying yourself a gifted cartographer.

But, never for a minute start fantasizing that being a map collector means you’ve visited all the locations on those pieces of paper. If you ever decided to attempt them, your actual travels would very much benefit from a competent (and whole) map of where you’re heading, but it necessarily requires movement, change, and enduring potentially long stretches in which you’ll have to find your own bearings in three tip-free dimensions.

At their best, “tips” are a fine way to incrementally improve a process that you’re already dedicated to practicing on a regular basis. And, in that context, tips work.

For example, a tip on your golf swing may be very useful if you’re already playing three times a week and hitting a bucket of balls after work every day. But a subscription to a magazine about taekwondo will only be as useful as your decision to drag your fat ass into a dojo and start actually kicking people. Over and over. Otherwise, you’re just buying shiny paper every month.

In my opinion, the problems with tip culture on the web are many, not least the evidence that most of the page-view-obsessed poopers of online tips seem to have zero real interest in solving any problem beyond their own need to generate repeat traffic from dazed information tourists. But, the common problem of all tip fixations traces back to a misunderstanding of how anybody ever got great at doing anything.

We can’t get good at something solely by reading about it. And we’ll never make giant leaps in any endeavor by treating it like a snack food that we munch on whenever we’re getting bored. You get good at something by doing it repeatedly. And by listening to specific criticism from people who are already good at what you do. And by a dedication to getting better, even when it’s inconvenient and may not involve a handy bulleted list.

If this strikes you as fancy talk, may I suggest that you approach the woman in your life who most enjoys sexual intercourse, and, in the nicest way possible, ask her whether she’d prefer to have congress with:

a confident partner who has had a long career of safe and mutually-satisfying romps with a range of people who liked different things; or,
a 50-year-old virgin who likes reading blogs about sex tips.

You know the answer, and so does she. There’s probably more than one reason that poor #2 is still just a well-read dilettante, but a strong candidate for the top spot would be how he’s allowed his ardor for acquiring “tips” to take the place of getting started in the actual, complicated, and sometimes very confusing craft of making ladyparts happy.

You should and will consume the web however you please, and if scanning lists of tips is a relaxing pastime for you, I’m the last person to begrudge you your fun. But, it’s time to stop pretending that practical expertise at anything can take place in an RSS reader.

Next time you find yourself staring at another re-packaged post about all the “resources” for becoming great at whatever you’re theoretically excited about, ask yourself for specific evidence — things you can point to that you’ve done or made — that reflect the improvement all those thousands of tips and resources brought you.

If you can shut me down with a hundred satisfied lovers, a pile of well-kicked opponents, or a passport full of countries you’ve walked through: well, more power to you and the tips that helped you get good.

But, if the countless, dreary hours of resource-hunting and tip-scarfing have primarily produced more RSS subscriptions and a giant ass print on your couch, maybe it’s time to stand up, and start chewing some gum.

”Real Advice Hurts” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on December 03, 2008. Except as noted, it's ©2008 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"

Six Pixels of Separation - Marketing and Communications Insights Podcast - By Mitch Joel at Twist Image: SPOS #132 - Six Pixels Of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast - +1 (206) 666-6056 - Get Blogging

Sun, 30 Nov 2008 22:04:10 -0500

Welcome to episode #132 of Six Pixels Of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast. Lots of love and insight from the audio community. Enjoy the conversation...

Here it is: Six Pixels Of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast - Episode #132 - Host: Mitch Joel.

