Monthly Archives: October 2011

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parislemon:

The reaction to my post on the game of tech blogging the other day was fascinating. About half of you found it to be an honest, insightful account. The other half seemed to think I was an arrogant prick. Fair enough. Obviously, I was going for the former.

But the latter reaction honestly did surprise me. It’s not like I was saying anything crazy. If you’re close enough to anyone in that industry, they’ll tell you the same thing. If they don’t, they’re either lying or they simply don’t have what it takes to be the best at their job. Harsh, but that’s what it comes down to. 

I didn’t mean to suggest that all of tech blogging is a trivial and can be easily gamed. But based on dozens of discussions I’ve had throughout the years, I’ve found that the best in this space channel one or more “games” to keep them going. It’s all about the drive.

Perhaps “game” is a poor choice of words. I simply mean some motivating factor. In this way, tech blogging is no different from many other professions. Would Michael Jordan have been the greatest basketball player ever if he didn’t have that drive? That killer instinct? Something motivated him beyond simply playing for a crowd. It elevated him.

So when I read Hallmark-vanilla like this, I have to laugh. Yes, we all want to be the best writers we can be to inform our audience. We all can say we want to hold hands and change the world. That’s the winning thing to say. But it doesn’t actually mean anything.

The only way you can affect change as a writer is by achieving greatness; by becoming the best at your profession. And you can’t do that without that drive. You need something pushing you to get to a place where you’re in the position to do something fantastic. You need something pushing you to go beyond where your peers can go.

I’m sorry, but writing a post teaching someone the best ways to utilize Google+ for marketers ultimately doesn’t mean jack shit. If you’re writing that post, it needs to be as a means to an end. You write that post to increase your audience by one, to widen the reach of your next post. And so on. 

It’s a grind but you power through and you don’t look back. You chalk it up to the game.

I’m reminded of a favorite back-and-forth from the film Gattaca:

Anton: Vincent! How are you doing this Vincent? How have you done any of this? We have to go back. 

Vincent: It’s too late for that. We’re closer to the other side. 

Anton: What other side?! You wanna drown us both? 

Vincent: You wanna know how I did it? This is how I did it Anton. I never saved anything for the swim back. 

About 10 percent of the writers I talk to are Vincent. The other 90 percent are Anton. 

“If you think of life as a game, you will always lose.” — That’s some intense fortune cookie fodder right there. Unfortunately, it’s also false. I didn’t lose.

Call it a game, call it motivation, call it competitiveness, call it whatever you want. It’s all about drive. To be the best, you need it.

“Writers are competitive,” fictional Ernest Hemingway tells Gil in Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris. “If you’re a writer, declare yourself the best writer. But you’re not as long as I’m around, unless you wanna put the gloves on and settle it.”

Drive

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When They Got Back from the Moon, Apollo 11 Astronauts Went through Customs

NASA has confirmed that Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins went through customs upon their return to Earth and the United States. They filled out the above form, declaring their travel itinerary and that they had brought back moon rocks, dust, and samples through the US border. They did not mention the whiskey smuggled inside Aldrin’s suitcase.

Link -via Geekosystem

from Neatorama http://bit.ly/nSTWX2

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Thank You, Steve

Dear Steve,

We’ve never met. And yet nearly everywhere I turn in my house, I see your imprint. You don’t know my family, and yet each of us has had our lives made better because of your work. As I put my kids to bed, I wanted to share some belated thank yous for all you have done for me and my family.

Thank you for bringing music back into my house. I was an aspiring classical musician in my early years And yet with the busyness of life, music had fallen by the wayside until you gave us the iPod and iTunes. Thank you for the ability to instantly share the soul of James Brown with my son, Taylor Swift with my daughters (I think), and, now, letting me express my sadness with Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings — all with one device.

Thank you for the mini-MBA my 7-year-old Miya is getting via her favorite app, Bakery Story, where she is learning the joy and stress of running a business without even knowing it. Thank you for the cool factor of reading bedtime books to my 5-year-old Audrey via iPad. Thank you for Talking Tom, the cartoon cat that makes my 3 year old Luke laugh even with a skinned knee and gets him to eat his vegetables when I can’t.

Thank you for turning my wife into Ansel Adams and Steven Spielberg. She was always a serious scrapbooker, but iPhoto and the iMac (plus Shutterfly) have been the equivalent of the Gutenberg printing press for her. She’s used iMovie to help my parents feel closer to their grandkids and bridge the 8,000 mile gap that exists today.

And thank you for the master class in business. I recently wrote about category creation, but no one is more expert on it than you. Thank you for the cannon of case studies that Apple has created across product innovation, retail innovation and business model innovation. Thank you for the object lesson in investing and delayed gratification that I was able to share with my 17-year-old niece Emily, with whom I ‘co-invested’ in Apple shares 3 years ago which taught her that one dollar not spent today can be worth three dollars tomorrow.

Thank you for Pixar, which is my favorite of your creations. Thank you for creating a new category of “computer animated cartoons” for both kids and adults. Thank you for creating positive yet real father figures like Mr. Incredible, who go beyond the classic bumbling idiot father of yesterday’s animated movies. Thank you for showing us the truest depiction of true love and loyalty in an amazing and dialogue-free montage at the beginning of Up that goes beyond the traditionally superficial narratives of love at first sight. I could go on and on, but thank you for being the modern day parables that have taught my kids the value of aspiration and perspiration, love and loyalty and friendship and family.

Thank you for showing us that in all of what we do in business, that the mission can be more than just margin. For showing us that creation much more fun than just conquest. For showing us that the $3 billion you have paid out to developers via the App Store is what a real job creation program looks like. For showing us that pursuing artistry brings more lasting joy than just adulation. And for showing us that fractional thinking about just market share is more likely to limit your future, while an exponential mindset around category growth will expand your horizons.

Mahalo and Aloha to you and your family.

from HBR.org http://bit.ly/oy4Xgw