"Baby this town rips the bones from your back
It's a death trap, it's a suicide rap
We gotta get out while we're young
'Cause tramps like us, baby we were born to run"...

There is this amazing anecdote tucked away in Herodotus - I've used it before - but I think the moral is worthy enough of a second mention. At the height of their power, Sparta sent soldiers to Teagan to helotize the population - carrying the very chains they intended to enslave them with. Well, Sparta lost. And the soldiers stayed and toiled in the Teagan fields, bound by the fetters they had brought with them.

In many ways, this was Sparta embodied. They'd embark on a course so convinced it was infallible that they'd never consider the consequences. A simple economic accident - that subcitizens labored while men trained for war - dictated every facet of their foreign policy for almost 300 years. Once it was written, it could not be changed. Brasidas, likely the country's greatest general, was successful almost entirely because he was "un-Spartan." He was clever and articulate and a rule breaker. Their win in the Peloponnese was ultimately an albatross that they could not bear. The military culture they brought crashing against Athenian walls was the burden that slew Greece. Sparta died in the chains they took against others.

There's a reason that the conclusion of the 48 Laws looks at formlessness. Sparta had everything else - the power, the brains, the courage, the money - but it meant nothing because they couldn't think strategically. They could not change courses after they committed.

They lacked the fluidity to survive even in the Ancient world. Today is even faster - you don't have a century to shift assumptions. It's really easy to get locked into a path or a mindset. I know I'm more comfortable with certainty or absolutes. But that just isn't how things work. I don't want to end up tied to the land I was supposed to conquer. I think that means take nothing for granted, consider the alternatives, and always, always avoid the hubris of thinking there is only ONE way.

References/ Further Reading:
A History of Sparta 950-192 B.C - W.G Forrest (very short)
History of the Peloponnesian War - Thucydides
The Histories - Herodotus (skim)
The Greco-Persian Wars - Peter Green (easy read that explains Thucydides')

The candor was infectious. It spread back to the beginning of your life. You tried to tell her, as well as you could, what it was like being you. You described the feeling you'd always had of being misplaced, of always standing off to one side of yourself, of watching yourself in the world even as you were being in the world and wondering if this was how everyone felt. That you always believed that other people had a much clearer idea of what they were doing, and didn't worry quite so much about why. You talked about your first day of school. You hid in the woods until the bus came, you saw the bus leave and then went home and told her you had missed it. So Mom drove you to school, and by the time you got there, you were an hour late. Everybody watched you come in with your little note, and heard you explain that you'd missed the bus. When you finally sat down you knew that you would never catch up." Bright Light, Big City by Jay McInerney

So, as well as you can (here or otherwise), what's it like being you?

Today, I came to a conclusion that I liked and then realized that it only clicked so suddenly because Tucker had been explaining it to me for months. Occasionally, I'll see an email from one person to another where all the words are mine. It used to drive me insane. Now I realize that it means I'm doing something right. I'm starting to think that a belief in the clear delineation between where one idea ends and where another begins is bullshit.

When you accept that very rarely will any idea be original and forgo rights to ownership, you free yourself up to do the important part - complete understanding. I think that means a huge thank you to the people who allow me to get close enough to hear theirs. As we try to absorb, make sense, compile, discard, destruct and create, confuse, iron and simplify, we're left with one big mess where authorship is a little murky. And that's how it should be. Hopefully, I'll be able to return the favor.

If I could end with stealing someone else's - and they probably know who they are - it'd be that the more you care about credit, the less you'll actually be able to accomplish.

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?

I worked late last night at somebody's mansion. A big, 20's style house on a hill with 360 degree views of the city. And even though he's worth hundreds of millions of dollars, the owner spent most of the night pacing frantically, trying to find the right words for exactly what he wanted to say.

"After a few months practice, David lamented to his teacher, "but I can hear the music so much better in my head than I can get out of my fingers." To which the Master replied "What makes you think that will ever change?" - Art & Fear

I am starting to think that maybe greatness comes not from transcending that disparity but from embracing and accepting it. Running wasn't any easier yesterday than last April. I was still way more excited about the 'idea' of it than actually going out and doing it. It took 4 discarded posts until I fell into this one. I'm not still quite there yet either.

