Tom Schmidt

“A clear majority of human beings tend to connect their sentences, paragraphs, and scenes together with the word and.

This is a mistake. The ideal connective tissue in any story are the words but and therefore, along with all their glorious synonyms. These buts and therefores can be either explicit or implied.

“And” stories have no movement or... See more

Most complexity is unnecessary, but we manage it instead of removing it because deletion requires courage that addition doesn't.

Seth advises:“My suggestion is whenever possible, ask yourself what’s the smallest possible footprint I can get away with?... What is the smallest possible project that is worth my time? ... What is the smallest group of people who I could make a difference for or to? Because smallest is achievable

Your calendar is the most honest autobiography you'll ever write.

You should attempt things that are difficult enough to guarantee some early embarrassment, but important enough that long-term regret is unlikely.

Trying something difficult will usually make you look foolish or inexperienced. That’s fine. That's the cost of learning.

But if it's important to you, then you'll work through the early failures and —... See more

"You don’t need to be smarter than others to outperform them if you can out-position them. Anyone looks like a genius when they’re in a good position, and even the smartest person looks like an idiot when they’re in a bad one."

from Reboot by Jerry Colonna, is “How am I complicit in creating the conditions I say I don’t want?”

John Steinbeck on ignoring the finish line and starting:

“Abandon the idea that you are ever going to finish. Lose track of the 400 pages and write just one page for each day, it helps. Then when it gets finished, you are always surprised.”