In the ten days since the Snafu Conference, I've had a very difficult time sitting down to write this newsletter. It's not writer's block. To quote Seth Godin, "There is no such thing as writer's block."
I'm just tired.
In the last ten days, I’ve:
- Successfully produced a new conference.
- Gotten married.
And over the next two months, Zander Media has two of the busiest months we’ve had in years.
I need to digest these last few months before I can write about them or tackle something new.
All of this led me to think about prioritizing important work and the most meaningful skills in our ever-accelerating world. I was reminded of Cal Newport's book Deep Work and what it actually means to focus on our most important work.
Lately, my most important work has been reading physical books. It is so tempting to listen to political podcasts or browse Twitter instead of doing the pleasurable, difficult work of training my concentration with physical books.
Eras of Change
During my main-stage conversation with Gagan Biyani at the Snafu Conference, Gagan described our current world as entering the fifth industrial revolution:
- Agricultural Revolution (10,000–8,000 BCE)
- Industrial Revolution (1760–1840)
- Technological Revolution (1950s–present)
- Internet Revolution (1990s–2000s)
- And now the AI Revolution (2022–present)
I don’t believe anyone is actually good at predicting the future. Instead, one of the best ways to prepare for the future is to look at the past.
I’m considering questions like:
- How did people in previous generations adapt, or even thrive, when humanity was catapulted forward by societal-scale change?
- In the 1800s, how did the layperson – perhaps as opposed to the robber baron – take care of his family in an era of railroad expansion?
I don't know how people of the past adapted their lives to rapid change – or how I'm going to do so – but the fundamentals of human motivation and behavior are likely to stay the same.
What Are You Focused On?
I’m a fan of the Acquired podcast. The hosts, Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal, do months of in-depth research into the history of a specific business and then tell the story of that company over the course of a four-hour podcast episode. (Right now I'm in the middle of learning about F1.)
To celebrate their ten-year anniversary, the hosts sat down with best-selling author Michael Lewis to talk about their process and something they said has stuck with me. Despite being offered documentaries, book deals, and movies from famous Hollywood directors, they’ve realized that practicing their craft and making another long-form podcast is the most lucrative and useful thing they can do.
This is what Ryan Holiday has with writing books. There is no project and no amount of money so compelling that it would pull him away from writing his next book. To some extent, this is what my mother has with her artwork.
Would that we all had the clarity of purpose to focus on one thing.
What Stays the Same
I've always been fascinated by human behavior – why humans behave the way they do and how to nudge them to do better.
The kind of focus required to discover how I’m going to spend the next ten years does not come from sending email or mindlessly scrolling social media. It doesn't even come from listening to podcasts or audiobooks – as much as I enjoy doing so.
Instead, I’m focused on doing the difficult work of reading and taking notes on a physical page, of reading biographies – not business summaries – and of going to source material.
In this Fifth Industrial Revolution and during this period of reflection, I'm returning to source material: to reading books and to learning from others' experiences.
3 Things I’ve Loved This Week
Book I’ve Re-Read This Week
Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future by Peter Thiel
Zero to One has a lot of counterintuitive ideas on building companies that are – in my experience – true.
When I asked Gagan Biyani for advice on building companies with a cultural tailwind, he said that Zero to One was a seminal book on the subject. Having just re-read it, I don’t agree, but it’s nonetheless a great book.
I vehemently disagree with Thiel on many things, but Thiel is indisputably brilliant. Among many other examples, the Thiel Fellowship, co-founded by my friend Danielle Strachman, was ahead of its time in funding young people to build instead of going to school.
Person Whose Work I’m Following
Lulu Cheng Meservey
Lulu was recommended to me by Snafu speaker Niels Hoven, founder of Mentava. Niels is a perfect demonstration of Lulu’s approach to “go direct” founder-led communications. He’s willing to get into arguments on Twitter/X with people who have antiquated views on children’s education.
Lulu suggests that founders lean into controversy by finding divisive issues where a majority of people agree with your opinion, but a small, vocal minority disagree.
Here are a few of Lulu’s recent interviews I’ve enjoyed:
Article I’m Thinking About
The March of Nines by Kevin Kelly
Kevin Kelly, founding editor of Wired Magazine, is thoughtful and optimistic about the future. He recently started a substack, which I’ve enjoyed.
In particular, this article, “The March of Nines,” is something I can’t stop thinking about.
The argument is, essentially, that each progressive degree of precision – from 90% accurately to 99% to 99.9% – requires as much work as the degree before it.
Kevin uses self-driving cars as the example, but now that I’m thinking about it, I see the same pattern everywhere.
Want more?
Until next week,
Robin