Running time: 32:46.
Audio comment line - please send in a comment and add your voice to the audio community: +1 206-666-6056.
Please send in questions, comments, suggestions - mitch@twistimage.com.
Hello from Beautiful Montreal.
Subscribe over at iTunes.
Please visit and leave comments on the Blog - Six Pixels of Separation.
Feel free to connect to me directly on Facebook here: Mitch Joel on Facebook.
or you can connect on LinkedIn.
...or on twitter.
Facebook Group - Six Pixels of Separation Podcast Society.
In a perfect world, connect with me, directly, through Facebook.
Check out the other Podcast, Foreword Thinking - The Business And Motivational Book Review Podcast.
Foreword Thinking - Episode #11 featuring Michael Gerber - E-Myth Revisited and Awakening The Entrepreneur Within.
The Road to Six Pixels of Separation – The Book – coming soon.
Start A Blog Today
Greenfields Report – Bernard Goldbach – Inside View.
Qwitter.
Twitter is very immediate and very live.
Audio Comment – Brad at Pharma – www.twitter.com/bradatpharma.
What should big pharma be doing in social media?
Audio Comment – Chris Wilson – The Marketing Fresh Peel.
Which companies are listening best?
Six Points of Separations – Six Ways To Get Started With Blogging:
1. Choose a name.
2. Choose a platform – Blogger or WordPress.
3. Choose three things to Blog about.
4. Set up a Twitter account.
5. Get on Facebook and/or LinkedIn.
6. Let people know.
Six Pounds of Sound:
David Usher – ‘Kill The Lights’.

Please join the conversation by sending in questions, feedback and ways to improve Six Pixels Of Separation. Please let me know what you think or leave an audio comment at: +1 206-666-6056.

Download the Podcast here: Six Pixels Of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast - Episode #132 - Host: Mitch Joel.

Tags: advertising awakening the entrepreneur within bernard goldbach blog blogger blogging business chris wilson david usher digital marketing emyth revisited facebook facebook group foreword thinking google greenfields report inside view itunes marketing marketing fresh peel mass media michael gerber motivational books online social network podcast podcasting six pixels of separation six pixels of separation book social media marketing twist image web 20 wordpress

Evil Genius Chronicles » audio: Evil Genius Chronicles Podcast for November 27, 2008 - “Thankful For You”

Sat, 29 Nov 2008 20:56:21 -0500

Here is the direct MP3 download for the EGC clambake for November 27, 2008. I play a song from Camper Van Beethoven; I discuss what I’m thankful for; I talk about the fragile first few minutes of a podcast and how you can lose me in them; I talk about trying and failing to get [...]

Radio BSOTS: BSOTS 075 - BGB: rhythms and sounds from the nice part of town...

Thu, 27 Nov 2008 21:04:31 -0500

Show #75 brings back the "BUCKWILD" experience, with rant topics ranging from nearby gunshots to mixing 21st Century technology with late 19th Century housing. this episode also includes music from J. Davey, Sadat X, Idiot Savant, Ill Bill, Mojoe, and more. this episode is NOT WORKSAFE.

43 Folders: Driving Around the Buffalo

Thu, 27 Nov 2008 01:32:06 -0500

It’s purely coincidental that today is my 42nd birthday, right? Eh. Maybe.

Still, seems like as good a day as any to tell you what I’ve been thinking about, so, here’s a little present to myself.

My uncommonly smart psychiatrist (hereafter, “The Shrink”) informs me that, in addition to suffering from a modest and manageable case of ADD (ICD-9-CM Diagnosis 314.00), I also have a less well-defined condition that he has called, “an artistic temperament.”

I wanted him to laugh along when I said that sounded like some serious Theodoric of York shit — possibly involving humors and stomach trolls. But, he just smiled in that way that he does when I’m trying way too hard to be amusing. I get that smile a lot.

Still, it made sense in context. Especially since I’d just spent the previous 30 minutes rambling about the terrible time I’d been having with this first-world problem of getting back into the swing of making things.

I explained how, not long after making a big show of my interest in changing the direction of the web site that theoretically constituted my “job,” I’d unexpectedly been conscripted into a half-dozen of those all-consuming personal and business projects in which a man of my advancing years so often finds himself.

And, I told him how, even as I started to pull myself out of seven emotionally exhausting weeks, I discovered that my ideas and my words weren’t returning with the clarity and cut to which I’d grown accustomed. I told him how my mood during this weirdly dark brown study had been sickeningly reminiscent of the months I’d spent not writing a book. I told him how unusual it was for me to ever feel anything approaching the D word for more than a few contiguous minutes. And, I told him that I’d felt scared.

Author’s Note

At this juncture, your narrator will remind you that he is a grown and college-educated man who had boisterously announced an intention to write about the habits that enable admirable persons to have long-lived and successful careers in which the “work” focus of their “creative work” ensures that they (almost) never succumb to bush-league problems like “writer’s block,” serial procrastination, or an inability to generate and execute new ideas in a timely, polished fashion.