He eventually got it, or at least close enough to be satisfied. Then we moved onto the next thing and started the process over again early this morning.

The difference between he and I, I think, is that he's spent the last decade well aware of the fact that it'll always look better in his head than when it comes out of the factory. But that hasn't changed him at all. That doesn't stop the factory. I'm sure it kills him when something doesn't come out perfect or he just can't get it right. If we want to talk about Turning Pro, maybe the real mark is someone who understands the odds and does it anyway.

From The Nature of the Firm

A firm will tend to expand until the costs of organizing an extra transaction within the firm become equal to the costs of carrying out the same transaction by means of an exchange on the open market or the costs of organizing in another firm.

What we're talking about today is not marginal fluctuations in transaction costs but almost a complete collapse. That's why a terrorist group that has made almost no effort to organize can function at least comparably to the most powerful army in the world. Or blog can sell more books a month than a medium sized bookstore as a secondary revenue stream.

I can't really tell you what it is that I do because I don't have job descriptions. I'm not even formally employed by two of the people I work for - if I was it would create more problems that it would solve. Which is why the idea of hustling is so important. You have to be able to function independently or you're not worth anything. So the whole notion of scalability is being turned on its head because what you do might not need to be scaled - you might be enough.

But that takes time, effort and constant experimentation.

Other reading:
The Rule of Five - John Robb (blog post)
Dreaming 5th Generation Warfare (blog)
RMMB: John Boyd 2.0 (discussion)
Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations - Clay Shirky
The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations - Ori Brafman
Charlie Wilson's War: How the Wildest Man in Congress and a Rogue CIA Agent Changed the History of Our Times - George Crile
The Cathedral and the Bazaar: Musings on Linux and Open Source - Eric S Raymond

There is this line in Tombstone where Wyatt asks what makes men act the way they do. Doc tells him that there's a hole so deep down the middle of some people that they'll never be able to steal, kill or hurt enough to fill it. I've got one of those holes too. A lot of people I know do. Most of us figure that because our efforts are productive that somehow makes them less desperate. It doesn't.

At least, asPalahniuk wrote, Doc's people have taken some control over their fate. At least they've got an inkling that something might be wrong. I don't think you can say the same about the graduating Law class of 2008 or the queen of the crazies. I don't want to be one of them.

They are two totally separate pursuits - production and peace. And the former will not create the later.

"In reality, beginning the minute you are born, time is all you have. It is your only true commodity. People can take away your possessions but--short of murder--not even the most powerful aggressors can take time away from you if you let them. Even in prison your time is your own, if you use it for your own purposes. To waste your time in battles not of your choosing is more than just a mistake, it is stupidity of the highest order. Time lost can never be regained." Robert Greene 48 Laws of Power

I am so unbelievably bad at this. Something to shoot for.

Think for a second about the symptoms of addiction: rationalization, self-destructiveness, lack of control, and self-loathing. They sound familiar for a reason. It's called most people. In 12-Step programs they force addicts to submit to a higher power. It has nothing to do with the existence of God.

They ask you to acknowledge something bigger than yourself because it is a necessary weapon in the process of becoming someone different. How much better served would you be if you submitted to learning and reflection? If you stopped acting without asking "Why am I doing this? Does it serve a purpose?"

There is this great line in What Makes Sammy Run where Al realizes that the sudden, poetic vindication he'd hoped for was never going to come. The world wasn't ever going to rise up and punish Sammy. The process was the punishment. His life was the disease. And my favorite part of the Meditations is where Marcus remembers that the best revenge is to "not be like that. "

Most people suck. They are horrible. They are stupid and presumptuous - small-minded, opinionated and dishonest. And they've decided that keeping others at inaction is easier than acting yourself.

I have tried really hard my whole life to be different. I have all these little rules for myself that that'll never get paid back for. I don't recline my seat on airplanes. I switch lanes when people want to pass. I get so despondent and depressed and angry when I have to contribute to something I don't believe in that people start to worry about my health.

It might be hokey or lame or out of place for me to say, but you can be different too. You don't have to be the kid who's email is so profoundly ridiculous that I forward it to all my friends and we laugh at what a colossal douche you are. No one has a gun to your head that says you have to walk around ignorant. Its not in your best interest to be selfish, shameless and awful. You don't need to be like your parents - perhaps the most embarrassing and underachieving generation ever.

