‘Nobody Wants to Read Your Shit’ is here to teach you writing

I have been reading the book ‘Nobody wants to read your shit’. Little to my surprise, Stephen Pressfield has written an incredible book, again.

He goes in length about how to write an ad content, how to write for Hollywood as well as how to write fiction and nonfiction.

Maybe you are already familiar with the idea of a hero’s journey. Most resources about writing a story focuses on this one idea. But Stephen goes further than that. He talks about themes, counter themes, how to write characters, Inciting incident, climaxes, jeopardy, content, text/subtext and a lot more!

Here are some of the suggestions that I found helpful:

Tell the story in pictures

A very important part of writing a story is making it a series of pictures. By pictures I mean portraying the scene happening in real time. No body likes long talks or expositions. That’s why even movies bring us to flash backs instead of just talking about things that happened.

Every character must represent something greater than himself

The hero needs to embody the theme. But not from the start. He will learn it from all the experiences he gets in the story. Thus his character will be developed and he will get ready for a face off against the villain.

The villain himself should embody the counter theme. His character will be developed in the second act. The more dangerous and powerful he is shown to be, the more impactful the climax will be.

Jeopardy

The hero needs to go through severe jeopardy. A lot of trouble should be on his way throughout the story to get him on the verge of a psychotic break.

Solve the climax first

Pressfield also suggests to start writing the end of the story first. He advises to solve the climax first and then write around that.

Having said all that, I’d like to add my two cents. I think the most important part of writing a story is to a block all distractions while writing and actually sitting down everyday to write something.

That’s how Stephen Pressfield does it.

That’s how Stephen King does it.

That’s how Neil Gaiman Does it.

If you can’t make yourself write daily then your writing won’t improve overtime. The ideas that we as humans have discovered about a proper story, wont just come naturally to you. You have to practice it day after day after day. You have to embody the spirit of a sculptor who keeps putting in work carving and chiseling away.

To make sure you sit down to do the things important to you, read this.

The best free online Finance course for absolute beginners

If you want to take your chances in the financial markets then you’ll have to learn about the core of finance. And this course deals with exactly that.

The class starts with an auction.

The course teacher bids an item wrapped in paper to the class.

What follows builds the foundation for the rest of the class and the rest of his lectures.

As my major was in finance, I had to go through all the jargon and formulas that an undergrad student needs to know. I had good teachers too. Teachers who made me realize the economic forces behind each item.

But, as I am going through Andrew Lo’s course from MIT, I am convinced that he is on a different level.

The first thing that one notices is how passionate he is about finance. He claims finance to be the most important subject and finds financial equations ‘beautiful’. This kind of passion is contagious.

The second thing you notice is how wide his range of knowledge is. He comes off as well versed in the quantitative and the economic side of finance. There is no lack in his awareness of the current events either.

This makes him an excellent teacher.

His eagerness to show practical examples as well as leaving no question unanswered makes this course a gem.

As the course was recorded just after the crisis of 2008, there was plenty of resource and motivation to go through what happened in those days. Thus, the viewers get to learn from practical events.

Finance is a mystery for most of us. How does all this work? All these stocks, bonds, banks, hedge funds -how do they function?

This is unacceptable as at least some knowledge of finance is necessary for financial freedom. And if you want to try your luck at the stock markets, then you need a solid foundation in finance.

I encourage everyone to at least try the first class and see if this works for you.

The reason why you procrastinate over simple tasks and how to stop.

If you had a choice between getting an iPhone 11 Vs an iPhone 6, for free, which one would you pick?

Of course, most of us would go for the iPhone 11.

We put our brain in situations like this every day.

For our brain, simple tasks are iPhone 6s whereas it has options to get much better deals.

Why sit down and study when I can watch something fun on YouTube?

Why clean my room when I can lie down on bed and read random posts from Quora?

For the brain, pleasure is the currency.

It will only start doing menial things voluntarily when there’s no other option.

Eliminate all the other options that are more fun. Turn your phone off and put it in a drawer. Block all the social media sites on your browser.

Soon you’ll find that your brain is bored and wants to do something.

In the absence of an iPhone 11 it will pick an iPhone 6.

And surprisingly, you’ll start doing the mundane.

Better yet, you’ll start enjoying the mundane!

Outliers is an outstanding book.

Malcolm Gladwell has a unique way of writing.

