Here is another famous Hemingway line on writing: “The first draft of anything is shit.”

of that process, called Minimum Viable Product, which involves starting with a small idea and then testing it relentlessly with small focus groups until it becomes the best version of itself (or, conversely, it gets killed because it doesn’t actually have that much potential).

when people are close to their own projects or their own talents, they can lose the ability to see objectively. They might think they’ve taken a project or their talent as far as it can go, and, strictly speaking, given an individual’s limitations and inexperience, this may be true. But ultimately, to take a project where it needs to go, you’ll nee

The artist seeks contact with his intuitive sense of the gods, but in order to create his work, he cannot stay in this seductive and incorporeal realm. He must return to the material world in order to do his work. —Patti Smith

many people approach their work with polluted intentions. They want the benefits

Brashness, newness, boldness—these attitudes are not at all at odds with perennial sales. In fact, it’s an essential part of the equation. Stuff that’s boring now is probably going to be boring in twenty years.

should try to answer some variant of these questions: What does this teach? What does this solve? How am I entertaining? What am I giving? What are we offering? What are we sharing? In short: What are these people going to be paying for?

If you have a launch date looming and everyone around you is “all systems

Great, successful work rarely starts as a solution in search of a problem. Lasting resonance requires something more than novelty: It needs an earnest person attempting to find a solution to a common problem.