repetition
simplistic but feels right: good repetition is mindful, bad repetition is mindless meta: mindless repetition isn’t all that
blogosphere
collecting some tweets and notes… Neilsen blogosphere study 2012: Buzz in the Blogosphere: Millions More Bloggers and Bl
ayy players
someone asked what I mean by A+ talent I personally define it as the ability to step into a situation, figure out what’s
taskmaster
“Talent. The talent of some men appears slighter than it is because they have always set themselves tasks that are
how to market
“How do I market my <community> substack? There are thousands of <community>-curious people out there and only a t
unstuck
(original thread) meant to write an essay today but got distracted by twitter lol and now its bedtime so maybe i’ll blur
unsolicited advice
“I’ve noticed a few recent tweets that seem to deviate from your ‘brand’. If you want to continue to g
reality
This post was a stub that evolved into “reality is unrealistic” substack essay a few months later. “But please r
self-bullying
(og tweet) idk if i’ve framed it like this before when talking about trust and freedom etc: a person who bullies themsel
FAN thesis take 1
All right, hey friends! So what I’m going to be doing is I have a speech that I’m giving in a couple of weeks. Tod
everything is sexual
(og thread) maybe this is jarring for me to say in context here because i inhabit a different vocabulary entirely but i think
irritation with others
(og thread) i hold on to my irritation with other people in large part because i want to think of everyone as peers i want to
mysteriously winning
(og thread) When you’re starting out, it feels like you don’t have a lot of value to contribute. but as you get be
aesthetic conformity vs being distinctive
(og thread) a lot of recommendations on how to look/sound better goes something like “here’s how to conform better
map of human conversation
“art is never finished, merely abandoned” – da vinci “every book is a failure” – orwell From time
free agent reflections
its been about 4.5 years now since i’ve worked a “proper job”, in another year or so i will have been a free
eggshells
(og thread) in my 30s i’ve been coming around to learning that most people are quite forgiving. i got burned really hars
aesthetics of earnestness
Aesthetics of earnestness Earnestness doesn’t have to mean you pick up the language and aesthetics often associated wi
new guy navigating group norms
(og thread) every group of people develops some set of norms, and there is typically friction when a new entrant joins the gro
abdication
(oct2022 thread) a thing I haven’t quite been able to connect the dots on properly, but have an increasing felt sense of: th
external meaning structures
(og thread) people who are bad at generating their own meaning get much more troubled by disruptions and turbulence in externa
behavior change requires addressing copes
(og thread) vague intuition that a critical factor of why behavior change/redesign is so unsuccessful so often is: insufficien
power
(original thread) experimenting with a frame, not sure if I’m entirely behind it but let’s see how it feels: iR
sg
Singapore I definitely want to write ~some~ post about Singapore sometime. But who is it for? Singaporeans? Americans? Everyon
paula scher
🔥 Paula scher City of signs Typography everywhere Painting with words “More ways to make type talk” Distinctive b
solitary mann
notes when i look through my references when i take photographs it’s just to take a note of the moment that i see, kno
trivia
Erasmus Mersenne Jadav Dashrath Wang yinji abdallah Chola Jane jacobs, mixed uses, wealth creation, sidewalks, strangers
100 greatest products of all time
Work in progress.
you can just not do the thing
(og thread) “The entire internet gaslighting itself into watching Morbius is one of the most hysterical things I’v
language
A big part of why I write is so I can think clearly without all of the inelegant clutter of most people’s words, and mo
filters and boundaries
(og thread) i dont feel like anybody ever talked to me about filters and boundaries in the way that i’d have liked to he
broscience stress theory
(original thread) my big broscience medical conspiracy theory is that tonnes of things are downstream of stress (which have to
culture
after years and years of thinking about it, observing it, analyzing it, questioning it, I’ve come to think of culture as
frodo
(source thread) when i was a teenager I had an older friend who was a dick to me all the time I would write these long, rambly
socially inherited bloatware
(2019nov thread) had several conversations w/ friends who’ve been incapacitated by the burdensome bullshit obligation to
naming ceremony
this was me just freestyling and jamming about my substack Naming ceremony This is an associative exercise, just listing out t
wooten
Transcript of Wooten’s TEDx talk: Well, thank you very much. And it’s true. I was born into a band. Very literally
taskmaster: do you deserve joy?