[You did get all that, right? The part where I was having trouble writing about how real artists never have the problem that I was having of being suddenly unable to think cogently about a problem that people shouldn’t be having? Good. Just wanted to make sure we’re shuffling through the same asylum here. Back to The Shrink’s office…]

So, then, I told The Shrink about how I’d finally figured out that my hang-up had involved a surpassingly stupid instance of what Stephen Covey has called putting your ladder against the wrong wall. Or something like that. I never finished the book (four times).

I told The Shrink how, even when the time to make had been restored, I kept hanging up on a huge expectation I’d made for myself — a buffalo-sized corpse in the road that was preventing me from moving forward, let alone getting into a groove. That dead buffalo turned out to be the content well of the American website you’re reading right now. See? Buffalo.

I hate that it took me several fractal weeks to realize the irony of feeling bad about my site that’s meant to help people feel less bad about themselves. So, here’s what I think right now.

Thinking about the work and habits that help industrious people repeatedly create things they love still obsesses me in the best way. And, I still want to contribute whatever I can to helping other people identify and remove the barriers to doing their best work. Obviously, to a certain point, this helps me very much, too.

But, I also need to chug giant glasses of my own medicine by practicing these ideas every day �' not just burning cycles on retyping them for a fucking web site. At a time when I didn’t totally have the ears to hear it, advice arrived in an email from a wonderful friend. I might have it framed:

If I may offer something that might appear as criticism, but really isn’t meant that way: the Internet’s meta-content is fattening my eyelids like nothing else these days…

Commentary is always a few frustrating notches below creation. There’s a quote from Darwin on why he spent years researching barnacles, and it goes something like, “one should not write about species who hasn’t studied many.”

Anybody can have a blog and post observations about things other people said first. I did it just now, and I want to do it again. Maybe, at some point, I can even manage to do it without all this self-referential belly-aching.

But, I’m also going to take my friend’s advice and quit acting like the world of ideas will wither if I’m not there to rephrase it in a slightly fancier way for my blog. I’m gonna post stuff here, but I’m also not going to sweat it or let it define me. I want to do that with other stuff that you can evaluate on its own terms.

So, my birthday gift to myself today is an unlimited mulligan whenever I play the links here at 43 Folders. From now on, the expectation I’m setting for myself is to go out and spend the next year, first and foremost, making things that delight me and that, from time to time, may even delight some of you. I’ll put stuff here when it suits me. Like today.

But, even as I strive (and often fail) to do better work across the board, I really need to approach that with the knowledge that nothing is allowed to get bottlenecked behind a self-generated anxiety about updating a blog. That’s mental.

So, anyhow, I told The Shrink how I was feeling so much better about everything now that I’d given myself permission to drive around the buffalo. And that, in the insanely dumb way that only my mind could operate, I felt energized. Not just with a renewed brio to go make some videos and learn photography and maybe even play around with fiction and verse and vest-pocket entrepreneurship. But, that I was excited about 43f again. To maybe start returning to the original idea of sharing my trail of inspirado with the folks who might enjoy it here; without worrying whether I do it in a way that makes me look enough like a thought leader.

But, still. Focusing on the good stuff and trying mightily not to waste anyone’s time (or inflate traffic). More as a way to own the ineffable process by which almost anything we encounter can eventually turn into something good — even when it starts as something weird that you don’t really understand. But maybe it turns into something. If you work really hard, manage expectations, and give yourself unlimited permission to try things, fuck up, and start over, again and again and again.

Maybe it’s not really a coincidence that today’s my birthday. Or that my shrink, and my ladder, and my buffalo, and my goddamned website about whatever-the-hell-it’s-about-today all make so much more sense when I stop thinking about thinking, and start doing things. It’s a lesson I’m prepared to learn and re-learn for God knows how many more times. But, anyhow, today, I’m 42, and I’m in the mood to forgive myself. So suck on it, buffalo.

End of throat-clearing. For today. (I’m also done with predicting the future for a while.)

