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Perfectly Designed Imperfection

This is the most exciting guitar deign I’ve seen in a while. The design is not optimized for hanging on a wall. It’s (very intentionally) optimized in every way for picking up, plugging into anything and sounding great, playing reliably without constant care and maintenance, throwing anywhere (on

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Seth Godin on Why You Should Start a Podcast

It’s the same reason you should start a blog, newsletter, or any public, creative outlet for yourself. Here’s Seth (from his podcast [https://overcast.fm/+L0YWOn_r4/24:52], of course): > “The middlemen have not yet come along that make it financially feasible for the typical person

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Audience First Vs. Product First

Every year (maybe six months lately), creators post about why you should create a products, then build an audience for the product; or build an audience first and create products based on their needs. It’s a false choice. Reject this premise. You need both. Both need constant attention. Both

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My Personal Publishing Principles for 2021

It’s a semi-annual tradition around here to summarize all the knowledge I gather, and link to, in simple, general statements that can be applied across all the topics covered. This year is a little different. I’ve started giving these summaries their own pages to be continually updated. I

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Experiments Check In

A few of you wrote to me to ask about how my year of experiments is going. To refresh everyone, for 2021, I changed personal websites, started blogging daily again, changed book publishing models, moved to a new newsletter host, and tried to fix an old guitar with my son

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Get Your Ass Kicked

From Brené Brown [https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/9855106-if-you-are-not-in-the-arena-getting-your-ass] via Weekly Thing [https://weekly.thingelstad.com/]: > “If you are not in the arena getting your ass kicked on occasion, I am not interested in or open to your feedback. There are a million cheap seats in the world today

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22nd Birthday Makeover

Yesterday afternoon (February 26, 2021), I began preparing my Fender Strat for a makeover/restoration project with my son. I never knew when the guitar was actually built, so when I finally opened her up, this is what I saw. That’s a little spooky. It’s stamped February 26,

22nd Birthday Makeover
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2 Dutch Sayings You’ll Use Every Day

I learned these from Adam Curry, inventor of podcasting and former MTV VJ. I use them almost daily (as mantras in my head when dealing with difficult projects and people). “Wat je zegt ben jezelf, met je kop door de helft.” Loosely translated, it means: What you say about others

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Reading Is An Action

And it takes time. So, why do treat our reading (of RSS, social media, email, books, etc.) in the same way we treat non-active parts of our life? An aside: I’ve given up giving lifehack-y, productivity tips. As lucrative as they have been for some, I’ve aged out

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Practice Avoids Perfect

I love this from Tim Stoddart [https://www.timothygrant.co/]: > “Hate to break it to you, but the people who read my morning blog read my worst work. Which is actually the point. This is my warm up. This is my set of jumping jacks before I do burpees.