Let's do something a little different today. Last week we talked about the power of asking: why the ask is harder than it looks, and why it matters more than most of us admit. This week I want to dig deeper. Before you can ask, you have to recognize that something exists worth asking about. You have to see the ceiling above you for what it is: not the sky, but a ceiling. That is what today is about. Recognizing your limitations. Seeking out the people and examples who can break your frame....
about 2 months ago • 4 min read
In 1950, Charles Schulz signed away the rights to every character he'd ever created. He didn't own Charlie Brown. He didn't own Snoopy. He didn't even get to name the strip. United Feature Syndicate's terms were standard for the era: 100% of the rights, or no deal. Schulz was 27, unknown outside St. Paul, and needed the platform. So he signed. The syndicate also told Schulz that his title, “Li'l Folks” had to go. It was too close to an existing strip. They renamed it “Peanuts,” after the...
2 months ago • 2 min read
Well, that was a week. I went to Washington, D.C. to give a paper at the International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM) conference and do research at the Smithsonian. The research is for Sway, my book arguing that promotion didn't just circulate American music, it shaped artists' images, legacies, and sometimes the music itself. The Ellington chapter is that argument made concrete, and Ellington's archives are at the National Museum of American History in D.C. So I went...
2 months ago • 6 min read
Capturing notes isn't about completeness, but discernment. This note from Marcus Aurelius was worth keeping. I’ve watched smart, creative people build beautiful note-taking systems. Gorgeous Obsidian vaults, color-coded Notion databases, perfectly organized Readwise libraries, all functioning, in practice, as very elegant graveyards. Full of ideas. None of them alive. The system isn’t the problem. The filter is. The Highlighting Trap Here’s what most of us do when we read something...
3 months ago • 4 min read
Take walks to experience life and fuel your creative inspiration. It’s been one of those days. You are creatively blocked. No juices flowing. No ideas. Your mind spins in an endless loop, going nowhere. The canvas stays blank. The strings on your guitar sound flat. The cursor blinks at you with a sneer. This is what creative paralysis feels like. Being locked inside your skull, unable to move. I want to suggest an age old solution to your creative block: go on a walk. There’s an old saying,...
9 months ago • 2 min read
Growth is earned when you invest in loss. In The Art of Learning, Joshua Waitzkin tells the story of his early days training in Push Hands, a Tai Chi practice. He had a classmate named Evan, and every time they stepped onto the mat, Evan smashed him around. Not once or twice—every session, for months. It was humbling. Sometimes humiliating. The Art of Learning, by Josh Waitzkin But Waitzkin kept coming back. Because he knew that the fastest way to grow wasn’t to avoid these beatings, it was...
9 months ago • 2 min read
If you were to visit my office and look around, you might notice my obsession with note cards. I'm obsessed with note cards. 4x6 inch notecards are seemingly everywhere. In stacks on my desk, more on my shelves. Stuck to the pinboard on my wall. Note cards taped to my computer monitor. A stack of blank note cards is always within arm’s reach. I get asked every so often about how I do my research, and today I’m going to share with you the most important part of my research system. It’s how I...
9 months ago • 5 min read
Tend to your art like it matters. Tend to your business like it will too. In the weeks after being featured on Stranger Things, Kate Bush’s 1985 single “Running Up That Hill” made $2.3 million from streaming alone. The fan favorite scene from Stranger Things season 4 used Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill.” It climbed the Spotify charts, became the sixth biggest song in the world for 2022, and was featured in over 2 million TikTok videos. It even earned her a Guinness World Record: the...
10 months ago • 3 min read
You’ve been told artists can’t think like entrepreneurs. But the best ones always have. The legend says artists must suffer. That fame and fortune come only after death. That struggle is always noble, and successful artists always sell out. That’s nonsense. In 1850, Jenny Lind stepped off a ship into New York Harbor and into a nation already obsessed with her. She was a soprano from Sweden, called "The Swedish Nightingale." The Swedish Nightingale, Jenny Lind, was the most famous singer of...
10 months ago • 2 min read