Co-founder of Ultraworking / The Work Gym (and a bunch of other things by the looks of it), here’s his blog:ย http://www.sebastianmarshall.comย where he offers some very reflective and insightful writing.ย He is big on optimizing productivity, particularly through creating feedback systems like daily trackers and started organizing his work around the concept of work cycles – kind of like HIIT for your workflow.ย ย Very sharp, motivated, impressive guy.ย Has a wide range of interests, lots of reflections, spanning lessons pulled from history, examples of strategic and tactical thinking, and a strong focus on operations.
Some entries I particularly enjoyed:
http://sebastianmarshall.com/how-i-stay-on-track-with-my-time
What he’s known for best.
Also writes on Medium and some other outlets –ย
https://medium.com/@sebastmarsh/the-anatomy-of-a-perfect-week-fdd85454dde3
http://www.sebastianmarshall.com/the-pleasure-of-walking
http://sebastianmarshall.com/how-do-i-write-so-much-you-ask-well-glad-you-asked
http://www.sebastianmarshall.com/positive-sum-games-dont-require-natural-talent makes some interesting distinctions between zero sum and positive sum games, and the competition vs collaboration-based natures of the two.
http://www.sebastianmarshall.com/quitting-spectator-sports makes a great observation around the time sink that passive entertainment like spectator sports can be.ย ย Participating in the game is one thing, and there is nothing wrong with enjoying some of the extended universe that the modern sports economy is – all the opinion sites, trade news and reviews, and fantasy ecosystem.ย But if you are looking to make a major shift in your life, it can often be found by looking no further than identifying your areas of passive entertainment consumption and looking to replace them with something forcing you to be more actively creative.ย The downstream effects of one tend to be very different from the other.
http://sebastianmarshall.com/im-cheating-and-publishing-my-best-of-list-here – here’s a compiled, but dated best of.ย Tons of valuable insights presented throughout these posts.
http://www.sebastianmarshall.com/how-to-avoid-exchange-based-relationships
http://sebastianmarshall.com/what-separates-a-generalist-and-a-dabbler
http://www.sebastianmarshall.com/lessons-learned-from-a-firestorm-of-controversy – I think this is a good testament to his character.ย I think this here is great advice:
“I have two pieces of advice for when anyone tells you to back down, apologize, or delete you work.
1. Ask yourself, “Do I stand by this?” If there’s anything you don’t stand by or a mistake, own it.
2. Double down on what you believe. Say, “YES! I believe that, and I’ll own all the criticism for it!”
Why? When you apologize, self-censor, or delete, you instantly justified everything they said about you.ย Look at musicians – the musicians that apologize or back down get blacklisted, the ones that double down and say to hell with you have long careers. Compare Madonna to more cautious 80’s pop singers. People didn’t like her, so she kept doubling down on what she believed until they gave in or gave up. Look at Eminem – he gets protested for his first, largely joking around album, and he doubles down on everything nasty said about him. Protests double, he doubles down again. Then he wins a Grammy. Compare Howard Stern and Don Imus. Howard says, “Yes! And I’ll say it again, you loser cowards. Smell my fart!” He gets a multi-million dollar pioneering contract for satellite radio. Imus apologizes and gets fired. If he’d said, “To hell with you oversensitive censorship loving losers!” he’d have done much better. Own your mistakes, but double down on the things you do believe, and don’t let others write your story. If you make a minor slip of the tongue, say, “I didn’t say that perfectly, but this is overreacting self-righteous bullshit.” If they come harder at you, double down again. Grow stronger. Own your mistakes, but never apologize for things you truly believe. If you do, they’ll beat you down using your own weakness and apology. It’s the worst of all worlds. Also, apologizing gives hateful people satisfaction, where doubling down makes them piss their pants. Most nasty people are really cowards, anyone strong has some level of respect for anyone else who is strong.”
Notice that he lists owning the mistake, if made, as number one.ย Really important to consider the same degree of criticism as your critics would, and consider how your actions are being received from multiple perspectives outside of your own. You don’t necessarily need to action it, but it helps keep you honest – and accurate – when you’ve made a mistake. The points on doubling down for what you believe in are hugely important too – it’s way too easy to let ourselves down by not sticking to our guns when we really should be.
And there are a ton of great insights in his posts beyond these.
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