(og thread) looking back, one of the major anxieties of my teens and most of my 20s was caused by this unhelpful, unhealthy be
2050 predictions
I was asked by @mold_time to make some predictions for 2050. Now, that’s a wack thing to do, because 2050 basically 30 years
hyperinflation
everybody owes each other stuff, we call this society then people invented coin to represent this debt and trade it around, we
better explanations
(dec2021 thread) throughout my life I recurringly find myself thinking the thought “nobody explained this to me the way it o
calendar rehab, aversion to containers
(original thread) might as well talk about it out loud: i experience a deep aversion to putting stuff to do on my calendar (ot
better explanations
(2021dec3 thread) throughout my life I recurringly find myself thinking the thought “nobody explained this to me the way it
my compulsive people
(og thread) hypothesis: a thing abt “my people” is they each have some way in which they are oddly compulsive, at
al-mamun
Al-Ma’mun was the 7th caliph of the Abbasid Caliphate (786-833 CE). I think of him as “the Pericles of BaghdadR
maniac
probably worth examining why sometimes i feel like working on this and sometimes i don’t. it’s like i don’t quite rememb
mayor
This was Aug2021? doesn’t seem that long ago. Was discussing with malcolm how we would do things differently. It’s m
just hit your target
This is the same core principle for starting a business or becoming an author, or anything really just sell one product, then
coleridge moment
(og thread) Just had a Coleridge moment. i took a nap, and in that nap i was on vacation, and on that vacation i was perfectly
prioritization defeats anxiety
observation: A person who is prioritizing is still not succeeding at the impossible task of doing everything they want to do,
how to scenius, draft
(scenius thread) a more general version of this is my dominant preoccupation, so here are some riffs and thoughts broad stroke
kurosawa
Aspiring directors #1- expensive, hard, you must learn and experience things, it’s not easy But if you genuinely want
sumiko tan book notes
I’m half Japanese. It feels weird. I was in Calcutta and asked to visit a slum. I did not feel good about it. I live next to
postratmusings
“Trying to sell ebooks to not have a job” well first of all, yes, I don’t want a job. I personally hate jobs. Second: in
i miss writing
I just had the thought that I miss writing. Which is a funny thought to have, considering how much time I spend every day twee
FAN reader takeaways
Quotes from the book in normal text. My thoughts in bold. (JR) “FRIENDLINESS is about being a nourishing presence. It’
the invitation: stop fussing
There are few things I dislike more than people telling me what to do. So this is not a directive. This is an invitation. You
naiise
I have been too tired/busy with other things to do very much these few days, but I promise I will never shut up about the stor
how to become a sword guy
@alphaanomics asked, “How one can find people with the same set of interest/ideology/work ( Nerds) on the internet?̶
no scolding
(og thread) I seldom articulate this explicitly but one of the cornerstones of my approach to peopling is “no scolding&#
arrogance
(og thread) When I was a teenager, the dominant criticism my closest friends had of me was that I was too arrogant, and they w
leadership and responsibility
prev: do whatever the fuck you want I didn’t grow up wanting to be a leader. I grew up wanting to have fun. And leadership o
Do Whatever The Fuck You Want
(written ~Dec 2020?) When I was a teenager there was a Singaporean band that I really liked called Ronin, and one of their son
everybody poops
audience-building
(2020oct12 thread) someone quote-tweeted one of my “build an audience” tweets with a very interesting disagreement
gender stuff
I wanna try tweeting like my most straightforward honest feelings about gender stuff; my thinking itself seems to be convolute
never forget: the chainsaw wants to eat you
remember to feed the kids don’t put your eye at laser beam height do not rub the belly don’t negotiate against yourself fo
turning 30, 31
30 I just turned 30. I kinda try to do an update every year, though I’m not sure if I’ve been super deliberate about that.
