Greg's Right FIT #370

Quick notes to help you grow your business in less time with less effort. . . sometime next week. 

In this issue: 

- Thoughts on Momentum
- Being Human
- Random Stuff

Thoughts on Momentum

• Take a nature walk. It's been shown to lower blood pressure, promote healing, improve your mood, reduce the need for painkillers, and even bring inflammation down. 
• Asking the same person the same question over a period of time results in different answers. This is a good thing. Those different answers lead to better understanding.
• How easy is it for users to have a good experience with your company? Sometimes, no matter how superior your offering is to the competition, you'll lose business because customers find it easier to build momentum with someone else. 
• People won't care enough or get enough benefit from a long term feature is a shorter term alternative is available. We see this in management's focus on motivation versus building momentum. The short term boost from an inspiring speech is appealing, even if it doesn't make a long term difference. 

Being Human - The team behind the scenes

"Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships." – Michael Jordan

Substack is one of the latest examples of a business built for disruption. In this case, investors are banking on the disruption of the news and journalism business. Substack is attracting readers by staking some high-profile journalists. After reading a few Substack articles, it's easy to see what happens when a business model strips away everything that makes for good writing—editors, proofers, fact-checkers, and in-depth reporting—leaving us alone with the lightly edited opinions of the writer. Sometimes it's like listening to a 3-hour podcast! 

Excerpted from The Hedgehog Review, "Stacked Deck: At what point does Substack journalism become fan service?"

"As is true across Internet culture, a writer who wants to make good money through Substack must become an influencer. Even if journalists have made their names with the assistance of rarely seen editors, fact checkers, and photographers, their personal brands are what entice fans to sign up for their newsletters. By helping writers monetize their bylines, Substack maintains the fiction that writing––or any profession, for that matter—is a solitary pursuit. Because subscribers pay writers directly, they cut around all the labor that makes good journalism possible. It’s like going to see your favorite actors perform, but with no stage manager, costume shop, or lighting crew."

This is on my mind as I finish my book and fill out the "Acknowledgments" section. It almost feels wrong to only put my name on the final product. We love the story of the lone figure out doing battle and winning the war, but it's a fiction. It's worth remembering good things rely on the team behind the scenes. 

Random Stuff

“Daydreaming does not enjoy tremendous prestige in our culture, which tends to regard it as unproductive thought. Writers perhaps appreciate its importance better than most, since a fair amount of what they call work consists of little more than daydreaming edited." – Michael Pollan, "A Place of My Own"

It has been pointed out that I am complaining about the push to finish my book. Maybe a bit too much. Kind of like I do when I am sick, and I feel compelled to let everyone know, "I am sick." I tried to reflect on the reason why this morning. I think it's because when I sit down to write the newsletter, I think "I should be using this time to finish the book." Others will say it's just because I'm a whiny baby man. Could be. 

I was asked about the books I read while procrastinating. In no particular order, I read "Remain in Love", by Talking Heads drummer Chris Frantz. Fun history of the band from the guy keeping the beat. I didn't know how popular Tom Tom Club was worldwide.

"Don't Know Tough", by Eli Crandor. A fun murder mystery taking place in a football obsessed town in rural Arkansas.

I listened to "Inside Voice," by Lake Bell. I learned all about sexy-baby-voice, and I am rethinking how I sound to others.

Kurt Andersen's "Fantasyland." He makes a convincing case for why we citizens of the USA act like we do.

"How Soccer Explains the World," by Franklin Foer. It was written in 2004, but his take on the lessons we can take from global soccer to explain globalization still holds up.

"A Place of My Own," by Michael Pollan. He takes us through his experience building a writer's shed on his New England homestead. 

This last book is why my next project is building a writer's shed in Wilson's backyard. I was going to buy a pre-fab unit, but now I've decided on making something just for me. I won't go as far as Pollan and build it because I don't want to wait for years before using it, but I will follow his lead and have a hand in the design. 

By the way, if you think I complained about finishing my book before, just wait until I have a writer's shed to complain in.