He starts all his chapters with one story, only to be interrupted by another one. Half way through the second story you realize that the 2^nd one is actually there to help you understand the first one. It’s a fun journey to go through.

His stories always have themes and counter-themes, and the whole book is there to subvert your expectations and change your mind about how success really works.

But having said that, its not a storybook at all! It’s a non-fiction about how success is not an individual achievement.

Success comes from luck factors, lineage, demographic advantage and even from the month you were born!

No he does not suggest that astrology is at play. Rather he shows how athletes can get advantage from their birth-date because they were born a few months earlier from there peers in the same age class.

He talks about how airlines have solved their ‘culture’ problem, how Bill Joy and Bill Gates got to the top and why KIPP works.

He even talks about how his mother came from Jamaica to lead a successful life in Canada.

This book is sometimes enthralling and enticing. Other times it can get tragic and even terrifying!

But one thing is for sure, this book will change your attitude towards success forever.

It will help you develop gratitude, get rid of envy and create a better platform for you and your family.

This is a book that you definitely want to read.

Have a lot of hobbies but no time to do them? Use the 3 Sacred Hours Rule!!

Do your days feel incomplete?

I am asking this question because for many days that’s how I felt. I felt like I wasn’t doing the things that mattered most to me. Even on the days when I was very productive, I was often fulfilling outside obligations, instead of walking my own path.

So, I started to ask myself. What could I do in a day that would stop this inner whining about fulfillment?

Well, it took a while, but I got answers.

I listed 7 activities that, if done daily, will greatly aid in my cause and leave me feeling satisfied.

They were- Posting in my blog, practicing Python, studying finance, reading financial news, learning German, writing fiction and making YouTube videos.

Whoa! That’s a long list!

Well, I did feel intimidated at first, but then I started to assign how much time I would need for each of them.

The new list looked like this-

Python- 25 mins

Blog post- 25 mins

Studying finance – 25 mins

German – 25 mins

News- 25 mins

YouTube -2 hrs

Well as you probably noticed, all of them, except making a YouTube video, needs only 25 mins daily. And if I add 5 mins break between each activity, then all of them should take only 3 hours to complete (again, except YouTube).

As I stated in an earlier post, I have stopped all slot machine type apps. I put my phone away from me as soon as I wake up. Thus, I have cleared up a lot of free time. Its entirely possible for me now to spend 3 extra hours each day.

I named this the 3 sacred hours.

As soon as my day starts, I start my 25 min pomodoro session, and start an activity from the list. I work for 5 to 8 each morning and thus get the tasks dearest to me done regularly, without fail.

Even if my whole day is a mess, I am at a peace, as I know I have completed the most important tasks of the day.

This idea of having 3 or 4 sacred hours is nothing new.

Apparently, Jordan Peterson used to isolate himself in a room for 3 hours everyday to write his first book.

 

 

Steven Pressfield also employs a similar tactic.

 

 

Stephen king once told George RR Martin that he writes 6 pages every day. I guess in his case it’s 6 sacred pages! 😉

 

 

 

Neil Gaiman also shares how he isolated himself when he needs to write. I discussed about his technique here.

 

 

So, what are the most vital tasks for your cause? Can they be done in 3 ours? Would you be willing to stop the trivial to make space for the meaningful?

The only Ted Talk you’ll ever need to be successful in life

Warren Buffet once famously urged a class full of graduate students to read 500 pages a day. He himself claims that 80% of his day consists of reading. The investing guru was caught saying that knowledge is just like compound interest, it grows exponentially the more you add to it.

I’ve read my fair share of self-improvement literature. There are some who hate the idea of reading too much. They call it ‘motivation porn’. Some call it ‘analysis paralysis’. I myself stand on the idea that if you act upon what you’re learning, while constantly updating your knowledge bank through fresh reading, it’s advisable to read a lot. Everyday. As much as you can.

Whatever problem/ challenge you’re facing right now, someone may have already solved it and put his experience in a book. All you have to do is to read.

There are people that have dedicated their whole life learning and teaching, you can get inside their brains and explore their minds through reading.

Having said all of that, I do recognize that some of you are in a time crunch. Then there are people who are tired of searching for answers. If so, don’t worry. This post is for you.