The next voice you hear will belong to Twyla Tharp, and it will come out of a video that I posted recently on another site (which had turned into my secret hidey-hole for stuff I thought was too “trivial” to put here). Tharp is a woman whose book so utterly inspired me this summer — well, I guess I’m embarrassed to admit how transparently I’ll be lifting and rephrasing her ideas here. Not sure anybody needs this site when such a wonderful book already has all the best stuff.

So, happy birthday to me. And, just for the hell of it, let’s give this another spin. And, God bless the “artistic temperament” in all of us. Without it, I might still be idling behind an unseemly line of buffalo.

”Driving Around the Buffalo” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on November 26, 2008. Except as noted, it's ©2008 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"

43 Folders: Twyla Tharp, on Failing Well

Thu, 27 Nov 2008 01:32:06 -0500

YouTube - Twyla Tharp on the Subject of Motivation and Creativity

As I get older, I’ve learned to really appreciate people who are smart, opinionated, and ornery �' yet still have the plasticity of mind to synthesize new ideas and be okay with sometimes failing.

Feels like a big pattern for making this stuff work over time.

”Twyla Tharp, on Failing Well” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on November 26, 2008. Except as noted, it's ©2008 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"

43 Folders: Louis C.K. on Starting Over; Carlin's Artful Process

Thu, 27 Nov 2008 01:32:06 -0500

ILIS Interviews Louis C.K. - AST Forums
(cache)

In 2006, Louis C.K. didn’t know whether his HBO show would be renewed, but he didn’t want to sit on his hands for months waiting to find out.

Instead of going conservative by gluing new treads onto old tires, he did something tantamount to suicide for a working comic; he threw out his whole set and started over.

I decided that I would spend the year dedicating my time to building a brand new hour from the ground up. I figured that if it was ready by September, then if I got another season of Lucky Louie, (I didn’t) I could shoot that hour and then go back to work. I also figured that if we got cancelled (we did) I would really need something else ready so that I wouldn’t die of depression and poverty.

So I hit the clubs hard, recorded every set I did, and started building the time. It was REALLY hard. I didn’t know that it was possible for me. Then I listened to a CD called “George on George” where he talked about his work ethic and how, rather than just compiling material in general and shooting the best of what he has at the end of the year, he spent the year developing material specifically for the special. In other words, thinking of it as writing one special, like a novel. If you write a novel, it has a form, a theme, a story, whatever, and you know you’re writing that novel the whole time, and when it’s ready you publish it and move on. Rather than just writing “things” and then when there’s enough of it you put it out.

This approach totally changed how I thought about my task….

Louis C.K.’s latest special on Showtime was a riot, but he’s probably best known right now for killing on his recent Conan appearance.

Thanks a million for the interview link, Jesse Thorn (BTW, Jesse himself interviewed Louis C.K. in September for TSOYA).

Although I haven’t been able to put my hand to a copy of George On George, I do recommend checking out the 2007 oral history George Carlin did with the Archive of American Television. Man was crazy-smart and thoughtful about what he did and how he did it.

George Carlin - Archive Interview Part 6 of 7

I’m a writer first. […] An artist is on a journey…

So good. Don’t miss this.

”Louis C.K. on Starting Over; Carlin's Artful Process” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on November 26, 2008. Except as noted, it's ©2008 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"

in over your head: Retirement

Thu, 27 Nov 2008 00:04:25 -0500

I’m reading a magazine article on a plane right now about money discussions between couples. It says you should write down your goals and categorize your them like this: “work, children, retirement.” But what if I never plan on retiring? To me, retirement says “thank God I’m out of that hellhole.” It says, “finally I can [...]

Evil Genius Chronicles » audio: Evil Genius Chronicles Podcast for November 23, 2008 - “Indie Band Survival Guide - Part 2″

Tue, 25 Nov 2008 20:40:04 -0500

Here is the direct MP3 download for the EGC clambake for November 23, 2008. I play songs by Beatnik Turtle and present the second half of an interview I recorded at Dragon*Con with Jason Feehan and Randy Chertkow about their book the Indie Band Survival Guide. “I Don’t Want to Work Today” is my favorite [...]

