Current Project: Reading books about entrepreneurs and sharing what I learned from them

Mission: Create a library of wisdom from notable entrepreneurs that current entrepreneurs can leverage to increase their chances of success

Cumulative metrics (since 4/1/24):

• Total books read: 58
• Total blog posts published: 371

This week’s metrics:

• Books read: 1
• Blog posts published: 7

What I completed this week (link to last week’s commitments):

• Read A Technique for Producing Ideas, a framework for producing ideas by former advertising executive James Webb Young
• Had meetings with two more developers about this project

What I’ll do next week:

• Read a biography, autobiography, or framework book
• Create an opportunity solution-tree diagram for this project

Asks:

• If you can get me an invitation code to Manus, please let me know!
• If you know any senior full-stack developers interested in working on the software for my current project, please introduce us!

Week two hundred sixty-three was another week of learning. Looking forward to next week!

Current Project: Reading books about entrepreneurs and sharing what I learned from them

Mission: Create a library of wisdom from notable entrepreneurs that current entrepreneurs can leverage to increase their chances of success

What I struggled with:

• I struggled to stay focused this week amid all the tariff turmoil.

What I learned:

• I need to be specific about the skills I’m looking for in a senior engineer.
• Visually showing how biographies and other books are connected would be valuable to entrepreneurs.
• Writing blog post series about biographies is a way to both create magnetic luck and connect with entrepreneurs who love to learn.
• The opportunity solution-tree diagram method detailed in Continuous Discovery Habits is a great way to capture all customer needs, pain points, and desires—and to show all the ways you can satisfy or solve them and to determine which of your ideas are good ones.
• I need to apply the methods from the above-mentioned book to this project.

Those are my struggles and learnings from the week.

An engineer recently reached out to me, cold. I wasn’t sure how I got on his radar, so I asked. He’s an avid learner who’s trying to round out his business skills to be a better entrepreneur. He shared that he’d read one of my blog post series about a biography I’d read and decided to reach out to me. This engineer is sharp, so I’m glad we connected.

I thought about that conversation more today, and I have a few takeaways:

• This engineer has a portfolio of side projects and cool things he’s building. Seeing them made me curious to learn more about them and him. They showed me that he isn’t just a talker. He’s executing, which gave him credibility.
• Whenever I hear from a reader that my posts helped them, it fires me up. That kind of feedback motivates me.
• In the last year, every person who reached out after reading my blog mentioned a post about a biography adding value to them and triggering them to reach out. I need to write more in-depth posts about biographies.
• Sharing my learnings about biographies has led to my meeting smart and interesting entrepreneurs across the country whom I’d never have met otherwise.
• The posts about biographies are helping me create magnetic luck (see here).
• Posts about entrepreneur biographies have filtered the type of people who reach out. It’s been entrepreneurs who are serious about reading to learn.
• I want to connect with more entrepreneurs who get value from my posts about biographies. I need to figure out how to let those readers know I want to hear from them.  
• I need to turn the old posts about biographies in these posts (and future posts) into a newsletter.
• Cold outreach works. More people should do it more often (in the right way). There’s zero to lose and lots to gain.

I never would have thought it, but writing about what I’m reading adds value to others and is a good way to connect with entrepreneurs who love to learn (my kind of people).

Yesterday, I shared that I caught up with a friend who’s a serial entrepreneur and avid reader. He’s serious about learning and solving problems, so for years he’s made reading a priority. He has time on his schedule early every morning to read books (I do too).

Today, I’ve been thinking about another takeaway from that conversation. One of his book discovery methods is paying attention to other books mentioned in the books he reads. (Many books cite other books when they borrow concepts.) He likes this approach because an author doesn’t usually mention a book if it isn’t worth reading or it’s not helpful—a mention is like a quality filter. Also, the suggested book will likely align with the period, industry, or person he’s studying. Suggested books allow him to go deeper into an area he’s already learning about. They keep him on topic.

I, too, use books to discover books (see here), so this resonated with me and got me thinking.

The pain point around this approach is that you must read a book to find the suggested books. The suggestions are like needles in a haystack. This isn’t an issue with a book I’m currently reading, but what If I want to know what books are mentioned in a book I read awhile back? Or what if I find a book and want to see what books mention it to determine its quality? As far as I know, that’s impossible. It’d be great to see a list of all the books mentioned in a particular book and a list of all other books that mention it. Books are connected, but it’s impossible to see the connections. Visually displaying those connections could unlock lots of value for readers and make it easier to discover useful books.  

