Sebastian Marshall

Sebastian Marshall's blog is realy great. He inspired me to start tracking my time on a daily basis, and I am certainly benefiting from it. Here is an introduction page that he posted for newcomers: http://www.sebastianmarshall.com/?page_id=288 You can see that there is many topics under "Want to get more done?" Though I know that most books are a waste of time, these were actually filled with great information, in my opinion: http://www.web-books.com/Classics/ON/B0/B580/TOC.html http://amzn.to/Getting-things-done

Lionhearted, it has struck me how often you live up to your name; but on that one isolated occasion, you shamed it. I was thinking it would be hard for you to make amends. Removing the submission from HN is an excellent start, but it's still on your blog: http://www.sebastianmarshall.com/?p=251 I don't think Patrick should have to do or say a single thing in order for you do the right thing. If he asks you to restore it, then do so. This isn't about your reputation. EDIT like edw519, I (FWIW) also want you to stick around. It's OK to make mistakes, provided you fix them. So... fix it, quick! Of course I can't speak for Patrick, but remember what happened with _why.

I don't understand why discourage people to write. Not everything written by an author needs to be a great piece every single time. http://www.sebastianmarshall.com/?p=195. If OP didn't post this, how could he find out what works or does not work in his writing?

Yeah, it's great setting your own schedule, but it can be brutal too. No one yells at you if you're screwing off, you've got to be your own taskmaster and slavedriver, which isn't always a healthy relationship with yourself. Me, in order to stay productive, I needed to start tracking my time and having daily objectives in order to get anything done. I wrote up something about this if anyone is interested - "The Evolution of My Time/Habit/Life Tracking" - http://www.sebastianmarshall.com/?p=127

I've got some good recommendations. I'm really into motivational type stuff as well, I'm sort of a personal development freak. Here are my favorites: http://sebastianmarshall.com/ - Sebastian is my favorite writer. He generally discusses productivity, personal development, strategy (life and business), etc. Highly, highly recommended. http://artofmanliness.com/ - The Art of Manliness is (as you would suspect), a site for men. It discusses things like: how to find your life's purpose, how to become a better man--generally stuff that isn't really discussed between men, but that men should know. They write long, well written articles that cover a lot of subjects. http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/ - Steve Pavlina is a controversial dude. He writes about personal development, but also tends to throw in vegan / spirituality type stuff every now and then (which I disagree with). Overall, his writing is very great. He does long-form pieces that fully discuss an argument, and it's worth reading along. On a lighter note, I also try to write in a 'motivational' type style on my personal site, just in the off chance you're interested: http://rdegges.com/ There are tons of other blogs out there (The Art of Ass Kicking, etc.), but I generally find the other options to be too 'commercialized' for my liking, and they're filled with those really short, hyped up kinda articles.

Read http://www.ribbonfarm.com/, http://www.sebastianmarshall.com/, and anything else you get your hands on about strategy. Seriously, the things that are holding you back are corporate, office and national politics. These aren't insurmountable obstacles, just impressions of them. It's a bank for goodness sake, it's not meant to be interesting. Suits and a sterile office are not the problem. They are the symptom; and more than that, they are the signal and the filter for the type of people that work there (so I can see you having just as much problem getting your comrades-in-arms to agree to "collaboration, idea generation and non-corporatism" as your managers.) (I've written this assuming you're not a manager. If you are, great, it'll be easier to do either of these options and you can probably shave a couple of years of the timeline!) The best advice I can think of (other than give up, obviously) is to first prove technical competence, in the form a high-level executive understands (I saved us X million dollars on Y different occasions) and then get them to support you in setting up a team (which you will lead and will almost certainly need to recruit from outside to fill — quick, who's the first person you phone?) that will do the projects you want to do (quick, what can you do that might add a billion the bank's bottom line?) and provide the political cover to do what you want. It'll take 5-10 years, it's risky and it requires political skill. An alternative tactic…

So, is this one of the crappy ones or one of the good ones ;) ? Agreed whole heartedly though, if you are a 'producer' there will be tons of stuff that is not fantastic but that might be useful to somebody. The funny thing is that it is unpredictable, what will be appreciated and what not. Sometimes I fire off a 10 minute blog post and it gets retweeted for days or even weeks after, and sometimes I work for hours and hours on something and nobody cares. I see the 'lower grade stuff' as taking a break from the other stuff whilst still keeping busy. Sooner or later you find yourself engaged with more interesting things again, if you 'broke the routine' just because you're not doing anything worthwhile you'd find your source of inspiration dried up pretty quickly. So keep busy, by all means, and fail often, looking forward to the gems. Like this one: http://www.sebastianmarshall.com/?p=95

