Writing Archives - Page 5 of 6

Pareto’s Law Is the Antithesis of Excellence

August 24, 2017August 8, 2023 Nik

It’s a sunny day in 1896 in Lausanne. After his morning coffee, Vilfredo Federico Damaso Pareto takes the usual stroll through his well-tended garden.

An engineer at heart, the new chair of political economy of the University of Lausanne meticulously tracks the performance of his vegetables. Today the peas are up. He grabs a few sample pods from the nearest row of plants and goes back inside.

At the kitchen table, he starts counting. One pod, two pod, three pod, four. Five peas, ten peas, twelve peas, more. As he lines up each pair 45 peas emerge from 15 pods.

Just as Vilfredo is about to pin down today’s observation in his tracking sheet, he pauses. Hm. Those first few pods lie next to an awfully large number of peas…

2 Minutes to Forever Improve Your Writing

August 4, 2017February 28, 2024 Nik

The following 4 tips took me 3 years of writing to collect but will only take you 2 minutes to learn. Your writing will be better forever.

Think, Watch, Do: 3 Simple, But Powerful Self-Awareness Exercises

July 21, 2017June 15, 2021 Nik

It never ceases to amaze me how much you can learn from movies, books and music, even if it’s completely fictional. Take Harry Potter, for example. No matter how many times I watch it, read it, or think about it, I always find something new that’s interesting. Here’s what I learned from it this week:

In every trio there is a thinker, a watcher and a doer. Read More

On The Art of Being Timeless

June 23, 2017June 15, 2021 Nik

I’ve kept this line in my mind for a long time:

“Things of quality have no fear of time.” ~Unknown

Yesterday, I had a late dinner with one of my best friends, Matt. Matt is an architect and Munich is full of history, so when we met at Königsplatz at 9:30 PM, as usual, he had plenty stories to tell.

“King’s Square,” as you would translate it, is a huge, open space, housing several museums, one of which is the Glyptothek.

Commissioned by the Bavarian King Ludwig I to house his collection of Roman and Greek sculptures, this building is a piece of art in and of itself. Like so many others in Munich, it casually rests in its place, timeless. For 200 years, many have stood awestruck before it, long before Matt and me and long after we’re gone, many a soul will.

Matt and my conversations are always very philosophical in nature and as the evening continued, so did its theme: what makes something timeless?

How To Learn Faster In 4 Simple, But Not Easy Steps

June 9, 2017June 15, 2021 Nik

I’m 100% done with my economics class for this semester, even though only 1o out of 24 lecture recordings have been uploaded so far. Each month, over a million people view my answers on Quora, though I started writing daily on there only on January 1st, 2017. I’m building an app with two friends on the side, yet I don’t know how to write code in Swift.

The list goes on. I’m always dabbling in at least 3–5 projects, all with varying degrees of experience and success. The one thing I refuse to let myself be guilty of is not learning fast enough so each of them won’t at least have a shot at working out.

This week, I thought about my learning process and asked myself what I could share with you about how to learn faster. I found four steps. Read More

Growth Hacker Marketing: How To Build Something People Want In 2017

May 26, 2017June 15, 2021 Nik

968 days ago the first post on this blog went live. When I started almost three years ago, the plan was clear:

Read all about marketing.
Growth hack the shit out of writing.
Make millions of dollars.

How do you think that worked out? Well, you’re right. If you want to start something online too, today’s book review and summary will save you a lot of time. A LOT.

7 Years, 7 Rules of Life: Happiness In The Making

March 31, 2017January 8, 2024 Nik

In 2010, I wrote down a set of “first principles” for my life. I asked myself:

“Which rules, if I lived by them for the rest of my life, would make me as happy as I can be?”

7 years later, it’s time to reflect and see which ones stood the test of time.

How To Start A Passion Project One Day At A Time

March 24, 2017June 15, 2021 Nik

When people sign up for my newsletter, they instantly receive an automated email that asks them: “What’s one thing you struggle with?” Some consider this a marketing trick, but for me, it’s a once in a lifetime chance to talk to readers, say hi and try to help them however I can.

Nevertheless, it does have a research benefit to it: I see which problems keep coming up and what bothers my audience the most. I’ve written so much by now, that most of the time, I can recommend a particular resource for any given issue.

No time to read? Take my free course. Issues with productivity? Gotcha. Can’t google stuff? Wrote a book for you.

Recently, one question kept coming up, which I found myself unable to send people a resource for. It’s a question about projects. A question about starting. Here are three reader responses, all from this week, aimed at it:

“I want to start a business, but hardly have the money or the idea for it!” –Vishal
“I started learning magic tricks long ago, but I never take the time to share my tricks online. There are a few on youtube and I really wanted to share more.” –Flavien
“Being disorganized and lacking focus. I’m a certified NLP trainer and looking to start my own business as a Learning Coach for children. Yet I spend my days on chores, cooking and computer based admin stuff.” –Megan

Can you spot the question? Here’s the one I see: “How do I start a passion project?“

Today, I’ll do my best to answer it. But first…why is it that question?