In The Black Swan, Taleb tells scientists to spend less time in the lab and more time experimenting with life because that is where their next discovery will come from. I forgot who it was, but a one of the Stoics used to say that even the sleeping were doing their job. On an individual level, sleeping is as much a part of your job as answering emails or taking a meeting. Everything is work. Everything is part of developing yourself. The job – the part the pays you – is just a small percentage that.

You never know where a relationship can happen. Brian Clark commented on the 3rd post I wrote for this site because I’d linked to a CopyBlogger article. By the end of the week – almost 15 months later – he, TheExecutive and I should be wrapping up a deal where will be working together with one of the biggest young actresses on cable.

I’ve only been formally employed for two years now but I am constantly withdrawing from things I did on the internet long before a paycheck compelled me to do it. Articles I read and remember. Sites I used to have accounts on. People I’ve heard of or talked to. Something I taught myself when I was trying to figure out how to get music without paying for it.

So how can anyone expect these things to happen without actually being involved? Brian can’t leave you a comment if you don’t have one. You can’t chance across some new business opportunity if you’re not actively seeking new things in general. And you certainly can’t begin to build a name for yourself if you haven’t bothered to put it out there. You have to set yourself up for good things to happen. There is a reason why when I stop and look around I don’t find many competitors – most people don’t do anything.

I’ve said this before, I know. It doesn’t matter. Whatever it is that you want to do, you can be doing it now. You can be laying the groundwork to be better at it than anyone else. And specifically if new media is what appeals to you, that stuff is so easy it’s laughable.

It’s Only Temporary: The Good News and Bad News on Being Alive by Evan Handler

Note: Evan (Charlotte’s husband on Sex and the City) sent me the best PR email I have ever seen anyone send. Ever. He did exactly what you’re supposed to do – he researched and made a personal connection. Not that he needs my help, but he was cool about it so I had no problem reading it. The book is pretty good too. The middle essay “My Life” is a perfect illustration of why Tucker is doing his movie the way that he is. At the very least, I am buying his other book.

Raising Kayne: Life Lessons from the Mother of a Hip-Hop Superstar by Donda West (textbook on raising a narcissist. This book is awful.)

The Harder They Fall by Budd Schulberg

Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community by Robert Putnam

Articles:

In the future, we’ll all be art students

Just-enough, a new trend in the works (or, why Paul Allen’s Octopus is really an Albatross)

Gin, Television, and Social Surplus

A few weeks ago I said something in a meeting and afterwards, I was talking about it with The Executive. He asked me “Did you have a reason for saying that other than proving you knew more than [name]?” The honest answer was that I didn’t. I’m normally pretty good with stuff like that. It wasn’t so much a strategic problem as much as it said something I didn’t like about me as a person.

You don’t want to be the person that has no control over how they act. You certainly don’t want to be the person that isn’t even aware of the fact that they’re not in control. Sitting in meetings in Hollywood, you can see that most people are horribly guilty of this. That’s why they name drop, make ridiculous predictions, and scream at their assistants. They just get away with it because they only deal with their own kind.

Hollywood’s biggest problem isn’t structural or economic, it’s cultural. People are sickeningly oblivious and insecure and just generally awful. The emails I’ve been cc’d on make me want apologize on other’s behalf. And it’s not that they’re evil or malicious, they’re just insulated. It was always a seller’s market. But it’s not anymore and the internet has permanently shifted that power. It’s over.

So more than anything, I’m trying to to figure out what my actions say about me as a person. They either match who I want to be or I shouldn’t be doing them. That involves asking a couple questions – always Why? What for? and What Happens if I Don’t?

It’s not just that it ineffective. There is a reason that things are getting worse daily. The final question is that if it were effective – if there monetary incentives for being an asshole and for being uninformed – would it be worth it?