The Mix Tape, Vol. 78
Discover more from Steady Beats | Matt Tillotson
Welcome to this week’s Mix:
🏃🏻♂️Sprint essays on health and fitness
📈Distinctions in the passion economy
🧱The Build 2021 manifesto
🌅A gratuitous Florida sunset photo
Sprint Essays on health and fitness
As I warm up to work as a mentor in Write of Passage Cohort 6 (now open for enrollment!), I’m writing 30 short essays—Sprint Essays—on health and fitness.
Here are the latest sprints:
Ketones: the what and why of this fat-burning chemical
Unlike Keystone, a cheap beer I consumed in the 90s, ketones have health benefits
Wait—not all stress is bad?
Why we need hormetic stress and how to get it
Dave Asprey’s three tools for easier and more effective fasting
It turns out, fasting has some wiggle room. Asprey shows us how to make it easier.
Does focusing on time under tension lead to better strength training results?
A different way to look at strength training
Sam Adams is a stage-five clinger
You can’t out-exercise booze binges
Some not-so-super stats you won't see elsewhere today
Awareness can keep the garbage food dressed up in funny ads off your plate
Rule one of the passion economy
You may have heard of the passion economy, which refers to our modern ability to turn what we love to do into creative and sustainable businesses.
Travis Fischer shares an important distinction made by Allen Lau: a passion economy business only works when passion comes before the economy.
One of the things which stood out for me was something Allen said about passion always coming first, and monetization coming second.
"99% of people who write are motivated by their fanbase and engagement. Only a small portion really go into things focused on monetization." (Allen Lau)
Passion first, and money will follow. Many startups—like the one that hosts this newsletter, Substack—are working to make it easier to monetize passion economy businesses by facilitating easier content creation and distribution.
The creator’s manifesto: Build 2021
I love this list from Trevor McKendrick, Chief of Staff at the Lambda School.
1. Building always beats talking.
2. Failure is defined as not shipping.
3. Don’t ask for permission.
4. Defend the builders, even when they make mistakes.
5. ”Give yourself permission to work on things that are harder than you think is reasonable”
6. Take creative risks & try crazy ideas.
7. 10% aim, 90% shoot.
8. Grant status to creators.
9. ”This week instead of next week. Today instead of tomorrow.”
10. Say no to the chorus of vetos
Personally, I need to shift #1 to “Building always beats thinking.”
And I have fought a lifelong war with #3. Doing #7 naturally alleviates issues with #3.
Gratuitous Florida sunset photo
Just because it’s been a while since I shared one.
Thank you for reading and sharing.
Please hit reply if you have questions, comments, or open rebuttals. (Or just want to say hi.)