A funny writer teaches us how to write well (and funny)

This was a great and easy advice-interview on how to write, from a corporate blog of all places. The advice comes from Scott Dikkers, The Onion’s longest serving editor in chief. If you don’t know The Onion, please read this piece of genius.

Below are some verbatim nuggets of gold:

1. Concept is king

“Your concept — and I would equate that with your headline or title — is the flag you’re raising, it’s the shingle on your door. And if it’s not a good concept or the right concept, then you’re sunk before you’ve even written a word.”

2. The key to quality is quantity

“This is how professionals work,” said Dikkers, “because they understand that most of what they write is dreck.”

[…]

4. Ruffle some feathers

“Thing is, Horatian satire isn’t really remembered because it’s toothless,” said Dikkers. “It might get a lot of laughs today but it’s not going to live in our cultural memory. Only satire that angers or offends people will be remembered.”

[…]

10. Know your joke and make sure the reader knows your joke

“Readers want to know they’re in the hands of a master who is going to manipulate them,” he said, “the way Spielberg does in his movies. He takes you on a ride, through the highs and lows.

8 bits of Kevin Kelly’s 68 Bits of Unsolicited Advice

Source: Syfy.com

A great list from a great writer and thinker. His book What Technology Wants permanently re-framed how I understood the internet and tech innovation.

Original article here.

Being enthusiastic is worth 25 IQ points.

A worthy goal for a year is to learn enough about a subject so that you can’t believe how ignorant you were a year earlier.

Gratitude will unlock all other virtues and is something you can get better at.

Everyone is shy. Other people are waiting for you to introduce yourself to them, they are waiting for you to send them an email, they are waiting for you to ask them on a date. Go ahead.

To make something good, just do it. To make something great, just re-do it, re-do it, re-do it. The secret to making fine things is in remaking them.

Perhaps the most counter-intuitive truth of the universe is that the more you give to others, the more you’ll get. Understanding this is the beginning of wisdom.

Anything real begins with the fiction of what could be. Imagination is therefore the most potent force in the universe, and a skill you can get better at. It’s the one skill in life that benefits from ignoring what everyone else knows.

You really don’t want to be famous. Read the biography of any famous person.

“Not one syllable of what Hemingway has written can or will be missed by any literate person in the world.”

I enjoyed this NYT collection of terrible reviews for now-classic books. Of course hindsight is 20-20, and honest critique in any form is difficult – but it still feels good to poke some fun at those silly critics.

For something similar in the VC world, check out Bessemer’s famous anti-portfolio.

Favorites below:

“Shall we frankly declare that, after the most deliberate consideration of Mr. Darwin’s arguments, we remain unconvinced?” On the Origin of Species, by Charles Darwin (1860)

“The average intelligent reader will glean little or nothing from it … save bewilderment and a sense of disgust.” Ulysses, by James Joyce (1922)

“This Salinger, he’s a short-story guy.” The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger (1951)

“As discouraging as a breakfast of cold porridge.” Collected Poems, by W.B. Yeats (1896)

“There are two equally serious reasons why it isn’t worth any adult reader’s attention. The first is that it is dull, dull, dull in a pretentious, florid and archly fatuous fashion. The second is that it is repulsive.” Lolita, by Vladimir Nabokov (1958)

“Not one syllable of what Hemingway has written can or will be missed by any literate person in the world.” Across the River and Into the Trees, by Ernest Hemingway (1950)

“‘Catch-22’ has much passion, comic and fervent, but it gasps for want of craft and sensibility.” Catch-22, by Joseph Heller (1963)

“Platforms for rule-breaking apps”, or what we can learn from BitTorrent about the true value of decentralization

For anyone remotely interested in internet history, BitTorrent, and cryptocurrency, I recommend reading this great 4-part essay by Simon Morris, BitTorrent’s former Chief Strategy Officer:

Part 1 – https://medium.com/@simonhmorris/why-bittorrent-mattered-bittorrent-lessons-for-crypto-1-of-4-fa3c6fcef488

Part 2 – https://medium.com/@simonhmorris/if-youre-not-breaking-rules-you-re-doing-it-wrong-bittorrent-lessons-for-crypto-2-of-4-72c68227fe69

Part 3 – https://medium.com/@simonhmorris/intent-complexity-and-the-governance-paradox-bittorrent-lessons-for-crypto-3-of-4-1d14ac390f3f

Part 4 – https://medium.com/@simonhmorris/decentralized-disruption-who-dares-wins-bittorrent-lessons-for-crypto-4-of-4-f022e8641c1a

Here are some of my favorite highlights in the series:

