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Hoping these links prompt some good hard thinking for you.
How to legally own another person (Evonomics) Understanding the artificially drawn boundaries of the internet (Verge) What is reality? (Atlantic) Where things currently stand with virtual reality (Wired) Hacking an election (Bloomberg) Be sure to share your favorite links and do your shopping through my Amazon Link.  Since starting to create content online, a lot of people have reached out to me, wanting to learn how I got started. I’m humbled every time I am asked because I still see myself as a total noob. But, one of my fundamental beliefs is that the best time to teach something is right after you’ve learned it.
Below is a lightly edited version of an email I sent in response to someone asking for advice. My hope is that it can help someone who is looking to start creating, but doesn’t know where to start. -------------- Let’s start with a few important points to inform your mindset as you start off. 1. Method - Right now is the perfect time to experiment with different mediums. You should try podcasting, writing, and video to figure out which you like best. You can work your way up to all three eventually, but it is easier to start with one focus. Starting with the one you like will allow you to maintain production when the initial excitement wears off. There is no right or wrong answer, only choice. Luckily, you can sample all of these very cheaply. If you have an iPhone, you can shoot video or record audio there. If you are worried about production quality, realize that there are videos on YouTube shot on low-quality cameras that have over 30 million views. It’s the story and message that matter, not the equipment. 2. Niche - You can use guides like this one to find a niche, but I would caution you to not lock in anything initially. There are a huge number of YouTubers that starting vlogging, then broke out once they started making videos about sports or art. That being said, if there is a topic you feel like you could rant and rave about for hours and hours, that’s how great popular podcasts start. It can also be a great way to network with other people in your industry of choice. 3. Truth - Ira Glass, the host/producer of NPR's This American Life always says in interviews that your first few years as a storyteller, you are going to suck. There really isn't any sort of trick to getting good at creating other than practice. Stay humble and you'll get better. Actionable steps If you’ve bought into the idea of test-driving some different mediums before starting, here’s how to do it. Writing - free write one page, stream-of-consciousness style every morning for 5 days (in a row). Do it before those 11a classes ;-) After the five days, edit one and post it to a Tumblr blog (doesn't have to be connected to your name & can change name whenever you want). Video - Over the course of a week, make 3 separate stories on Snapchat. Create an actual narrative instead of just a single shot. You can look at my Snapchat trick shot story for an example of how I played with that platform. After you're comfortable there, you can start making more permanent stuff for YouTube or Vimeo. Podcast - What kind of podcast would you want to do? Interview? Solo rant? How long? You can record audio on a phone. It won't sound great, but you can study the recording before sharing. Audio editing software like Audacity is free and easy to learn. If those seem too high level, start by listing your top 10 favorite creators on the internet (podcasts, Vines, youtube, blogs) and what you like most about each of them. Then take all those quality and list the ones that you would want your own brand to represent. Example; I love Jerome Jarre. I hope to emulate his joy, fun and silliness in my own life/content. Let me know how all this goes. Twitter or Snapchat are best. Seriously, let me know. - Aaron P.S. - Want to put off actually taking action? While I don’t advise that, you can learn more below. Pat Flynn's 3-part podcast series: How to Make Money Online. Check out episodes 192-194 of his podcast; http://www.smartpassiveincome.com/passive-income-101/ Gary V's advice to entrepreneurs and creators; https://youtu.be/LEDKTnhqQ7k?t=224
The DCC is shifting to a less-frequent (read; no longer daily) feature. I'll be putting an even higher priority on quality and no longer limiting long-form links to Saturday mornings. Does this make you mad/upset? Let me know in the comments. Thanks
Valeant’s roll-up racket (New Yorker) The market for your insecurity (Mark Manson) Every technology is an amputation of some human faculty (Kneeling Bus) How to reverse Citizens United (Atlantic) More people are obese than underweight (Stat) Snapchat’s ladder-up (Stratechery) Please support the blog by shopping through my Amazon Link.
This is part one of a three part series chronicling my two week trip through Asia. Thanks for reading.
