Issue #4: Mastery.
“If You Make Something You Love, People Are Going To Fall In Love With it” Brown Johnson, Creative director, Sesame Workshop
While I love the saying above, it does a lot more damage than good. Quotes like this have one of two effects:
Cause us confusion when we do the work we love and no one else falls in love with our work. It’s the confusion you hear from entrepreneurs who gave it all to their business but the customers never came.
They make us doubt ourselves when we are in that, seemingly shrinking, bucket of people who just want to do the work. The hollywoodization of entrepreneurship has led to conversations with friends, stellar employees at larger corporations, who now question whether just doing the work is a sign that they are, in some way, less than.
Whether we love the work we do or we don’t love the work, we can all strive for mastery of our domain, whatever that domain. Chiefly because mastery (and the journey towards it) is a more fruitful use of energy than getting the world to love your work.
This week we’ll consider this thing called mastery, read an article from a master of his craft and check out some tools to help improve frequency and quality of writing.
Book: Robert Greene, in Mastery, suggests that we can all be masters. At something. I agree. Greene shares the challenges we face on the journey and provides a roadmap for overcoming these challenges. Packed with fascinating stories of some true masters.
Books: After a conversation with a friend diving into tech entrepreneurship, I wrote 9 Books To Boost Your Understanding of Technology & Systems. It’s been shared by just over a thousand people. I hope you find it helpful.
Article: In an age where everyone is (wrongly) claiming Artificial Intelligence will take our jobs, this article, called The Robot Curve, provides a framework for deciding where you want to gain ’AI resistant’ mastery.
Article: I can’t believe I hadn’t thought to share this Kevin Kelly article called 1000 fans before now… it’s fantastic.
Products: For any writer out there, i.e all of us, the Grammarly Chrome extension flags any grammatical errors as you type. It’s been a lifesaver.
For those who aspire towards writing as a vocation, the Hemingway app makes your writing bold and clear.
Have a fantastic week! Bring back some book recommendations from spring break, won’t you?
Best
Seyi