Six Pixels of Separation - Marketing and Communications Insights Blog and Podcast - By Mitch Joel at Twist Image: SPOS #131 - Six Pixels Of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast - +1 (206) 666-6056 - Totally Transparent With Shel Holtz

Tue, 25 Nov 2008 13:28:15 -0500

Welcome to episode #131 of Six Pixels Of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast. This was going to be a quick chat with Shel Holtz of the For Immediate Release Podcast about his latest book, Tactical Transparency, with John C. Havens. It wound up much more than that. Enjoy the conversation...

Here it is: Six Pixels Of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast - Episode #131 - Host: Mitch Joel.

Running time: 52:27.
Audio comment line - please send in a comment and add your voice to the audio community: +1 206-666-6056.
Please send in questions, comments, suggestions - mitch@twistimage.com.
Hello from Beautiful Montreal.
Subscribe over at iTunes.
Please visit and leave comments on the Blog - Six Pixels of Separation.
Feel free to connect to me directly on Facebook here: Mitch Joel on Facebook.
or you can connect on LinkedIn.
...or on twitter.
Facebook Group - Six Pixels of Separation Podcast Society.
In a perfect world, connect with me, directly, through Facebook.
Check out the other Podcast, Foreword Thinking - The Business And Motivational Book Review Podcast.
Foreword Thinking - Episode #11 featuring Michael Gerber - E-Myth Revisited and Awakening The Entrepreneur Within.
The Road to Six Pixels of Separation – The Book – coming soon.
In conversation with Shel Holtz – co-author of Tactical Transparency - How Leaders Can Leverage Social Media to Maximize Value and Build their Brand with John C. Havens.
Co-host of For Immediate Release – The Hobson and Holtz Report Podcast with Neville Hobson.
Special offer for the book, Tactical Transparency (until December 5th, 2008).
The Naked Corporation.
Six Points of Separation – Six Ways To Get Started With Tactical Transparency:
1. Ask yourself, “is it safe?”
2. Figure out what you are going to share with employees.
3. Which policies are in place.
4. Who’s going to say what?
5. Establish what is off the table.
6. Assess what tools you have and what you will need.
Six Pounds of Sound with C.C. Chapman – Managing The Gray, The Advance Guard and Accident Hash.
Chance – ‘Ambulance Chaser’.

Please join the conversation by sending in questions, feedback and ways to improve Six Pixels Of Separation. Please let me know what you think or leave an audio comment at: +1 206-666-6056.

Download the Podcast here: Six Pixels Of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast - Episode #131 - Host: Mitch Joel.

Tags: accident hash advance guard advertising awakening the entrepreneur within blog blogging business cc chapman chance digital marketing emyth revisited facebook facebook group for immediate release foreword thinking google itunes john c havens managing the gray marketing mass media michael gerber motivational books naked corporation neville hobson online social network podcast podcasting shel holtz six pixels of separation six pixels of separation book social media marketing tactical transparency twist image web 20

in over your head: Podcamp Ottawa all-around

Mon, 24 Nov 2008 23:48:41 -0500

I took all these photo at Podcamp yesterday and stitched them together with my girlfriend just now. Pretty cool. Thanks to Mark etc. for organizing. Take a look up close, I think it’s worth it.

in over your head: Google and your paycheck

Sat, 22 Nov 2008 23:28:51 -0500

I hosted a Facebook event last year where I remember the final panel being about the future of Facebook. This was right around when their new targeted ad service had come out (which eventually failed), but there was a lot of discussion about that, lots of marketers in the room chatting about what the [...]

Managing the Gray - Marketing for the New Media Professional: Open Web Awards Voting Now Open

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 20:12:05 -0500

As a blog partner, I’m happy to announce that voting has now begun in the Mashable Open Web Awards. Voting begins now and goes until Sunday, November 30th at 11:59 pm PST. So be sure to take a moment and vote for your favorites in each category. When the winners are announced I’ll be sure [...]

