• Lou’s personal blog

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    I read Lou’s blog and love the tidbits of life he shares. I do think of his wife as Wonder Woman and have no idea what her “real” name is. I’d love to know about your personal blog too.

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  • I’ve tried so many systems to get more done

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    I’ve tried so many creative systems to make myself work faster. Again and again, I have found that pushing myself simply steals from the future. Every time I push too hard and cut back down to a sustainable pace, I’m tempted to test my boundaries, to add just a little more, a little more, a…

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  • Good Notes Take Discipline – Not Magic

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    So far as we’ve looked at A System for Writing we’ve talked about words being scary, taking more time to process your notes, and exposed the “writing is easy” lie that gurus try to pass off. What we haven’t covered is what I think it takes to have a good note system. Not Magic I’ve…

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  • Personal Growth or Money? Not Everything Needs to be a Side Hustle

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    After my treatise on email newsletters last week I was greeted by this AI slop article at the top of my RSS feed Monday morning and it got me thinking about creativity and producing some type of content. Specifically, what is the purpose of the content you’re trying to produce? Is it about money? As…

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  • Guru’s Lie – Writing Isn’t Easy, and That’s the Point

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    It will not literally speak to you. But visible areas of increased connectivity within the slip box, what Sonke Ahrens calls “clusters” can guide you towards ideas ready for expression. – A System for Writing Pg 111 This is one of the big misconceptions with a Zettelkasten/PKM system, it will do the writing for you.…

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  • How (and Why) I Write Newsletters That Don’t Pay the Bills

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    Today we’re going a bit meta with a reader question. Steve has some content he’s been thinking of writing and wants to centre it around his own platform but wonders if people really read email newsletters. My Newsletters by the numbers I have 2 email newsletters. First is this one titled 3 Threads and it’s…

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  • You Don’t Need More Notes—You Need More Time with Them

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    In chapter 4 of A System for Writing Doto covers all the work that goes into connecting notes, and to many I’m sure it feels daunting. He talks about stretching the meanings of notes when you’re starting because you don’t have many notes yet and you need to start making connections. My first thought when…

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  • Seeking Less Connectivity

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    Cal Newport regularly says that we assume if a bit of something is good, more must be better. Some connectivity is good, so connectivity all the time must be better. Easy to send text messages make some communication easier, so all communication going through a text must be better. But I don’t think so and…

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  • No more Amazon links?

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    Drew at Lithub says we should stop linking to Amazon and I don’t disagree with him. Jeff Bezos is just like any other big tech oligarchs out there. But Drew doesn’t offer any alternatives for those that want to advertise their books. You could link to Bookshop which helps support local bookstores with your purchases…

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  • Xyla Grounded for Female Hysteria

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    Ugh, we’re so backwards. Xyla’s awesome I love her builds and this is stupid.

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