Two main components comprise the mastery of a craft: the act and the art.
The act is the mechanical piece: the click of the mouse, the tap of the keys, the strike of a hammer, etc.
The art is applying the magic to it.
Learning the act might take you a day or a week.
Learning the art is what takes the 10,000 hours.
The grace and posture and dedication and showmanship required to be a Michael Jordan or Steven King or ELEW might take you a lifetime.
Don’t wait for January 1st, you’re already late.
Until recently, GoDaddy was simply an average domain registrar with a terrible user interface and bargain basement web hosting solutions. With their support of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), however, they inadvertently positioned themselves in the crosshairs of frustrated geeks everywhere.
The backlash was swift, with tens of thousands of domains being transferred away in just two days. Some highly visible opponents of the Act made very public pledges about the action they will take. After downplaying the impact of the boycott, GoDaddy publicly withdrew their support for this astonishingly terrible piece of legislation.
The problem, of course, is that the retraction wasn’t a result of their leadership’s change of heart; it was a purely financial calculation.
And as it turns out, GoDaddy has not actually withdrawn their support at all. What’s further, they are exempt from potential shutdowns under SOPA. There is also evidence of GoDaddy temporarily blocking the transfer of domains away from them.
December 29th is Move Your Domain Day, and there will be a mass exodus of GoDaddy customers to registrars like NameCheap and DNSimple, if you’re into that kind of thing.
Resources:
I watched this accident happen yesterday:
The driver was fine (and actually crawled through the windshield as I was approaching on foot), but the whole ordeal made me think about the impermanence and fragility of life.
The text messages sent before leaving the house, calls he made while driving, and thoughts he held captive before the accident were almost his last.
I wonder if they would have represented him well…if people would say that he lived a good life, and if there are lots of people who would miss him.
I wonder if he had kids whose life almost changed, and how his version of the story will be next year when he sits around the Christmas tree with his loved ones.
I wonder if he knows that his (near) tragedy is causing me to be more present and aware and grateful for life right now.
Many of my friends are involved with projects (professional, recreational, or otherwise) that require some technical mastery. Some have set a goal to become more proficient with their craft during this past year. Several have succeeded, and others have spent the year expending a lot of energy on lateral motion without forward progress.
This post is a reminder for myself as well: maybe it’s time to see how much progress we can make in the next 30 days. If we can’t commit to that, why are we fooling ourselves about having the goal in the first place?
One habit I’ve tried to break since I became aware of it is saying things simply because it’s the appropriate for an exchange (e.g., “Hey, it’s great seeing you! We should get together some time!”). Many people do this, and that’s the very reason we should not.
When you consistently follow up on the things you pledge to do, it has two chief benefits: first, people will come to respect what you’re saying because your word (in their mind) is associated with action. Second, it forces you to be present and aware during exchanges instead of spouting off whatever is expected or commonplace.
Neil Strauss (one of my favorite marketers) wrote about a similar topic recently on a newsletter blast in the context of keeping friends, but I think the mindset is of course broadly applicable and increases the meaningfulness of our interactions across the board.
The Air Jordan line of sneakers is one of the most successful and widely-recognized in the industry. Collectors frequently shell out large sums of money (thousands, in some cases) to obtain rare colorways and original releases.
Last night, at midnight, one of the rarest and most popular Air Jordan models went on sale across the country. The XI “Concords” were worn by Jordan during the 1995-1996 NBA Championship season, on the silver screen in Space Jam.
I love the story behind their initial introduction to the market:
The most interesting part of these sneakers is that they were “sampled” during the playoffs of the year of Jordan’s first return (1995). Designer Tinker Hatfield and Nike did not want Michael Jordan playing in them, however, when the sample was completed, Jordan saw it, took it, and said he wanted to wear the shoe.
Nike and Hatfield hoped that he would not wear it during the playoffs against Orlando, however, when they tuned in for the game, Ahmad Rashad was holding the shoe for the cameras explaining that they were the “newest” Air Jordan. Hatfield and Nike were highly upset as the shoe was not even in production, and now they would be forced to produce it for the masses.