Managing the Gray - Marketing for the New Media Professional: The Secret of Social Media Success

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 20:12:05 -0500

You want to know what the secret to social media success is? I give it on the show, but I’ll tell you here too. It is a simple one, that there is NO silver bullet for success. No big secret right? But, you’d be amazed at how many people and companies do think it will [...]

in over your head: About Twitter and attention

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 22:48:53 -0500

I’m starting to think that bloggers who heavily tweet are shortchanging themselves. I saw Michelle Blanc earlier and she mentioned that she’s going to be on Tout le monde en parle, a talk show here in Quebec. I hadn’t heard and told her so, so she said she had tweeted it, and jokingly asked if [...]

in over your head: About saving the world

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 14:28:05 -0500

Nobody gets credit for the crises they averted. If you saved your company because you decided to start doing the books clean, you’re not going to be the hero. You’re going to be the unrecognized, silent person chugging along and doing the right thing. It’s different than if your company sees disaster, almost ends up in [...]

Six Pixels of Separation - Marketing and Communications Insights Blog and Podcast - By Mitch Joel at Twist Image: SPOS #130 - Six Pixels Of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast - +1 (206) 666-6056 - On Books, Marketing And The First Social Media President

Mon, 17 Nov 2008 12:28:35 -0500

Welcome to episode #130 of Six Pixels Of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast. Back for another week of interesting audio comments, some personal ramblings and a bunch of stuff I promise to be paying more attention to (and you should be too). Enjoy the conversation...

Here it is: Six Pixels Of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast - Episode #130 - Host: Mitch Joel.

Running time: 41:10.
Audio comment line - please send in a comment and add your voice to the audio community: +1 206-666-6056.
Please send in questions, comments, suggestions - mitch@twistimage.com.
Hello from Beautiful Montreal.
Subscribe over at iTunes.
Please visit and leave comments on the Blog - Six Pixels of Separation.
Feel free to connect to me directly on Facebook here: Mitch Joel on Facebook.
or you can connect on LinkedIn.
...or on twitter.
Facebook Group - Six Pixels of Separation Podcast Society.
In a perfect world, connect with me, directly, through Facebook.
Check out the other Podcast, Foreword Thinking - The Business And Motivational Book Review Podcast.
Foreword Thinking - Episode #11 featuring Michael Gerber - E-Myth Revisited and Awakening The Entrepreneur Within.
The Road to Six Pixels of Separation – The Book – coming soon.
Books to check out:
Born Standing Up by Steve Martin.
Content by Cory Doctorow.
ProBlogger by Darren Rowse and Chris Garrett.
Reality Check by Guy Kawasaki.
Remix – Lawrence Lessig.
Technology Review – a great new magazine by MIT.
Audio Comment – Sebastian Kiel – Speaking English Podcast.
Audio Comment – Shel Holtz – For Immediate Release Podcast.
Audio Comment – Robin Browne – Being Buff.
Audio Comment - Chris Goward – Wider Funnel Marketing.
Six Points of Separation – Six Tools And Channels To Check Out:
1. FriendFeed.
2. Sphinn.
3. Delicious deep dive.
4. RoboForm.
5. Camtasia or SnagIt (or both).
6. TweetDeck and/or Twhirl.
Music as suggested by Sebastian Kiel – Speaking English Podcast:
Monkeeman – ‘The Last Ones’.

Please join the conversation by sending in questions, feedback and ways to improve Six Pixels Of Separation. Please let me know what you think or leave an audio comment at: +1 206-666-6056.

Download the Podcast here: Six Pixels Of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast - Episode #130 - Host: Mitch Joel.

Tags: advertising awakening the entrepreneur within being buff blog blogging born standing up business camtasia chris garrett chris goward content cory doctorow darren rowse delicious digital marketing emyth revisited facebook facebook group for immediate release foreword thinking friendfeed google guy kawasaki itunes lawrence lessig marketing mass media michael gerber mit monkeeman motivational books online social network podcast podcasting problogger reality check remix robin browne roboform sebastian kiel shel holtz six pixels of separation six pixels of separation book snagit social media marketing speaking english podcast sphinn steve martin technology review magazine tweetdeck twhirl twist image web 20 wider funnel marketing

in over your head: Just ordered this

Sat, 15 Nov 2008 14:12:04 -0500

20×200 is doing good by me. It’s expensive to ship to Canada but the prints are very nice.

Managing the Gray - Marketing for the New Media Professional: Is Social Media In YOUR Company’s DNA?

Fri, 14 Nov 2008 11:40:07 -0500

I had no plans to record today until I saw someone twitter about this new video from Gary Vaynerchuk about yelling vs. whispering.It is his usual loud, energetic self and that is what I loved about it, but what made me want to record was his comment about “respecting your DNA” and that one little [...]

