Free video course: How to be a Pretty Good Painter

Vibrant painting of Sally Draper

I made a short video course where I explain my entire process for making paintings. Because painting isn’t my most comfortable medium, I try my best to make it an easy, quick, successful project. I work in a sequence of steps that reliably move the project forward and minimize the risk of big mistakes. This is the first time I’ve made something like this, so I’m giving it away for free. Continue reading

Crosspost: Be Incorporated

This post is about a certain kind of procrastination; I call it “over-managing.” It’s when you know what you should be working on at a given time, but instead of doing the work, you continue to deliberate over big-picture / planning decisions. As productive individuals, we have to be good Managers, but we also need to be able to call the plan “good enough” and be the Employee. Continue reading

Crosspost: The generalist’s skillset

photo of octopus

I put this together to talk about meta-skills: the broad skills that help all generalists manage and balance their particular skills and interests. In my own life, the reason I got interested in productivity and time management and the like was because I was a generalist, and I needed to get good at juggling everything. So this page covers what I’ve learned so far, and I’m sure I’ll add to it in the future. Continue reading

Crosspost: Necessary generalists

photo of octopus

I wrote this short series to talk about a weird thing in the modern world: there are a few areas where pretty much everybody needs to be knowledgeable. Each individual now bears some responsibilities, fully, which in past generations were shared or outsourced. Since we each need to have these few areas covered, on top of whatever else we’re doing in our lives, we’re all necessary generalists. Continue reading

Balance and meta-balance

I’ve been noticing that a recurring theme in my writing here is balance between opposites. I’ve written about balancing consumption vs. production in your life, and recently about balancing systems vs. goals for achieving what you desire. And I can think of a few more that I haven’t written about yet, that I’d like to touch on. It could become a pain to try to keep so many balances in mind, but I thought if I could arrange most of it hierarchically, that would be much cleaner. Continue reading

Goals vs. Systems

Last year I wrote about setting personal goals. One bit of feedback I got went something like, “Goal setting is a bad mindset, you should use systems instead.” I’ve heard that idea before, with a few different justifications. I do have some thoughts, and experience, on using systems to build skills or manage productivity, and I realized I should write on that too in order to make the goal-setting content more complete. Continue reading

Choosing Battles on the Internet

A couple years ago, I noticed that I’d been holding onto a mindset that was counterproductive, and I’ve often seen this mindset in some of the online communities I spend time in. I like talking with people who believe in the truth-seeking power of good-faith disagreements, but some of these kinds of people have a tendency to overestimate the value of argument, which causes them to engage in conversations they shouldn’t. And I think I have good heuristics for avoiding that without giving up on rational disagreements entirely. Continue reading