for makers

The number of people who are willing to start something is MUCH smaller than the number of people willing to contribute once someone else starts something.

It speaks to the fact that as individuals, we’re all expected to perform at the same scale as major brands. We're supposed to have monetizable output at all times. We can't have hobbies that are meaningless. Everything we do has to be a product.

You can't even express an interest in a particular social cultural landscape without somebody asking you ... See more

We don’t need to define ourselves by the things we make, but we can still make them. This goes back to the idea of handiness, right? This isn’t a book about becoming an expert in any one thing. It’s about trying lots of things and becoming increasingly capable as a result. It’s about getting comfortable experimenting with something you’ve never don... See more

I’ve ultimately realised that the best way to let others know about your work is to get rid of the word ‘promote’ altogether - it just isn’t a good fit for what creative people do. Instead, I like to tell people what my work is about, and let them make up their own minds. There’s no force, no pushiness required, and everyone involved can come away ... See more

Here’s a useful habit that’s more than a hack...

The next time things are going well, when a project is about to launch, when a meeting has been successful, when the sun is shining... take your phone and go for a walk.

Hit record on an audio app and make a twenty-minute audiobook. Talk about what you know, what you see, what you hope for. Talk about ... See more

“Everyone bifurcates the world into content and distribution,” Whaley told me. He has brown hair, is of average height, and was wearing a nondescript gray t-shirt and jeans when we talked. “From the beginning, we viewed those as the same thing. Each object gets better with more participation, and so does MSCHF. Scale is not the goal. Scale is a too... See more

Many of us spend our lives pursuing private acceptance through external success. But no matter the award or honor, our inner doubts will remain. True acceptance comes from inside us. It takes asking ourselves challenging questions like: What do I want from my work? What’s most important about it to me ? How would I create my work differently if I p... See more

1. Everything is iterative. A single Instagram or Twitter account becomes a newsletter becomes a small publication with a few contributors becomes a corporation. (See The Free Press.) Thus it makes sense to build your concept in public and test its engagement at every stage. Every powerful brand starts with a single post. As with restaurants, new publ

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