  • The general purpose public blockchains out there might best be understood as platforms for rule-breaking apps.
  • coordination is hard and costly especially with many paranoid participants whose interests are not necessarily obvious to you — in the world of Bittorrent this meant that changes to different parts of the Bittorrent protocol to introduce obvious win:win optimizations or attack mitigations took many months and sometimes were shelved completely.
  • While the Bittorrent ecosystem was decentralized and extremely hard to censor, BitTorrent Inc — one of the few participants with real potential influence — was highly visible and felt exposed to legal repercussions of any of its actions
  • But in practice the only way to make any large-scale governance viable is to re-centralize power in a smaller number of deciders with some number of rules around how you can become and remain a decider
  • And this is the main conclusion — decentralization may be great for disruption, but if the experience of Bittorrent is anything to go by it is not at all clear that it has a role in whatever comes next. Blockchain architectures are great for unleashing unstoppable rule-breaking mobs, but we shouldn’t mistake the rule-breakers for the winners.
  • Bittorrent could have been eradicated by state intervention, but most states chose a lighter touch approach. The same is mostly true so far for crypto-currencies, but the scope is so much greater and time will tell at what point a state actor will feel compelled to intervene
  • The ‘winners’ created in the wake of Bittorrent disruption (Spotify and Netflix) shed any semblance of decentralization — it simply wasn’t necessary any more, and actually made things harder. But their success was the result of a paradigm shift where files were abstracted away.

2019 Personal Bible – some updates and favorite excerpts

My personal bible is just a pdf doc where I save my favorite writings, notes, and thoughts. I try to read a little from it each day, and occasionally return to the original source material for that extra sauce.

Here’s the latest copy you can download.

Below are two recent additions – a fun-to-read academic essay explaining the qualities that elevate regular swimmers to the elite ranks, and excerpts from the Analects of Confucius (not as fun a read, but y’know).

All are verbatim highlights unless otherwise noted.

I’m reminded of an anecdote about how Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism differ. The three founders – Confucius, Lao Tzu, and Buddha are tasting vinegar. Confucius notes the vinegar is sour (Confucianism = sour; society has many degenerate people). Lao Tzu says the vinegar is sweet (Daoism = sweet; universe is guided by the harmony of the Dao). And Buddha thinks the vinegar is bitter (Buddhism = bitter; life is difficult, learn to detach).

Or another saying that I’ve heard is “the Chinese are Confucians at work, Daoists at leisure, and Buddhists at death.”

I wonder what the American version would be?

Happy 2019! In one month, it’ll be the Year of the Pig 🐷

***

The Mundanity of Excellence notes

The main differences between less and more elite swimmers:

1. Technique – Not only are the strokes different, they are so different that the “C” swimmer may be amazed to see how the “AAAA” swimmer looks when swimming. The appearance alone is dramatically different
2. Discipline – Diver Greg Louganis, who won two Olympic gold medals in 1984, practices only three hours each day—not a long time—divided into two or three sessions. But during each session, he tries to do every dive perfectly
3. Attitude – The very features of the sport that the “C” swimmer finds unpleasant, the top-level swimmer enjoys. What others see as boring—swimming back and forth over a black line for two hours, say—they find peaceful, even meditative, often challenging, or therapeutic. They enjoy hard practices, look forward to difficult competitions, try to set difficult goals

Athletes move up to the top ranks through qualitative jumps: noticeable changes in their techniques, discipline, and attitude, accomplished usually through a change in settings, e.g., joining a new team with a new coach, new friends, etc., who work at a higher level

Talent is often recognized after the fact – conveniently after all the skill acquisition and hard work have already been invested – …despite the physical capabilities he was born with, it took Peter several years (six by our estimate) to appear gifted. […] Most of them are said to be “natural” or “gifted” after they had already devoted a great deal of time and hard work to the field

Superlative performance is really a confluence of dozens of small skills or activities, each one learned or stumbled upon, which have been carefully drilled into habit and then are fitted together in a synthesized whole

In the pursuit of excellence, maintaining mundanity is the key psychological challenge

***

The Analects of Confucius

The superior man does not, even for the space of a single meal, act contrary to virtue. In moments of haste, he cleaves to it. In seasons of danger, he cleaves to it.

The Master said of Zi Chan that he had four of the characteristics of a superior man -in his conduct of himself, he was humble; in serving his superior, he was respectful; in nourishing the people, he was kind; in ordering the people, he was just.

There were four things from which the Master was entirely free. He had no foregone conclusions, no arbitrary predeterminations, no obstinacy, and no egoism.

The Master said, “Hold faithfulness and sincerity as first principles. Have no friends not equal to yourself. When you have faults, do not fear to abandon them.”

The Master said, “The firm, the enduring, the simple, and the modest are near to virtue.”

Some one asked about him, saying, “I suppose he has made great progress.” The Master said, “I observe that he is fond of occupying the seat of a full-grown man; I observe that he walks shoulder to shoulder with his elders. He is not one who is seeking to make progress in learning. He wishes quickly to become a man.”

Zi Gong asked, saying, “Is there one word which may serve as a rule of practice for all one’s life?” The Master said, “Is not RECIPROCITY such a word? What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others.”

Confucius said, “There are three things which the superior man guards against. In youth, when the physical powers are not yet settled, he guards against lust. When he is strong and the physical powers are full of vigor, he guards against quarrelsomeness. When he is old, and the animal powers are decayed, he guards against covetousness.”

With coarse rice to eat, with water to drink, and my bended arm for a pillow – I have still joy in the midst of these things