This is Conor Neill. Conor has been teaching Leadership Communications courses at IESE for over 16 years on MBA, Executive MBA and Senior Executive Programs. On June 10, 2013, the TEDx Talks uploaded his speech on YouTube. The video has been by almost 2 million people by now. He starts his video like this:

If you had €1000 and you could invest that money in someone’s future, who would you bet on?

He goes on to illustrate how Warren Buffet would make this decision. Apparently, the billionaire investor will consider 3 criteria. In the rest of the video, Conor goes on to talk about these criteria.

Here’s the talk-

Most Ted speaker would stop there. But, not Conor. He went on that stage not to sell something but to genuinely help people. So, he talks about tools to harness these qualities into your psyche.

The Tools He Talks About

I won’t tell you what the criteria are. I want you to watch the video and find out for yourself. Trust me, it’s worth the 23 minutes it will take you to watch it.

But I’ll talk about the tools he suggests that you use.

First, he talks about writing your thoughts. It’s similar to the morning pages that Julia Cameron suggests in her best selling book ‘The Artists Way’.

He is not the first psychologist whom I have heard being an ardent supportedr of these morning pages. Bill Williams, the famous psychologist turned stock trader is another person who pushes morning pages as a crucial factor for success.

Then Conor talks about, the power of little steps. I wrote intensively about this idea here.

Next conor speaks of Delaying gratification. The best way to do this is not an amazing display of willpower. Rather what you need to do is to remove the object of your desire from your sight. In short-

When you want something done- make it visible. i.e. If you want to run, keep your running shoes near the door.

What you want to avoid- make it invisible/ impossible. i.e. If you want to avoid social media- uninstall apps

This is as far as I will go talking about this talk. Now go watch it for yourself. You can thank me later 😉

Don’t play slot machines and you’ll defeat procrastination.

What can one do to stop procrastinating in the modern life?

The answer to this question is definitely not seeking more tips, tricks, knowledge or motivation.

Most of us are already aware of the available ideas, we just lack the will to implement them.

However, this is what has been working for me: I stopped using slot machines.

‘Well, I don’t use slot machines’, I can hear you say.

Trust me, you do. We all do.

When we refresh the YouTube or Instagram homepage, it works as a slot machine. When we read random posts in Quora, it works like a slot machine. When we go through the apps in our phone to look for the next fun thing, that also works like a slot machine.

The mechanism is the same. Uncertainty. Random rewards. Shuffling.

There’s something very addictive about it. Something very satisfying, even though we know it’s not what we really want to do with our life.

So, this will be my suggestion to any fellow procrastinator:

Shut your phone and put it away from your sight. Make a list of the things you want to/ need to do today. Start tackling them, one action at a time.

TL; DR:

Make your life boring enough and you’ll find joy in the most mundane task.

Give yourself the choice of using slot machines the whole day and see yourself feeling unmotivated to do even the things you love.

If you need a system to use your free time, maybe this idea will help:

The 30 day productivity challenge for the chronic procrastinators among us

Doing the wrong things are the greatest sacrifices

I have been thinking a lot about the idea of sacrifice lately (not the kind of sacrifice we make for others, rather the ones we think we make when we go for a workout and ignore our desire for fast foods). I think I’ve come to some interesting conclusions that I’d like to share.

First, I was pissed for being required to sacrifice my pleasure and comfort in this moment for gains in the future. What gives the future such an authority over the present moment? After all, the ‘I’ that exists in the present should have just as importance as the ‘I’ that lives in the distant future. Why does his well being trump my whims?

When looking for the answers to these questions, I realized some things.

First, there is no me in the past, present or future. There is just ‘me’, spread throughout the space time continuum. And there is no sacrifices either. There are just tradeoffs. When I sacrifice getting lost in the dopamine rich, continuous hits of pleasure that comes from shuffling the home page of Facebook or Instagram, just like a gambler playing the slot machine, I gain some thing else. I gain mental clarity, peace and TIME. Yah, time, the most precious resource in the whole omni-verse. Time, the resource that even Jeff Bezos- with all of his billions of dollars, can not buy. Time, whose productive limits are only bound by your own imagination.

 So long story short, if there were a sacrifice made in such a situation, it would have to be when you do the wrong thing. When you chose to stay longer in that dopamine rich artificial-social-environment created by those apps, and let go of your overall well being and time. This is the real sacrifice.

 You sacrifice each time you take a cigarette puff. You sacrifice your health and your integrity. You sacrifice the same things each time you consume sugar.

