CAL FUSSMAN
AIM FOR THE HEART, NOT THE HEAD
“Lesson number one, when people ask me what (interviewing) tips would I give, is aim for the heart, not the head. Once you get the heart, you can go to the head. Once you get the heart and the head, then you’ll have a pathway to the soul.”
A QUESTION CAL SUGGEST ASKING PEOPLE MORE OFTEN
“What are some of the choices you’ve made that made you who you are?”
RICK RUBIN
THE CLEANSING POWER OF COLD
“Often, exercise will make me feel better, meditating will make me feel better, but the ice bath is the greatest of all. It’s just magic – sauna, ice, back and forth. By the end of the fourth, or fifth, or sixth round of being in an ice tub, there is nothing in the world that bothers you.”
NEED TO GET UNSTUCK? MAKE YOUR TASK LAUGHABLY SMALL
How does Rick help artist who feel stuck? “Usually, I’ll give them homework – a small, doable task.”
“’Tonight, I want you to write one word in this song that needs five lines, that you can’t finish. I just want one word that you like by tomorrow. Do you think that you could come up with one word?’”
LEARN FROM THE GREATS, NOT YOUR COMPETITION
“Going to museums and looking at great art can help you write better songs. Reading great novels… seeing a great movie… reading poetry… The only way to use the inspiration of other artists is if you submerge yourself in the greatest works of all time…”
THE SOUNDTRACK OF EXCELLENCE
As mentioned before, more than 80% of the world-class performers I’ve interviewed meditate in the mornings in some fashion.
But what of the remaining 20%? Nearly all of them have meditation-like activities. One frequent pattern is listening to a single track or album on repeat, which can act as an external mantra for aiding focus and present-state awareness.
JACK DORSEY
What is the best or most worthwhile investment you’ve made? Taking the time to walk to work every day (5 miles, 1 hour 15 minutes)
PAULO COELHO
“There are only four stories: a love story between two people, a love story between three people, the struggle for power, and the journey. Every single book that is in the bookstore deals with these four archetypes, these four themes.”
“The world is changed by your example, not by your opinion.”
What do you find helpful when you are stuck or stagnated?
“In the middle of a book, there I am: I don’t know to continue the story, even if it’s a nonfiction story. But then, I say ‘You, book, are fighting with me. Okay. I’m going to sit here, and I’m not going to leave you alone until I find my way out of this crossroads.’ It may take 10 minutes. It may take 10 hours. But if you don’t have enough discipline, you don’t move forward…”
WRITING PROMPTS FROM CHERYL STRAYED
Even if you don’t consider yourself a writer (I never did), putting thoughts on paper is the best way to A) develop ideas, and B) review and improve your thinking. The benefits of even 30 minutes a week of scribbling can transfer to everything else that you do.
The following bullets are writing prompts that Cheryl has suggested…
ED COOKE
ON THE MAGIC OF JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE
“Goethe wrote this book by locking himself in a hotel room for 3 months, imagining his five best friends on different chairs, and then discussing with his imaginary friends different possibilities of plot and so on and so forth. This is an example, by the way, of that spatial separation I was talking about. (TF: Humans naturally remember faces, people, and locations/spaces well, so you can use them to construct mnemonic devices like the “memory palace” technique, for example.)
TF: We don’t need in-person mentors as often as we think. Every day, using people from this book, I will ask myself questions like “What would Matt Mullenweg do?” or “What would Jocko say?”
AMANDA PALMER
“JUST TAKE ON THE PAIN, AND WEAR IT AS A SHIRT”
TIM: “So you disarmed the insult by adopting it completely.”
TWO WORDS FOR CONFLICT RESOLUTION
“’Say less.’ That’s just say less.”
Any quotes you live by, or think of often?
“’Honor those who seek the truth, beware of those who’ve found it’ (adapted from Voltaire). A reminder that the path never ends and that absolutely nobody has this shit figured out.”
ERIC WEINSTEIN
2,000-3,000 PEOPLE, NOT GENERAL FAME
“General fame is overrated. You want to be famous to 2,000 to 3,000 people you handpick.” I’m paraphrasing, but the gist is that you don’t need or want mainstream fame. It brings more liabilities than benefits. However, if you’re known and respected by 2-3K high-caliber people (e.g. the live TED audience), you can do anything and everything you want in life. It provides maximal upside and minimal downside.
CHANGE YOUR WORDS, CHANGE YOUR WORLD
Eric has an amazing vocabulary that regularly stumps me, and we speak a lot about the culture-shaping power of language.
… one of my favorite quotes is from Ludwig Wittgenstein: “The limits of my language mean the limits of my world.”
PARTING ADVICE?
Believe not only in yourselves, but that there are (ways, tools, methods) powerful enough to make things that look very difficult much easier than you ever imagined.”