Synth: Week of 10.26.20

Nat Eliason on Email Inflow:

On Angel Investing (via Not Boring):

On Story Telling (article below):

1. You admire a character for trying more than for their successes.
2. keep in mind what’s interesting to you as an audience, not what’s fun to do
3. you won’t see what the story is actually about til you’re at the end of it.
4. Simplify. Focus. Combine characters. Hop over detours.
5. What is your character good at, comfortable with? Throw the polar opposite at them.
6. Come up with your ending before you figure out your middle.
7. Finish your story, let go even if it’s not perfect.
8. When you’re stuck, make a list of what WOULDN’T happen next.
9. Pull apart the stories you like.
10. Putting it on paper lets you start fixing it
11. Discount the 1st thing that comes to mind. And the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th — get the obvious out of the way. Surprise yourself.
12. Give your characters opinions.
13. Why must you tell THIS story? What’s the belief burning within you that your story feeds off of?
14. If you were your character, in this situation, how would you feel?
15. What are the stakes? Give us reason to root for the character. What happens if they don’t succeed?
16. No work is ever wasted. If it’s not working, let go and move on — it’ll come back around to be useful later.
17. You have to know yourself: the difference between doing your best & fussing. Story is testing, not refining.
18. Coincidences to get characters into trouble are great; coincidences to get them out of it are cheating.

Finding a mentor:

• Target very specific concepts and areas you would like to improve upon.
• Find people you think are exceptional at those tasks.
• Ask your network for a way to contact that person.
• Approach that person with a very specific ask and topics — 1 hour per month and 1/2 day per quarter.

Articles:

• Pixar’s 22 rules of storytelling.
• Software is Eating the Markets, Packy McCormick
• I have a Few Questions, Collab Fund
• How to Price your Saas Product, Patrick Campbell
• 10x Your Career, NfX
• How I Spend 5 minutes Per Day on Email, Nat Eliason

Quotes:

• If you get everything else wrong in pricing, but you get your value metric right, you’ll do ok.” — Patrick Campbell
• “every decision you make along the way should optimize for learning, speed, and network growth” — NfX

Shower Thoughts:

• If Fifth Wall wants to be King-Makers, I’d rather be a prince-builder.