• Nine out of Ten

    Nine out of Ten

    Eight years ago, I lived in a house that we called Project Hollywood. A group of the four best pickup artists in the world– and me– rented out Dean Martin’s old house on Sunset Blvd. in Los Angeles. This was a big deal in the pickup community, and it spawned clones all over the world.…

  • Strengths and Weaknesses

    Strengths and Weaknesses

    Something I wrestle with from time to time is whether to focus on my strengths or my weaknesses. On one hand, weaknesses often represent the lowest hanging fruit. If I’m really bad at, say, programming, a small amount of effort can radically increase my abilities. If I was excellent at programming, that same amount of…

  • Throw Away Your Work

    Throw Away Your Work

    I have a whole book written that you’ll probably never see. A third of a novel that I’ll finish by the end of the year, but may never publish. Pages of rap lyrics I’ve written. Over fifty finished blog posts that will never see the light of day. Forty videos of me talking to the…

  • Spur of the Moment

    Spur of the Moment

    Last night I was in the Las Vegas airport, waiting for boarding to start on my flight. I went there an hour early because I didn’t have time to play poker, so I figured I could get on wifi and get some work done. I knocked out a couple small SETT bugs, and then remembered…

  • Love Work

    Love Work

    I used to dislike to work. I saw how most people lived their lives, slogging through work that they hated, and I was determined not to fall into that trap. I made the mistake of generalizing, lumping all work together in the same bucket. Since then, things have changed. In terms of monumental personal life…

  • Preference

    Preference

    There are different ways to solve problems. I’ve noticed that there’s a continuum that these solutions rest on. On the left side are solutions that attack the symptoms of the problem. They’re the easiest to implement quickly. On the other side are the solutions that attack the root of the problem, but are the hardest…

  • Spent Time

    Spent Time

    It’s early and the whole day is in front of me. How will I spend my time? When I was in middle school, frozen yogurt was served during recess for fifty cents. Sometimes I had fifty cents, other times I had to borrow it, and other times I didn’t get to have frozen yogurt. Back…

  • How I Won’t Fail

    How I Won’t Fail

    SETT, the new blogging platform that Todd and I are building, which this blog is running on, is going really well. With every project comes this fantasy that as soon as the world catches the briefest glimpse of your work, it will respond by showering you with praise and instantly recognizing that what you have…

  • The Magic Of Every Day

    The Magic Of Every Day

    I talk a lot about habits on here– but there’s a certain type of habit that’s especially near and dear to my heart. Or a certain frequency of habit, I should say. The daily habit. I’ve found that whenever I want to make a change in my life, the best solution to it is implementing…

  • What Am I Doing That’s Hard?

    What Am I Doing That’s Hard?

    It’s funny, this natural inclination we have for things to be easy. Everyone wants to work really hard, not for its own sake, but only so that they can stop working hard and go live on a beach. They’re willing to suffer through the ordeal of dating to find that perfect soulmate so that they…