Written on a bullet train from Kanazawa to Tokyo. Please pardon typos. Day One We arrived in Hong Kong with the morning and raced downtown to milk the city and day for all we could. After dropping our bags at a friend’s apartment, it was time to eat. Dim sum and coffee propelled us out in the streets to explore and shop. Immediately, I was struck with a new appreciation for space. Where many US cities seem to lurch outward, Hong Kong folds in over itself. Storefront after storefront line the streets and their owners stand by the door urging you to come in. We spent the 10 hours between arrival and our flight to Seoul walking the streets. Tanks of live fish and octopus sat next to racks of meat hanging in the open air. Each new street contained foreign smells and sights, in an endless web of alleys and markets. With courage borne from Google maps and the company of a native speaker, we allowed ourselves to get lost, wandering through different districts. One street offered every home furnishing you could imagine, while the next featured jackets and shoes. Just when we started to really get lost, we’d come across a Nike or H&M store to anchor us back to the familiar. In the late afternoon, exhausted from jet lag and hiking, we trudged home to gather our things and head to the airport. Culture Shock I saw more Maseratis in my first two days in Asia, than I had in my previous 24 years. Everywhere we walked, alleys and small garages were filled with Teslas, Mercedes Benzs and other luxury vehicles. Our friend Jenny, who’s been living in Hong Kong for the last 6 months, explained that she’d met young men who still lived with their folks, but purchased a BMW or Lexus. I don’t care to speculate why, but the amount of fancy cars in Asia has been shocking. Seoul We flew on a no-frills airline that didn’t even offer water on the 1:45 flight. Arriving at 2:35 in the morning, we took a ride from the only taxi offering a ride. A 45 minute ride was cut to 35 as he sped through the rain to our hotel, smiling wide and running red lights as he carried us through the empty streets of Seoul. Happy to have survived, we trudged up to our room to sleep before our next adventure. --- We spent nearly a two fulls days shopping in the different markets of Seoul. A personal high point was placing our order in a small noodle house where everything was in Korean. Matching characters to pictures on the wall, we feasted before setting off again. While parts of the city were friendly to foreigners, others offered almost no English descriptions whatsoever. Ashley’s mother took the lead any time we wanted to buy something. We were instructed to “never accept a first offer” and always haggle down. She was proven right multiple times, with the largest being when we negotiated a jacket for Ashley down from 150,000 won (~$150) to 45,000 won. Our first brush with the South Korean national heritage came when we walked through a palace that was more than 7 centuries old. It had been occupied by local royalty up until the Korean war, but now served as a relic of the past. I was struck by the amount of outdoor space within the palace grounds. While a prototypical mansion on Cribs would likely feature twenty bedrooms, four kitchens and an indoor pool, we found lots of open space and hidden gardens, with small rooms and passageways. The Art District and Eating Octopus Block after block of small studios and shops with beautiful works of South Korean art. The hours flew by as I jaunted from store to store. As noon approached we searched for a place to eat. Ashley’s brother, Tyler, led us to a small restaurant offering raw octopus. Let me explain exactly what that means. If you’re moderately adventurous and have eaten sushi, you may have tried the octopus. It had probably been dead for a few days and was put on ice to preserve the flavor and freshness. The raw octopus we ate was still moving. The tentacles had been cut from the body and sliced into bite size pieces within minutes of being served to us. What landed on the table was a pile of food that was STILL MOVING. For a novice chopstick user, the slimy, squirming pieces were impossible to grab. I finally accepted Ashley’s help scooping my first piece into my mouth. The octopus, however, was still not willing to accept defeat. Once it was inside my mouth, the tentacle suctioned to my tongue. I sucked hard and it shot down my throat. I quickly chased it with a swig of water to ensure it made it all the way down to my stomach. Energized from a truly unique experience, and a few more pieces of octopus, we burst back out into the streets and came across an art exhibit. The five floors of paintings depicted the same character, a young Korean woman, experiencing the commodities of modern society. From wolfing down a McDonald’s burger in traditional dress, to posting pictures on Instagram, her beautiful pictures captivated us from floor to floor. I hope to come back to the Seoul art district again one day. Street Food Everywhere you go, you are likely to find street vendors offering different meats and sweets. We were warned to give our bodies a day or two to adjust before trying anything right from the street. Throwing caution to the wind, we had street snacks for our first lunch. Video Diary With a camera Ashley got me for my birthday, I’ve been shooting video from our trip. Below is the first of a three-part series, chronicling our adventures in Asia.
Make sure you savor this. The DCC will be taking a 3 week hiatus after today.
“By getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities.” (Harpers) Cryonics are the answer (WaitButWhy) The evolution of anxiety (James Clear) Newsweek hiding ties to religious figures (Mother Jones) Understanding Batman v. Superman (Vulture) Profiling CEO Jack Dorsey as Twitter turns 10 (Bloomberg) How Nike lost Steph Curry (ESPN) Be sure to share your favorite links and do your shopping through my Amazon Link.
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Who’s afraid of Donald Trump? (Scott Adams) The lottery is a regressive, inefficient tax (Metrocosm) Smart people are better off with less friends (Washington Post) A year in startup hell (Fortune) How to buy an ETF (Wealth of Common Sense) Understanding moneyed interests in the 2016 election (Medium) Please support the blog by shopping through my Amazon Link. |
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