Remember the rule of 7

There is a “Rule of 7” in research. It states that you can find out anything if you are willing to go seven levels deep. If the first source you ask doesn’t know, ask them whom you should ask next, and so on down the line. If you are willing to go to the 7th source, you’ll almost always get your answer.

Never stop pressing forward at the first roadblock. Keep digging and there is usually a way around or through it.

People tend to be strange

Never assume that other people make the same decision as you for the same reason you would have made it. People do regular things for strange reasons and it’s seldom what for reasons we think.

The elite and the almost-elite

The professional finishes and the amateur fades.

The extraordinary people possess the extra 5% that separates them from the very good.

The elite are the innovators, the level just below them are imitators.

There is great stability and plenty of money to be made in the “very good” or “imitator” level, but if you yearn for more, focus on the details. Marginal gains usually make up the 5% difference between you and the best. Also, a willingness to venture into the unknown to be the innovator is a must.

Creative tools that destroy creativity

Our tools have the potential to make us more creative or less creative. Do we use digital tools like Photoshop to make our job easier? Do we use AI to augment and help us create in ways we haven’t before? Or do we use these tools to replace our creative process?

Every computer is limited by human input. If you are allowing the computer to do the creative work for you, somebody else is creating and you’re just organizing things.

Don’t forget today

Don’t forget the process. Don’t forget the moment. Right now. The things we do today. We get lost in our day-to-day operations and wake up and realize we’re 70 years old and our life has passed us by.

Seemingly more and more we have an inability to slow down, put our distractions down, and focus on what is happening right now.

We get distracted by the things we still have to do, our lofty goals, or our devices and we let life happen while we hardly take notice.

Never trade living today for the vague future we dream of. That day will come, too, and then we may enjoy it, but not at the cost of today.

Extreme ownership

To exercise ownership of the things you do is possibly the most important thing you can do to make your life easier and to make people like you more. Perhaps it’s the good thing to do whether people like you more or not.

Sometimes doing the right thing is good in its own right.

To make mistakes is human. But to own your mistakes is divine. Nothing elevates a person higher than quickly admitting and taking personal responsibility for the mistakes you make and fixing them. It’s incredible how powerful extreme ownership is.

All hail the break

My last blog post was about a photographer’s interest in daguerreotypes and then I didn’t write for an entire week.

I pride myself on the consistency I've had with these blog posts. If you go all the way back to late 2018 when I decided to start writing every day, you will see that I didn’t believe in myself. I was sure I’d do it for a week and then give up. I didn’t. Here I am years later still pressuring myself to write every day.

I’m starting to think that a more extended break is just as important as being able to be consistent.

This week off has been just that. A much-needed break.

Your ability to work hard is important, but it’s better to be able to work relatively hard for years. Take breaks and work hard in between the breaks.

Daguerreotypes and why photographers should know what they are

The following is stolen from a book I saw a while ago:

Early photography owes its origin to the discovery of the daguerreotype.

A plate, made of thin copper or other metal, was covered with a silver preparation. This was placed directly in the camera, and there was no method of transfer, as there is from the ordinary photographic plate, from which innumerable prints may be taken.

It went out of common use with the invention of the photographic plates and paper, and with the discovery of instantaneous photography. The taking of the daguerreotype required long exposure, which was decidedly objectionable and the result was coarse and tame.

After taking, the daguerreotype passed through acid solutions for the development and permanency of the picture.

To Those Intrepid Explorers

“The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

–Theodore Roosevelt

“But it’s difficult!”

When you realize something will be difficult, that is a good thing. That means everybody else will give up before they start.

If you’re the person willing to start and give it a try, you might just succeed.

Doing difficult things is valuable because the difficulty of them means few people do them. But the most valuable things you will do for yourself and offer to the world around you will often be those difficult things that others aren’t willing to do.

It’s difficult and that’s a good thing for you.

Why I Plan

Every morning I take some time to plan the day and every evening to plan the next day. There is a need for me to manage my work and projects this way because:

1.) My work doesn’t get done on its own.

2.) I can allow my mind to rest knowing the required work is written down.

Planning makes for more efficient work and writing the plan down frees your mind to focus on the task at hand without worrying about forgetting important things that need to be completed later.

Experience is overrated

Experience is overrated. My unpopular opinion is that when hiring, hire for aptitude and train for skills. Most really amazing things are done by people doing them for the first time. Most job interviews are a waste of time and AI could probably do them just as well according to the statistics.

I like writing about failure

It doesn’t have to be anything necessarily deep about failure, but I notice that I like thinking about and writing about failure in all forms and in all places. It probably helps ease the sting of failures I’ve had before.

You simply must get comfortable with failing if you ever want to succeed. It takes 70 failures to find one success in nearly everything you will ever do. If you can learn to become comfortable with failure, it will be like unlocking a superhuman ability.

Learn to be okay when failure happens. Understand that it must happen. Learn to recover quickly and never be deterred from trying again.

Create and don’t edit (at the start)

Separate the processes of creation from improving what you make. You can’t write and refine, photograph and edit, or make anything and clearly analyze it at the same time.

If you try to do this, the editor in you stops the creator.

While you write, don’t remove and while you draw, don’t erase. When you write the first draft, don’t think, let the words flow out. Let nothing interrupt the stream of creative consciousness.

At the start of any great art, the creator’s mind must not be a judge.

Your imagination is a most powerful force

Anything real first begins with the idea in your head. Without imagining some new thing, nothing new will be made. Your imagination is one of the most potent forces in the universe and it’s something you can get better at using.

Your imagination and ability to think creatively will improve all aspects of your life. Your imagination is also one skill that benefits from ignoring outside noise and the “advice” others lay on you.