Hey Everyone,
Hope you're having a great week. Here are a few things I've been reading, writing and pondering lately. Enjoy!
1. Unlocking Internal Knowledge Is Actually a Great Content Strategy
Unlocking internal knowledge makes it easy to write quickly (because you know the subject matter!) and write well (because you know the subject matter!). As an added bonus, it also means you can write without relying on external sources—everything you write is source material.
This isn’t a silver bullet, but it is one way to ensure higher-quality content that you can write quickly. In this post, we’ll walk you through a few ways to go about this and include some examples for inspiration.
2. The Bus Ticket Theory of Genius
A modern day Paul Graham gem.
For example, for the very ambitious, the bus ticket theory suggests that the way to do great work is to relax a little. Instead of gritting your teeth and diligently pursuing what all your peers agree is the most promising line of research, maybe you should try doing something just for fun. And if you're stuck, that may be the vector along which to break out.
3. How to Chill Out and Relax Already
I dig this article from Outside. One piece of advice—learn a new sport—really resonates. Learning to ski as an adult has been so much fun.
Each time we acquire a complex skill, our brains spring into action, shifting gray and white matter around in a process sometimes referred to as activation-dependent structural plasticity. To use an analogy from running, it’s like trading a steady 5K jog for a series of high-intensity sprints. It might be painful at first, but it makes your brain stronger. Even more appealing, developing new abilities may make us less stressed.
4. Tweet of the Week
what so many people who hire agencies miss: working well with an agency is a skill
— Walter Chen (@smalter) January 6, 2020
h/t @liveink https://t.co/XiAR0gljaY
5. Random Links
- Write Better Right Now: I have not yet read Kaleigh Moore's new ebook but I trust her advice and I'm assuming this is really good.
- Killer Inside: The Mind of Aaron Hernandez on Netflix is sad, intriguing, complicated and hard to turn away from. Highly recommended.
- Sounds okay by me: Why 2020 Will be the Year We Work Less
- YouTube video of the week: Jason Isbell singing "Cover Me Up"
- The Animalz newsletter got a facelift. You can check it out here.
Have a great weekend!
Jimmy
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