The decision turned out to be a good one, as it can be considered one of the most valuable and sought after Air Jordans of the line. [source]
The excitement surrounding this re-release was akin to a new iPhone model for Apple fans, and with Christmas upon us, the demand is tremendous.
In addition to traditional shoe stores, Nike also made the Jordans available through their website, and took to Twitter with customer support. Notably, there is a bug with iOS 5 that prevents customers from completing an online purchase if the first digit of their zip code is a zero.
The Twitter account was also used to answer questions about shipping, order details, and to share the link to the order page at the stroke of midnight.
Throughout the process, frequent updates were made about the email confirmations being slow, the site experiencing heavy load, sizes that ran out, and responses to demanding customers, and the inevitable sold out update (which came just 57 minutes after they were announced).
Well done, Nike.
I’ve really grown to despise the idea of “going with the flow” in my old age.
Things that make me particularly rage-y:
I guess this stems from my desire for everyone to get what they deserve out of life. The older I get the more I realize that many (most) Americans live a partially-realized version of the life they may or may not have imagined at one time when they were younger.
It makes me want to throw chairs and medium-sized objects when I hear of someone not bothering to negotiate their salary after a company makes an offer.
There’s this sinister, irrational fear that the employer will respond by saying, “We’re so offended that you asked for an additional $10,000, we are no longer interested in hiring you. You are actually going to be unemployed forever and die in a van by the river now.”
The truth is that in situations like that, the best thing a new hire can do for their career is make it clear that they know what they’re worth and that they demand respect.
I used to work myself into a frothy lather when sharing the above sentiments with my friends, and the phrase (which I may come to regret publishing here) is, “Too much bending over leads to a bad back.”
You deserve the very best.
Act like it.
Please.
Some chase after the right approach and management methodology and degree and book and blog to help them in their pursuit of success, but one simple way to see progress is to just care more.
Almost a year ago to the day…
So, the punch line: it all worked out. Better than I could have imagined. I sold my house, I’ve relocated to New York, and I’m challenged each and every day in the work that I do. As I’ve mentioned on many occasions, moving to NYC was a transformative experience that altered the trajectory of my career and my life.
I’m so incredibly grateful to Seth and my mentors and my clients and friends who have provided support this year as I stumbled and soared and failed and failed some more.
I’m especially grateful for a new perspective: if filling out a web form on a whim the day a submission is due results in a year like the one I’ve experienced…
…what adventures lie ahead now that I know how (and why) to fail?
I’m currently in a role (which I will address in detail at some point, I suppose) where I fail on a regular basis, painfully, publicly, and at the expense of my personal income. I have no choice but to push myself, set my emotions aside, and improve how I make high-stakes, gametime decisions every day.
There are been high-five worthy successes, and gut-wrenching disasters. Every week. And the only way out of the fire is by going through it, quickly. A younger and less focused version of myself would be tempted to quit or crack under the pressure (actually, this is true for the right-now me as well…), but something about the pain feels right, and I’ll keep plugging away and improving every day.
(there’s no cute ending here, sorry. hi mom?)
If you’re trying to earn the respect of an employer, you must divorce yourself from the idea that you’re not allowed to have an independent perspective on how the business is run. As companies grow larger and inefficiencies are magnified, you are actually doing your company a disservice by not speaking up when you spot something being done in a way that wastes precious time and resources.
If you’re trying to win the business of a prospective customer, one way to differentiate yourself from the competition is by highlighting your unique perspective on the marketplace. If your firm operates by principles like “SEO is evil” or “having Twitter and Facebook accounts are massive misappropriations of client resources” then speak up! It may be tempting to jump at every client request, but far more important in my mind is providing leadership with conviction.
The same is true in relationships. There’s the prevailing notion that women go after bad boys and athletes and musicians…but I think the attraction (which goes both ways) is a simple gravitation towards people who stand for something.