 Would you ever pay 20 bucks to get something that costs only 5? I don’t think so. But we make similar mistake when instead of money we deal with other types of resources. We take 5 minutes of sweet sensation in our tongue and pay for that with a life time of diabetes. Genius!

 

Atomic Habits is a must read for everyone

Professionals stick to the schedule;
amateurs let life get in the way

We fail to live up to our potential for many reasons. Some of us are just victims of bad habits. Some just can’t beat fear. Then there are others who are shackled by their tendency to procrastinate. These things work diligently everyday to keep us where we are, or worse- get us spiraling down towards hell.

These monsters are real. They pretend to love us, make us fall victim to short-term safety and pleasure. They are cunning and know how to break through every wall of reason that we build.

Your higher self calls you. You want to answer it. But, you don’t. You can’t actually. It’s because of these monsters. Stephen Pressfield calls them Resistance. Resistance stems from you but is not you. You can defeat it. You just need some weapons in your arsenal.

I first saw James Clear on YouTube. I instantly knew he was legit. Later when he published a book I knew I had to read it. The Book is called Atomic Habits.

Atomic Habits is a perfection. There are many books and gurus for habits. James Clear borrows from them and then add his own wisdom to it. Thus, Atomic Habit is comprehensive and tackles almost all the practical issues that we face regarding habits.

The best thing about the book is how it illustrates the relationship between habits and identity. Here’s a quote from the book:

Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become. No single instance will transform your beliefs, but as the votes build up, so does the evidence of your new identity.

The main discussion of the book revolves around the 4 pillars of habit: Cue, Craving, Response and Reward. Clear goes in depth about how to utilize these phase to build good habits and delete the bad ones.

When you apply the teachings of Atomic Habits to your life, you beat resistance. You stop being a hedonist and start your journey towards stoicism. You are then in the path of manifesting your highest, truest self.

Even a little improvement today goes a long way over time. Your life will soon be vibrant and filled with meaning. This book will show you how to take proper care of every aspect of your life- health, wealth, art, spirit… you name it. Through automatizing the most important yet mundane tasks, you’ll find true freedom. Through building rituals your performance will be consistently good and improve over time.

When you fall in love with the process rather than the product, you don’t have to wait to give yourself permission to be happy. You can be satisfied anytime your system is running

The logic behind sacrifices (for fighting procrastination and bad habits)

Is ‘me in the future’ evil?

For quite a few days now, I’ve been slacking off. All the while thinking to myself, what’s the point of anything? What’s the point of giving up binging anime, consuming sugar and putting things off? Why sacrifice awesome things now to get it delivered to me in the future? Who is this ‘me in the future’- that gets priority over the real me- now?

Then there’s always the existential crisis thoughts. If I am temporary, what’s the point of building myself up? What’s the point of sacrificing my hedonist desires for something so fragile? Heck, there’s even no guarantee of safety even if I do the right things! The non-smoker still gets cancer while century-old smoker lives!

This made me ponder about the idea of sacrifices. Why should I sacrifice for my future self? Why should ‘he’ get all the fun- I remember asking a friend yesterday.

 

The Epiphany

Today I had an epiphany. Sacrifices aren’t a one way traffic. They go both ways. Right now I feel stable and alert. Consuming sugar will make me feel dizzy and sleepy.

Consuming sugar will hamper my overall happiness, capacity and longevity. It’s not about me in the future or any other point of time. Rather it’s about ‘the me’- me spread throughout the space-time continuum.

Through each action I’m always sacrificing. There’s no activity without a sacrifice.

Thus, everything is a tradeoff. Meditate?- gain peace and clarity; lose time and opportunity cost. Consume sugar?- taste the goodness and stop craving; lose health, cognitive abilities, alertness etc.

It’s always a tradeoff. There’s no way out of it.

But, here’s the kicker- not every result have the same duration.

Consuming sugar may feel good for 10 minutes, while the bad consequences can linger way longer than that.

The question is then, am I sacrificing a bigger, longer lasting, dividend paying outcome for something that will leave me in an instant? Am I trading for less with more?

I think this is where wisdom stems from.

I could rephrase the question like this- Am I sacrificing the good of the many for the good of one? Maybe this is where morals stem from.

Then there could be another twist- some sacrifices may even enable us to gain an outcome that is very hard to get otherwise. In those cases we often make series of sacrifices because we deem it as good investments!