patreon 2020
This doc is just to save a copy of what my Patreon page was like before I updated it in early 2022. Hi, I’m @visakanv! I
list of annual self reviews
Every year I make it a point to do some reviews of my life. Here’s a list of what I’ve done so far. 2009 birthday
pre-installed personalities
(original thread) with each passing year I get more and more convinced that people are practically born with most of their per
mkt1000
1000 blogpost ideas. There may be a few repeats. 0121013243069365911100013371000000s1d1st2010s2020s2nd3d3rd48laws4chan50s50sha
psychographs
(original 2019 thread) You know how people sometimes go to sleep thinking about a problem and wake up with the solution? I wen
dismantling obsolete beliefs
(2019 thread) there’s a sort of bullshit detector in my brain, which contains a set of beliefs about how the world works
sensitivity
sensitivity is a superpower – IMO sensitivity + smarts + strength is the holy grail. We have many cargo cults that worship s
Narcissism
many cultures have anti-narcissist defenses that, kinda unfortunately, seem to end up discouraging everyone except actual narc
Slingshot
The following post is a copy-paste of a Twitter thread. It will take some time before it turns into an essay of its own. I’v
make friends
Warning: This “blogpost” is currently just a messy, meandering collection of thoughts and notes. If I can only pic
threads
Here are a list of my threads.
bleak
Revisiting this I realize I want to make sure all of this is in FAN2. (thread) There’s a recurring moment in multiple conver
memex
People keep asking me about the memex in my Twitter header. You can download a PDF of it if you like. Make friends. It is dang
assemble the mindcity
(original thread) Now that more of us are playing the threading game: As we compete+collaborate effectively articulate things
mkt content ideas 2017
Origin Stories I’d like to do a post exploring the origin stories of all the popular marketers and marketing thought lea
you can’t get everything you want
getting what you want isn’t always a good thing “I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they e
first day of work
This was me on my first day of work. It’s been 4 years now. Here’s what I remember… I was terrified. It was
Turn curiosities into essays
This is an old note that’s interesting because it was from a while after I left my job, but before I started really succ
the boy who wouldn’t behave
“Why is nobody helping me?” Amos Yee isn’t the first person to say the things he’s said. He isn̵
govt
i have note from 2019 titled ‘what is government and how do we thrive despite it’, and i want to get it out of my
lsd quotes
LSD quotes “Psychedelics […] dissolve opinion structures and culturally laid down models of behaviour and informa
the context of ambition
the context of ambition this is really old – what was the point of this? this was pre-Purusha… 2017-ish? Venkat alread
the logic of violence
so i’ve always thought that this is interesting but i don’t see myself writing an essay on it very soon… it’s like…
The public is insufficiently educated on how to be a good public
The public is insufficiently educated on how to be a good public. I think this is civilisation-specific (ie not an issue for e
2018 bookmarks
📱 media / internet best tech reads https://substack.com/profile/2417812-packy-mccormick/note/c-14475201 what do you h
salaryman suspicions
my 6-month hiatus from salaryman life has confirmed a lot of my suspicions about myself there are many layers to this I was wo
hire me (2018)
Hire me (Check 2019 notebook for more details) What I can do for you Speaking engagements I have emceed several weddings, co-w
LKY
Friends from abroad often ask me for suggested readings re: Lee Kuan Yew. I recommend starting by reading The Art Of Charlie C
writer master plan
Oct: Writer Master Plan I’ve been doing some soul-searching and I’ve concluded that the one thing I want to do wit
different hours = different worlds
It never gets old: waking up at different times feels like inhabiting different worlds. Now I’m thinking of God of War. Did
Speaking
I thought it would be interesting to make a list of notable events where I’ve spoken at. I’ve emceed 2 weddings. I
naughty boy ideation
(2024: I believe this was a wordvomit i tried to write but gave up on halfway.) Starting a second vomit hot on the heels of th