A great post summarizing this point is The Genius and Tragedy of Patrick McKenzie, by Sebastian Marshall (username lionhearted on HN): http://sebastianmarshall.com/the-genius-and-tragedy-of-patrick-mckenzi…

I love the quote, but unfortunately, it's not always the right way to think about it. http://sebastianmarshall.com/on-willpower-and-why-its-not-enough

http://www.sebastianmarshall.com/the-weakest-of-the-great-men-of-all-t… Pretty interesting to ponder one's life from this perspective. "Keeping up with Augustus", I suppose :)

patio11: just to play devil's advocate here, you have posted in the past that you have never made more than $60k per year[1]. This prompted a much attacked post [2] that is actually sort of structurally similar to this one (how to get more money for engineers), but aimed at you specifically rather than others, which made it strange. Can I ask you the extent to which your points are field tested? Within the last 488 days, have your salary negotiations actually paid off, and who have you been negotiating with given that you are an entrepreneur with your own company? This is not meant as ad-hominem and I like much of your writing. But you are like a sports trainer recommending a workout plan, and it is not unreasonable to ask whether you are actually in shape. [1] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1716991 [2] http://www.sebastianmarshall.com/the-genius-and-tragedy-of-patrick-mck…

he's a complete egotist "Whenever I compared myself to people similar to me, it wasn’t even close. I worked more, accomplished more, produced more, did more meaningful things, was traveling the world. I read more books, did more writing, was generally healthier and more disciplined, spent my time well. I was the top 1% for my age, and even better than that if you measured me against people from similar backgrounds." http://www.sebastianmarshall.com/the-weakest-of-the-great-men-of-all-t…

I am a fan of http://www.sebastianmarshall.com/ . He writes very well and happens to share some very interesting information.

So what has this guy achieved? Writing a popular blog is a solid achievement, but it's not an amazing one. The reason I ask is so I know who to listen to. Leo Babuta: "Only let yourself do 50-75 percent of what you want to do." Sebastian Marshall (http://www.sebastianmarshall.com/about): "I track my time, set daily and weekly objectives, and succeed on them roughly 70% of the time. If I start getting into a groove where I’m succeeding at 100%, I up the difficulty until I’m back around 70%." I'm inclined to listen to Sebastian because he seems smarter and more energetic, but it'd be nice if each one bragged about their achievements more so I could make a more informed decision.

Clickables: http://www.sebastianmarshall.com http://ryanwaggoner.com/2010/07/more-on-habits/ Congrats - I'm pleased you're happy, and keep it up!

This post is a real gem as well: http://www.sebastianmarshall.com/?p=236

I found the article creepy - http://www.sebastianmarshall.com/?p=251

to the commentors who've said "you're only 25. stop feeling that way": you have forgotten what it's like to be 25 and feel 25. i think your intention is to uplift and inject perspective, but you sound uncaring and distant to me. i recommend against saying this kind of blithe bullshit. people don't like hearing it. you don't like hearing someone say that to you. i am 25. i teach in the humanities, but i'm not interested in a degree there. i love acting. i used to act. i'm currently: soldering an IBM model F keyboard to a USB board so i can daily-drive it. lusting for a lisp machine. ordering an FPGA so i can write my own lisp machine. reading psych books on the off-chance that i become a therapist. inhaling everything Alan Kay that i can find. leading communication workshops so people can communicate more how they want and less how they don't. i see connections and a narrative among these projects (uhh sometimes) but i can't explain it to anyone else for shit. i really suck at it. it gets me down because i think people misperceive me as aimless. i'm not aimless. this blog post spoke to me: http://sebastianmarshall.com/fundamentals-and-novelty-seeking i'm constantly looking for distractive life-hacks (cheat codes). i should be working on my fundamentals. i subconsiously believe that all my weirdo historical hobbies will come together to make me cool/money/content/dunno. those are weirdo hobbies and self-improvement/help tricks, though. i have one fundamental right…

I think when a lot of people hear the phrase life tracking they associate it with conclusions like drinking an extra half an ounce of water each meal reduced my caloric intake by 6.6% and I think that can be a bit overwhelming and it discourages people from trying it out (sounds like a lot of work!). Stats and analysis are far less important for me than the act of tracking. Knowing that I'm accountable for my decisions makes me much more likely to make positive choices. For example, I've been trying to cut back on coffee. Knowing that I drink 1.2 or 0.8 coffees per day has far less of an impact on me than knowing that at the end of the day I'm going to have to go in and check "Yes" next to my coffee item. It sounds ridiculous, but it works. Sebastian Marshall has written extensively about life tracking, which is how I originally got into it. His What Gets Measured Gets Managed post is an excellent primer: http://www.sebastianmarshall.com/what-gets-measured-gets-managed

