This was a really nice write-up Tom. Glad to have subscribed to you! Your newsletter is like a breath of fresh air amongst the many other voices which seem to be bogged down by their own agenda.
"The internet is built on unsolicited self-improvement advice. That and sextapes, an equally popular form of unrealistic pornography."
Powerful, laughed out loud at that one.
Haven't scrolled on Twitter in a few weeks and the lack of unsolicited advice has had a wonderful effect on my mood. Mainly that I've stopped feeling as guilty for not working all the damn time.
"And I don’t mean those lauded Silicon Valley style noble failures in pursuit of a dream. I mean the obviously stupid, self-destructive blunders of a moron."
Ahh yes. Not enough talk about legitimately stupid failures where the only lesson is "Oh, I suppose I am an idiot then". Most of mine are like that to be honest, maybe "be more careful" being the only real lesson I could squeeze out of it at a push.
"Let’s say you recall happy memories of surfing on holiday and so surfing is your want. The answer is not education and credentials and research and endless price and spec comparison on gear. The answer is figuring out a way to move to the beach ASAP and finding some sort of part-time job that allows you to be in the water when the waves are at their best."
More or less my plan. The beauty of the internet for those that are able to take advantage of it, is that this is entirely feasible, while still building your career/business and improving your quality of life.
Before it was one or the other, live in a van and figure it out later, or work the career and make enough money young enough to retire and still live the dream. Neither options particularly appealing to me.
I greatly admire that you've taken such a direct path to focusing on your writing - you're leading the way, so to speak, for many other writers. I think a lot of them use their jobs as an excuse for why they don't write more, when in reality it's probably due to fear of not making it if they do go 'all in' on writing.
"The ‘conventional’ path would have been a torturous slog or creative writing degrees and networking and going hat-in-hand to publishers and so forth. But I took the direct path, thought about what my ideal day would look like and reverse engineered it."
I have two close friends who did degrees in English from a top university and they had one 3-month creative writing module in 4 years, despite almost everyone in the class is an aspiring writer of some sort.
The module itself was rubbish apparently - the only useful part was it forced you to write something and get feedback from someone, which you could get with a bit of discipline and one honest friend or family member.
No need for a degree to do what you want to do anymore, beyond certification based professions. Writing, marketing, coding, designing - you can learn how and go do it straight away.
Almost all of the barriers are ones that we erect ourselves because to achieve what we want to achieve means feeling like an idiot at first, and that's something we've been conditioned to avoid rather than embrace.
"Wanting what you want is one thing. Getting it is another. But most superior of all is to become one of those rare beings who ends up wanting what they get out of life, whatever that may be. One who end up embracing ‘Amor Fati’ as Nietzsche called it, the love of fate.
I don’t know how you get there, and I am not there yet- though I have experienced brief glimpses- but the ultimate goal, the ultimate mode of living should be to just be able to accept and embrace existence as it is. To live under the light of providence and to be at once completely detached and completely engaged all at once. To be fully in tune with the extraordinary nature of your ordinary human existence in the first half of the 21st century."
Writing this out on paper as a little quotation. Just beautiful.
Something worth re-reading and pondering a couple times every day as a reminder.
Great post, short, sweet, and full of good advice.
When I saw the title of this newsletter, I thought it was a reference to Kapil Gupta, someone I've only discovered this week (I'm looking forward to his book, Direct Truth). Interestingly, you then brought up Rene Girard, another guy I first came across this week (both men are teachers of Naval Ravikant whom I've also just discovered.)
Anyway, wonderful message, thank you. I've been on this direct path for the past few months and it feels so right. But I also have to be constantly vigilant of my tendency to complicate things, and set up unecessary loops, not to mention being seduced by the promise of all those shiny objects by the roadside! So reminders like this cannot come often enough.
This was a really nice write-up Tom. Glad to have subscribed to you! Your newsletter is like a breath of fresh air amongst the many other voices which seem to be bogged down by their own agenda.
"The internet is built on unsolicited self-improvement advice. That and sextapes, an equally popular form of unrealistic pornography."
Powerful, laughed out loud at that one.
Haven't scrolled on Twitter in a few weeks and the lack of unsolicited advice has had a wonderful effect on my mood. Mainly that I've stopped feeling as guilty for not working all the damn time.
"And I don’t mean those lauded Silicon Valley style noble failures in pursuit of a dream. I mean the obviously stupid, self-destructive blunders of a moron."
Ahh yes. Not enough talk about legitimately stupid failures where the only lesson is "Oh, I suppose I am an idiot then". Most of mine are like that to be honest, maybe "be more careful" being the only real lesson I could squeeze out of it at a push.
"Let’s say you recall happy memories of surfing on holiday and so surfing is your want. The answer is not education and credentials and research and endless price and spec comparison on gear. The answer is figuring out a way to move to the beach ASAP and finding some sort of part-time job that allows you to be in the water when the waves are at their best."
More or less my plan. The beauty of the internet for those that are able to take advantage of it, is that this is entirely feasible, while still building your career/business and improving your quality of life.
Before it was one or the other, live in a van and figure it out later, or work the career and make enough money young enough to retire and still live the dream. Neither options particularly appealing to me.
I greatly admire that you've taken such a direct path to focusing on your writing - you're leading the way, so to speak, for many other writers. I think a lot of them use their jobs as an excuse for why they don't write more, when in reality it's probably due to fear of not making it if they do go 'all in' on writing.
"The ‘conventional’ path would have been a torturous slog or creative writing degrees and networking and going hat-in-hand to publishers and so forth. But I took the direct path, thought about what my ideal day would look like and reverse engineered it."
I have two close friends who did degrees in English from a top university and they had one 3-month creative writing module in 4 years, despite almost everyone in the class is an aspiring writer of some sort.
The module itself was rubbish apparently - the only useful part was it forced you to write something and get feedback from someone, which you could get with a bit of discipline and one honest friend or family member.
No need for a degree to do what you want to do anymore, beyond certification based professions. Writing, marketing, coding, designing - you can learn how and go do it straight away.
Almost all of the barriers are ones that we erect ourselves because to achieve what we want to achieve means feeling like an idiot at first, and that's something we've been conditioned to avoid rather than embrace.
"Wanting what you want is one thing. Getting it is another. But most superior of all is to become one of those rare beings who ends up wanting what they get out of life, whatever that may be. One who end up embracing ‘Amor Fati’ as Nietzsche called it, the love of fate.
I don’t know how you get there, and I am not there yet- though I have experienced brief glimpses- but the ultimate goal, the ultimate mode of living should be to just be able to accept and embrace existence as it is. To live under the light of providence and to be at once completely detached and completely engaged all at once. To be fully in tune with the extraordinary nature of your ordinary human existence in the first half of the 21st century."
Writing this out on paper as a little quotation. Just beautiful.
Something worth re-reading and pondering a couple times every day as a reminder.
Great post, short, sweet, and full of good advice.
Thanks, Thomas, great article.
the only newsletter i look forward to reading. Keep up the great writing Tom. cheers!
When I saw the title of this newsletter, I thought it was a reference to Kapil Gupta, someone I've only discovered this week (I'm looking forward to his book, Direct Truth). Interestingly, you then brought up Rene Girard, another guy I first came across this week (both men are teachers of Naval Ravikant whom I've also just discovered.)
Anyway, wonderful message, thank you. I've been on this direct path for the past few months and it feels so right. But I also have to be constantly vigilant of my tendency to complicate things, and set up unecessary loops, not to mention being seduced by the promise of all those shiny objects by the roadside! So reminders like this cannot come often enough.