An online commonplace book
Certainly read the whole piece, but here is the print-it-out-and-hang-it-above-your-monitor version:
Be audacious.
Do grunt work.
Do the boring things.
Learn undefined skills.
Work hard.
Bring a sense of urgency & move fast.
Improve things.
Ask your naive questions.
Simplify things.
Follow up.
Show up during the hard times.
Figure out the first step.
Finish things.
No excuses then?
Most people who are talented or smart are scared of doing things. I’m not sure why that is, but it’s more often than not the case. The ability to do scary things on their behalf is extremely powerful, both in terms of advancing the goal/project and also getting them to better utilize their talents.
– Adaobi
It’s early 2024, but Adaobi’s piece How to do things if you’re not that smart and don’t have any talent is my favorite on-line piece of the year.
Audacious: recklessly daring. – origin, from L. audax, audac- ‘bold’
I can’t help but think of this in terms of football, but I find being audacious helps build confidence. Having an approach of I’m going to take this defender on, regardless of the result, can help steady the nerves.
Applicable elsewhere I’m sure.
I was really not a good drawer. I wasn’t the worst in the class, but I was by no means ever the best in the class, whatever class. Even in the little architecture school there were five or six people who could draw better than me. They could certainly draw trees and birds and you know, all that stuff. I was a rather painful drawer.
– Peter Cook
Inspiring to learn architect Peter Cook was not the best artist in his classes growing up. He toiled to improve his drawing. He called himself a “painful” drawer.
“I’m still not fluent. If you were watching me drawing then, I’m using a straight edge. I’m using aides. I’ve got lots of tricks of the trade by now.”
– Peter Cook
Fascinating how Peter describes drawing like a language. He uses the word “fluent”.
He still believes he’s not “fluent”. But Peter is open to using tools to overcome his artistic limitations.
Floodlights and Goalposts 