After a week, it is definitely time for another conversation. A week with no update is unacceptable, he is disrespecting you. It's rude and unprofessional to leave you hanging with "...eventually, don't bother me..." When someone who is supposed to be your business partner does this, it's a clue that: 1.) they are a joker, 2.) they can't be trusted. If something was going on in his personal like etc. he should be adult and professional enough to inform the people he goes into business with. Although, he could be working diligently, you could tell if your project is on git, they should be making regular commits to dev branches if they are working. My advice, follow up with him on status, get a final answer on whether or not he will finish it, and when. If he is adult and reasonable, you guys are good. If he admits he doesn't want to do the work... Sever ties with them, they can not be trusted, how do you know he will not lose interest in the second product? And put you in the same position again. I understand What AznHisoka is saying about losing interest, this is very true, but when someone commits to doing something, they need to do it, otherwise they are not worth your time. Fucking Jokers, there is an interesting post on HN about this: http://www.sebastianmarshall.com/if-you-want-to-get-rich-stop-being-a-… Seriously, if someone working with/for me and they; first stop working on the agreed priorities, then give me some wishy washy non existent time…

In the end you have to do it despite your feelings, but I like these 4 articles better than the average GTD ones: http://sebastianmarshall.com/community/51134

Interestingly, does anyone remember lionhearted's posts from so long ago, where he pondered over the question why patio11 makes so little money, and why he charges so little? And the community reacted very fiercely, saying that he should let patio11 be -- he's doing his thing, money doesn't matter. And now patio11 is the posterboy for "charge more". How things change! It's kind of fascinating. Here's the HN discussion link: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1720244 And here's Sebastian's original post: http://sebastianmarshall.com/the-genius-and-tragedy-of-patrick-mckenzi…

Because he has more important things to do than argue with peasants? http://sebastianmarshall.com/arguing-with-peasants-shows-a-lack-of-sel…

His about page [1] says "strategist, entrepreneur, technologist, avid reader and writer, casual historian, cowboy scientist, and I like doing some adventure and travel type stuff". His LinkedIn [2] says "Real Estate, Project Management, Technology, Philanthropy, Writing". His youtube channel [3] is full of lectures about strategy. Sooo..."life coach" mashed up with "strategy consultant" or something equivalent? Of course, you could ask, "Does it matter what his credentials are?" [1] http://sebastianmarshall.com/new-start-here [2] http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=81632430 [3] http://www.youtube.com/user/yousebastianmarshall

Odd. I'd think polishing the PoS idea you thought was an MVP was a more likely problem. I know that would be my tendency. I'd need someone crazy helping me jump into trouble: http://www.sebastianmarshall.com/inventors-who-want-to-do-business-sto…

Reminds me of the stand Sebastian Marshall is taking against Simon & Schuester. He also points to overdue advances and sluggish response times. http://www.sebastianmarshall.com/an-open-letter-to-simon-and-schuester…

I read about 50% of the letter (http://www.sebastianmarshall.com/an-open-letter-to-simon-and-schuester… What I felt was unprofessional behavior on the part of the publisher was not sticking to deadlines for payment. However, I did feel that the author complaining his ideas for jacket design were not taken seriously is a bit diva-like behavior. I do think, that with all the software tools we have out (spell checker, grammar checkers etc) it should be quite possible to self-publish (using a print on demand service for example, and for ebooks, perhaps you can even design your own site). The only thing I think is how will your book get publicity if you don't have a publisher behind you. Perhaps Cory Doctorow's model (of putting samples on line) is good, but how do you get your initial break?

Sebastian also had a similar thought: http://www.sebastianmarshall.com/the-genius-and-tragedy-of-patrick-mck… Discussion on HN: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1720244 And here's what Patrick replied to him. "Well, I'm happy that people like me and are invested in my success. I'm also a little discomfited by the psychoanalysis. I'm pretty happy with where I am in life, have a pretty decent career trajectory at the moment, and life is improving in non-career ways which matter more to me anyhow. That's about all I think I need to say." http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1721309 I think what he has written is still valid. Hope you got the answer.

I don't understand, what would agents like Jim do if there was no "publishing cartel"? What are they currently doing that they would continue doing? I think not wearing a shirt makes it: -less likely I will share it -harder to assign credibility (even though I have already read your work and know your smart) -harder to focus on what your saying and finish video These shirted videos are awesome http://www.sebastianmarshall.com/my-approach-to-business

This guy sounds like an utter penis. http://www.sebastianmarshall.com/about