All I know is that I have seen exponential rewards from going my own way. I don't mean school or Hollywood - I mean being in utter and complete control of the person I'd like to be. And understanding the process it takes to get there. That requires submission - not to the Trinity - but to the idea that kicking and clawing will get you nowhere.

The addictions I mentioned earlier will never leave you. You have to leave them.

Been on a tear lately. All these are worth reading. If you don't have an Amazon Prime membership, you're wasting time and money.

-What Makes Sammy Run - Budd Schulberg (again)
-My Year Inside Radical Islam - Daveed Gartestein-Ross
-The Essential Difference: The Truth About Autism - Simon Baron-Cohen
-Work and Other Sins - Charlie LeDuff
-Black Brothers, Inc. : The Violent Rise and Fall of Philadelphia's Black Mafia - Sean Griffin
-Less Than Zero - Bret Easton Ellis
-Only in American: Life and Crimes of Don King - Jack Newfield
-The Cathedral and the Bazaar: Musings on Linux and Open Source - Eric S Raymond
-Bambi vs Godzilla: On the Nature, Purpose and Practice of the Movie Business - David Mamet

"It's almost impossible to make a living off being a producer," says Endeavor agent Brian Swardstrom. "You have to be rich or lucky or you end up out of the business. You have to hustle to eke out a living. You can't just sit there like the old days when you could call your friends and get a kickback. That's long gone. Some like Scott Rudin and Imagine and Working Title are doing their own thing. Everyone else is hustling their ass off." - Variety

The ironic thing is that almost every person I've met in Hollywood spends most of their time trying to do a little actual work as possible - to avoid moving the product from shipment to sale. In school, you're trying to learn how to be good at school instead of figuring out exactly what it is you're supposed to do. Hollywood is the same way.

And after reading about every major American hustler of the last hundred years, I don't think I came across a single one that wasn't 1) Intimately aware of every step of the process 2) Almost 100% self-taught. Jail, for many of them, was their lucky break because they used the time for education - something infinitely different than "schooling."

So, are you learning to hustle?

In the fall of 2006, I wrote my first college paper sourced entirely from my own library. As I'd stared at the paper prompt, I realized I not only knew which books to pull from my shelf but almost photographically, exactly which words to quote. It took me a long time to get there. For over four years, I'd been marking up anything I found remotely interesting in the books I read. I had started with rudimentary page folding and slowly developing a complex system for organizing and distributing what I'd discovered.

It's funny because I actually have a horrible memory. I'll often hear someone finish a story and realize I don't remember a word they said, even though we'd been talking for twenty minutes. But I do have the ability to recall anecdotes and evidence buried deep in books I haven't looked at in months. I do it by sign posting - by marking the idea as it strikes me, knowing that I might need it later. I certainly wasn't born with that skill, instead I developed the foundation that made it possible.

Last week, I called my girlfriend at home and asked her to get my copy of The Art of Fiction. Somewhere near the front, I said, is a line that uses dreaming as metaphor for the concept of aesthetic distance. Sure enough, tabbed and highlighted was the idea of fiction as a "vivid and continuous dream." I hadn't touched the book since I read it for a class a year and a half ago. The thread I worked it into did 21,000 pageviews. When one of the bands we're working with pitched an idea for a business they'd like to develop, I photocopied a section I'd marked in Wikinomics and it's turning into a monster of a project.

I used these quotes for blog posts, for business plans, for guerrilla marketing I do on the internet. I use them in conversation, I send them to friends. I've used them to connect with bestselling authors and multi-millionaires, through them I've developed my own growing following, and they've helped me through deeply personal issues. I've given citations for kids to use in research papers on everything from decentralized warfare and aestheticism. And I don't know if you remember, but I'm a college dropout from a relatively mediocre school. I shouldn't be able to do these things. Aside from my mentors, the only asset I can truly count on is the collection of ideas, anecdotes and quotes that I've built for myself. Over the last 6 year years, my library has gone from a hobby to priceless labor of love. It is without question, directly responsible for where I am today.

So How Do You Build Your Database?

