Hi friends,

Each year, I read fewer and fewer books, but go deeper and deeper on the books I choose to read. It hit me yesterday when I realized that we're approaching the end of 2023, and I've probably picked up no more than ~10 books all year.

I've been focused on the most important book to me, and reading other books that help me understand that one.

Today's Finds

​John Fiorentino, on Having Good Ideas: One of the hardest parts of doing creative work is simply explaining yourself. On the outside, the creative life can look lazy and undisciplined. You write. You walk. You travel. You order a latte, then a Diet Coke. You read random books. You talk to random people, just waiting for a spark. Isn't that a waste of time? Well, no. Because that's how the work happens. What looks like leisure on the outside can be excruciating on the inside. The idea-hunting instinct doesn't have an on/off switch. It's a 24/7, all-consuming craft. It's a simultaneous blend of bliss and torture. Working overtime is mandatory, and the pay is speculative. When others go out to dinner on Saturday for a relaxing night out, you scan the menu for font designs and feel the suede texture of your chair for inspiration. The clamor of the plates drives you nuts. So does the lack of sound panels on the ceiling. Next thing you know, you're lost in your head, designing a mood board for the restaurant you want to open someday while your date is wishing they'd swiped left. Though epiphanies arrive in a kinetic flash, the seeds are sown over years of play and contemplation.

​Airlines are Becoming Banks: One of my strangest note-taking hobbies is collecting old airline advertisements. And the TWA ads take the cake. The Pan-Am ones are a close second place. What strikes me most about these old advertisements is the glamour of travel. The colors were vibrant. The planes were spacious. The flight attendants were beautiful. The people were smiling and well-dressed. Not so anymore! Airlines have become financial institutions. The changes began with American Airlines after the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978 when they introduced their frequent flier program. A decade later, they introduced their first branded credit card. Almost half a century later, the major airlines have created opaque mini economies driven by points and credit cards — and these mileage programs are now more valuable than the airlines themselves. United's MileagePlus program was valued at $22 billion at a time when the company's market cap was only $10.6 billion. This shift in priorities is why airplanes themselves feel less like hotel lobbies and more like waiting rooms at a hospital. Next time your knee knocks against the seat back in front of you at 35,000 feet, you’ll know the culprit for your bruise.

​How Louis C.K. Tells a Joke: Comedy is the art you can't fake. If you're good, you get a roar of laughter. If you stink, you get the haunting crickets of silence and indifference. A few things stand out about Louis' approach to the craft: a sensitivity to pacing, clear premises, comedic surprises, and deliberate rhythm. As the Nerdwriter says: "Telling a joke is like riding a wave of feeling." Unlike Seinfeld, Louis doesn't write out his jokes. Instead, he writes down bullet points and tries them out on stage.

​Writing Wednesdays: Steven Pressfield spent decades as a struggling writer, and didn't publish his first novel until the age of 52. But once the floodgates opened, he exploded. Now he's published 24 books. Writing Wednesdays is an exploration of the craft, topped by this lesson: “When you understand that nobody wants to read your shit, your mind becomes powerfully concentrated. You begin to understand that writing/reading is, above all, a transaction. The reader donates his time and attention, which are supremely valuable commodities. In return, you, the writer, must give him something worthy of his gift to you." If you're ready to dive in, I recommend "The Most Important Writing Lesson I Ever Learned," "How to Be Inspired," or "Write What You Don't Know."

​Pop Culture Has Become an Oligopoly: Two things are true. First, the Internet has led to decentralization like never before. People like myself can spin up a website and a newsletter, and bypass the approval of gatekeepers. But at the same time, pop culture is more centralized than ever. From movies to music, books to video games, the most popular content garners more attention than ever. Take movies. Before the year 2000, only 25% of top-grossing movies were prequels, sequels, spinoffs, remakes, reboots, or cinematic universe expansions. By 2010, that number had climbed to 50%. Now, it’s close to 100%. The gravity of the Internet leads to centralization, but savvy media consumers can learn from a wider variety of voices than at any other point in human history.

How I Write

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Marc Andreessen gave me a masterclass on how to think, learn, read, research, and write.
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Here’s what stuck out:

1. Read, read, read… then read some more.
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2. Many of your best ideas will emerge in fits of rage or frustration. Channel the fury. Smash the keyboard. Lean into the passion. Torch the page with your energy.
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3. Media formats are cyclical. Nietzsche wrote in aphorisms and Twitter is aphorisms-as-a-service. Hip-hop brought back poetry. Montaigne pioneered the essay format and blogs brought them back into vogue.

You can watch the full episode on YouTube, or listen on Spotify and Apple.

If clips are more your thing, start with Marc's advice to stand out early in your career by writing. Take notes. Write the plan. Run point on the next internal memo.

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P.S. You were made for more than this.