Greatness

Intellectually, we know details and small differences matter. We can see the slight differences between two products that look similar on the surface but one is merely functional and the other is delightful. We can hear the differences between two orchestras playing the same notes, yet one rendition makes you yawn, and the other gives you... See more

Taste requires originality. It invokes an aspirational authenticity. Writer George Saunders calls this “achieving the iconic space,” and it’s what he’s after when he meets his creative writing students. “They arrive already wonderful. What we try to do over the next three years is help them achieve what I call their “iconic space” — the place from... See more

Don’t pressure yourself into making noise on the internet because you’re afraid of being forgotten.

Take your time & make something that will last longer than you will even if that means infrequent output.

Trends will get you there now, a unique and original feeling will last forever.

I asked Kelly about the tradeoffs of focusing on a single thing if you want to be great (which is what I had been getting at before). “Greatness is overrated,” he said, and I perked up. “It’s a form of extremism, and it comes with extreme vices that I have no interest in. Steve Jobs was a jerk. Bob Dylan is a jerk.”

One way to aim high is to try to make something that people will care about in a hundred years. Not because their opinions matter more than your contemporaries', but because something that still seems good in a hundred years is more likely to be genuinely good.