Use Post It Highlighter Pens
I wrote about these in my Read to Lead post. There are a few different variations now and you need to be using them.

These will change how you read. On the right side of the page (so that you can open straight to it), I tag the pages I have highlighted important passages on. Don't be afraid to tear the book up with tags--tape is cheap but the time it will take you to otherwise flip back through the book to track something down is not.

Mark the concepts to look up later
I put tabs at the top to mark words I need to define or concepts to explore further. It's also how I remind myself to add a cited books to my Amazon Wishlist. BUT, once I look back through the top tabs, I remove them. Having tabs at the top of the book means I am falling behind, having none means I can safely put the book on my shelf.

Be realistic
Tucker will sometimes put 50 or 60 tabs in a single book. I think that's too many. Personally, I like to keep it under 20 - marking only the important or profound. At a certain point, the flags become meaningless. The idea it separate the consequential from the filler so that you can quickly find what you're looking for.

Make notes (Annotate)
The best way to build your database is to draft off someone else. Robert Greene was that person for me. As I come across things that prove the laws from his books, I mark them. I will write "Disdain the Things You Cannot Have" or Law 23 or "Enter Action with Boldness." Using classic texts or books that try to establish universal rules are best for this technique. I'll sometimes put a pithy statement by Seneca in the margins if it supports an author's point or try and attribute the thought to the originator of the idea. This allows you to first, make connections but most importantly, capture the reason behind tabbing the page - so you can immediately recall it when you return. In all likelihood, you'll never need these passages (since they're support for books that have already been written) but they will help you practice. The funny thing about Robert is that since I'd been doing this for almost two years before we met, I was able to instantly draw from it when he asked me to research for his next book.

Type out the quotes:
From Old School:

So much, in fact, that I began to copy out Hemingway's stories. I'd read an article about a writer's colony in Marshall, Illinois, where the aspirants spent their mornings transcribing masterworks in order to learn what it actually felt like to write something great. I slowed myself to hunt-and-peck speed so I could feel the sentence take form, sense the shift in focus or tone when I struck the carriage return for a new paragraph; a thoughtful pause as I read over the page I'd just finished and slowly rolled a fresh one onto the platen, then the final period smacking home and all the joy of completion, the joy of Hemingway himself, as I rolled out the last sheet of "The Undefeated," laid it upon the others, and squared the stack.

Find an outlet
Most people don't read and let's face it, are easily impressed by someone who does. Use that to your advantage. Make an effort to use what you've collected in conversation. Bounce the ideas off people you know. The more fulfilling an outlet you find for the fruit of your database, the more motivated you will be to fill it. Try adding a line to a report you're doing, find solace in them during difficult times or insert them to Wikipedia pages. Do something.

Don't loan out your books
This is selfish I know (especially since I occasionally borrow) but it's important. You're cultivating this library for life, not until you move on to the next book. You need to keep them in a place where you have easy access and the ability to immediately act on the impulse to follow a lead. I'm still missing copies of books I read as I was graduating high school and I will never get that time back. Rereading the books will never recover the way that a passage hit me or the mood in which I was able to understand something for the first time.

Practice runs
This is the most neurotic of my techniques, but probably the most important. If passage leaks into your head and you don't remember who wrote it, track it down even if you don't need it for anything at the moment. Don't stop until you have. Try googling little phrases your know for sure are real, ask people if they remember you mentioning it, flip through as many tabs as you can. If the book is in the public domain, you can use Google Books to search through the text. Not only will it make you more efficient at researching but it will lock the passage in your memory forever.

And of course, the most important thing is time and volume. What good is a database filled with a just a handful of books? When you understand that this is a project aimed at paying dividends for the rest of your life, hopefully you'll give it the dedication that it deserves. I vowed a long time ago that I would never consider money when I was thinking about buying a book - I just do it. Almost nothing else is a more justified place to funnel resources toward.

I am passionately urging you to start this process. I cannot stress how much it has helped me, both personally and otherwise. A book read without a concerted effort to mark and connect as I have outlined is an opportunity wasted. Why would you do that?

More:
Read to Lead: How to Digest Books Above Your "Level" - December 17, 2007
On the Spartans and the Perfect Paper - May 14, 2007