Snippet, July 4 edition 🇺🇸: Be a patriot (not a nationalist)

4 July 20239 July 2023 patmcg1 Comment

On Tyranny is a short, coffee-table book packed so dense with so much useful and practical information that it eludes a super summary. So like Show Your Work, I’ll be covering the best parts individually here as snippets.

The book looks at simple, real-world ways we can all protect democracy and fight tyranny.

We Americans get a chance to collectively take pride in our country every year on July 4. Serendipitously placed in the middle of summer, we get to enjoy endless grill & chill opportunities, pool parties, hot dog eating contests, even dance parties. And of course, fireworks. 🇺🇸🌭🎆

I’m not sure how people in most other countries celebrate their national identities, but I am grateful that we have decided to celebrate as a fun, collective national party rather than, say, a military parade or a grim political speech.

Those military parades and political speeches are signs of nationalism, which is, “endlessly brooding on power, victory, defeat, revenge”, according to On Tyranny.

Sadly, a some of this type of nationalism is familiar to us Americans as well.

In contrast to this bitter nationalism, it is good and helpful to be a patriot, because patriots brings out our best selves based on real, universal values.

A patriot… wants the nation to live up to its ideals, which means asking us to be our best selves.

A patriot must be concerned with the real world, which is the only place where his country can be loved and sustained.

A patriot has universal values, standards by which he judges his nation, always wishing it well—and wishing that it would do better.

So go ahead, be a patriot. We’ll all be better off for it. ✌️

The “So what?” test

25 June 202326 June 2023 patmcg1 Comment

Continuing to pull some helpful snippets out of Show Your Work, let’s look at the “So What?” test.

I had struggled for a while on this blog with the “to post or not to post” question. I was honing in on a vague “useful or interesting” test when I read Show Your Work, which attacked this idea with a “So What?” test.

I had a professor in college who returned our graded essays, walked up to the chalkboard, and wrote in huge letters: “SO WHAT?” She threw the piece of chalk down and said, “Ask yourself that every time you turn in a piece of writing.

Now any of my own posts must pass the “Sow what?” test before I will publish it. Clearly I found this “So what?” test useful because I use it here constantly.

As always, the book explains the idea most vividly with an illustration.

I will say that this rule seems at odds (or is it just tension?) with other ideas in the book, namely share something small every day.

I mean, do you really have something interesting and useful to share every day? If you’re a professional writer, maybe. But if you’re just a guy with a blog and limited time, maybe not. 😆

So I’m letting the “So what?” rule overrule any others for now.

Books · Quotes

“Do what you want to do, because it’s what you want to do.”

14 June 202325 June 2023 patmcg1 Comment

One of my favorite books, I Suck at Girls, written by the Sh*t My Dad Says guy, is full of said dad’s advice, which happens to be both obscenity-laced and wise.

In this snippet, the son is deciding how to respond to his ex’s invitation to lunch while still hurting from a breakup. So he asks his dad’s opinion.

“You’re not fucking perfect,” says the dad.

The son is confused by this response and asks for some clarification.

Noting that “You do dumb shit. She does dumb shit. Everyone does dumb shit,” 😆 the dad gives some great advice.

Don’t do something, or not do something, to punish someone because you think they did something dumb. Do what you want to do, because it’s what you want to do.

The son follows the advice, which is brilliantly both forgiving and self-empowering, and goes for lunch.

Spoiler: he does not regret it.

Note: “what you want to do” should still fit in with ethical norms, legal constraints, and personal values. 🤷🏻‍♂️😆 Don’t do your own dumb shit.

Books · creativity · Music

“You’re only as good as your record collection.” 🎧

27 May 202325 June 2023 patmcg1 Comment

The little, square book Show Your Work has changed they way I think about blogging, processing my ideas, and has even helped me see my own music playlists differently.

And thus, my first book snippet.

Okay, it’s actually my second snippet – I just didn’t realize that the first one (also from this book) was a snippet when I wrote it.

This book says that creative people should embrace collecting as part of the creation process.

There’s not as big of a difference between collecting and creating as you might think.
Show Your Work

Great musicians, writers, and artists tend to collect and appreciate other people’s work. “The reading feeds the writing, which feeds the reading,” the book says. Or to put it another way:

You’re only as good as your record collection.
DJ Spooky, via Show Your Work

Hopefully this approach works for me as I dig into music creation.

To that end, here is my ever-growing list of new songs I like, built up gradually over the last few years, thanks to Shazam and a few coffee shops with their own great playlists. As of this writing, this playlist is over 49 hours long and could double as its own radio station.

Don’t hoard indeed. 🤷🏻‍♂️

Books

It’s time for book snippets ✄

27 May 202330 May 2023 patmcg2 Comments

I’ve been doing super summaries on this blog for a while now. The idea is to condense a great book into a super distilled version that covers the core concepts as quickly as possible. Hopefully the super summary is useful, and if your curiosity is teased enough, then you can read the actual book.

I think it’s a win-win, and these continue to be some of my most popular posts.

But some books simply can’t be super-summarized.

The book Show Your Work has has been sitting on my coffee table taunting me for months. I pick it up and read a bit, absorb whatever nuggets of inspiration I get out of it, and then put it away for a while.

I keep thinking I’ll write up a super-summary on this little 184-page book. I mean, how hard could that be?

Ironically enough, this tiny, square, innocent-looking book is so densely packed with good material that a super summary is nearly impossible. I think I could but the book in half, maybe? But who wants a 92-page summary of a book? 🤔

So I’m starting a new thing here: a book snippet. I’ll take one little concept at a time from a book and post it. And then post a series of excerpts over time for any give book.

This approach fits (so to speak) with my goal of keeping things short. So with that, stay tuned for the first snippet.

👉 First snippet: “You’re only as good as your record collection.” 🎧