Evil Genius Chronicles » audio: Evil Genius Chronicles Podcast for November 11, 2008 - “Indie Band Survival Guide - Part 1″

Thu, 13 Nov 2008 19:56:08 -0500

Here is the direct MP3 download for the EGC clambake for November 11, 2008. I play songs by Beatnik Turtle and present the first half of an interview I recorded at Dragon*Con with Jason Feehan and Randy Chertkow about their book the Indie Band Survival Guide. You can subscribe to this podcast feed via RSS. To [...]

Managing the Gray - Marketing for the New Media Professional: XOHM Bringing WiMax to Boston

Thu, 13 Nov 2008 03:32:03 -0500

I got an outreach e-mail a few weeks back talking about how WiMax service was going to be coming to Boston. They contacted me because they knew I loved my Sprint Mobile Broadband and wanted to let me know about this “exciting news.” I put that in quotes because I didn’t have a clue why this [...]

43 Folders: The Exile's Return or, Still Waters Run Bleachers

Wed, 12 Nov 2008 08:20:30 -0500

What Happened to 43Folders.com? | Ask Metafilter

MeFi user, Gerard Sorme, asked a good question over on Ask Metafilter:

Merlin Mann has been a prolific blogger, and one of the better productivity bloggers, at 43folders.com. Yet, he’s disappeared! 43Folders last post was on September 25th. This is an eternity for this blog - and for Merlin. He had some other projects, but I can’t find a record of his presence anywhere online since late September.

Heh. I don’t think I’m that hard to find online, but I was happy to respond to Gerard as to why I haven’t posted anything new here in a while:

I’m still here. All’s well. Just figuring out where I want to go with the site as I also work on lots of other stuff and do a bunch of speaking and consulting work.

Definitely interested in the direction I’d been talking about, but I’m taking my time to decide what that might look like over time �' deliberately avoiding the impulse to “post something” just to �' y’know �' post something.

Probably coming back soon, slow at first, and I’ll be looking less at the productivity meta-process stuff the site’s (in)famous for, trying to focus more on the demonstrated practical habits that help pathologically creative people become capable of doing what they do on a year-after-year basis. That’s the idea anyhow. We’ll see.

Sorry to cause concern, and I very much appreciate knowing somebody cares. Still here, just quiet on that front for now.

If you’ve been wondering where the new posts are, that’s the whole story, right there. I’m still here, but I’m just not here quite yet. But, I expect to be. Soon, probably. (Maybe next week or so?)

The recovering blogger part of me gets antsy when I see how long it’s been since I’ve written something new for this space, but, candidly, that’s one of the many reasons I hope folks will join me in starting to see 43 Folders as something other than “a blog,” in the typical sense of the word. (I suppose that’s easy enough if it’s never updated, amirite? High five!)

Thing is, in addition to my doing lots of speaking work, this has turned into something of a rebuilding quarter for me. So, I’m doing a lot of things in other parts of my life that wouldn’t be appropriate for the front page of this site.

Putting ducks in rows. Reading. Setting up my first office. Helping family and friends. Signing lots of forms. Writing large checks. Learning how adults run an actual business. Reading some more. Staring and thinking. Watching my daughter learn to walk while talking to a saltine. And, one of my favorite new skills: learning to evaluate (then mostly ignore) any impulse that presses me to publish something here before my brain’s done thinking about it. In my opinion, that’s a luxury I must figure out how to afford for the rest of my life.

Anyhow. I’ll be back very soon. But, in the mean time, there’s always:

Kung Fu Grippe
- Where 43f fans should enjoy yesterday’s Twyla Tharp video
You Look Nice Today
- Which, if I may say, has been burning lately.
the Twitter
- Yeah, I caved. I’m back.

I know there are lots of words that you can read out there every morning, so, on those future mornings when I have a few new words to share with you, I hope you’ll find them worthy of the wait. No promises. But, in any case, thanks for asking. And thanks, as ever, for the time and attention. See you sooner than later.

”The Exile's Return or, Still Waters Run Bleachers” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on November 12, 2008. Except as noted, it's ©2008 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"