Current Project: Reading books about entrepreneurs and sharing what I learned from them

Mission: Create a library of wisdom from notable entrepreneurs that current entrepreneurs can leverage to increase their chances of success

Cumulative metrics (since 4/1/24):

• Total books read: 57
• Total blog posts published: 364

This week’s metrics:

• Books read: 1
• Blog posts published: 7

What I completed this week (link to last week’s commitments):

• Read The Father of Spin, a biography of entrepreneur—and maybe even father of public relations—Edward Bernays  
• Connected with two more developers about this project
• Played with Gumloop and Lindi; I’m trying to find an invitation code to Manus

What I’ll do next week:

• Read a biography, autobiography, or framework book

Asks:

• If you can get me an invitation code to Manus, please let me know!
• If you know any senior full-stack developers interested in working on the software for my current project, please introduce us!

Week two hundred sixty-two was another week of learning. Looking forward to next week!

Current Project: Reading books about entrepreneurs and sharing what I learned from them

Mission: Create a library of wisdom from notable entrepreneurs that current entrepreneurs can leverage to increase their chances of success

What I struggled with:

• No material struggles this week related to this project

What I learned:

• Creating a language model isn’t as expensive as I thought if the data set isn’t large or broad.
• I should pare down the features I want before sharing the software. Giving users something that adds value is better and allows me to get feedback sooner.

Those are my struggles and learnings from the week.

This week I finished a book earlier than I expected, so I picked up another one. I usually wouldn’t have read it because of how short it is, but I figured, why not. I’ve just started it, but already it’s changed how I think about myself as “not an idea person.” The book is a framework book that details a process for producing ideas.

Already I’ve had a few lightbulb moments—a sure sign that the book is connecting dots for me and adding value. I’m going to finish it, digest it, and then share what I learned in a post.

The thought that I might be able to generate ideas repeatedly using a proven method has me excited about finishing this book and applying what I’ve learned.

Data is telling me to write more long-form posts.

I looked at the data around my blog posts in Google Analytics. My most-visited pages are longer posts about biographies I’ve read. This post about Ted Turner’s wealth is my most-viewed post over the last six months and ranks on the first page of Google (search “Ted Turner net worth”). It’s part of a series I wrote on Ted’s autobiography.

People like these longer posts about entrepreneurs and books more than my shorter posts. I suspect the segment who read these longer posts in their entirety is small, but they’re also more likely to share a post (one was shared on Reddit).

The dilemma is that I write posts every day, and sometimes I need to write a short post about something that’s been on my mind. I’m worried that if I commit to writing only these longer posts, I’ll lose the ability to write short posts that help me crystallize ideas or problems. Writing has become a valuable tool to help me think clearly and I want the flexibility to write about whatever.

I noticed that some people who share their thoughts online separate their writings. The shorter ones are considered blog posts; each can be read in a minute or two. But the longer posts, called “essays,” require much more time to consume and are in a separate section of their website.

I started linking related posts at the bottom of each page, and I think that’s helped readers quickly find all posts in the same series. But it’s still pretty hard to find them among my 1,850+ posts, most of which are short. Discovering a long post if you’re already on my blog isn’t a great experience and needs to be improved.

I’m not sure if I’ll do this, but I do like the idea of making it easier for people to see all the longer posts in one section. I’ll think about this more. If you have feedback or suggestions, I’d love to hear them.

Today, I bought a book on impulse.

I was listening to an interview of an entrepreneur I’m researching. When asked about things that shaped his career, he mentioned a book and how it shaped his thinking—and I immediately bought it. I didn’t look at reviews. I didn’t look at the price. My purchase decision was already made.

I reflected on the purchase later. It wasn’t a biography or framework book. It was a historical book containing the author’s opinion about how past events contributed to boom-and-bust cycles. I wouldn’t normally be excited to buy a book like this, but I was excited about this one. But why?

Simple. It was recommended by someone I deem credible. And that recommendation carried more weight than other factors.

I know that recommendations are how most people buy books. But I hadn’t thought much about it in the context of my book project. I’m thinking about it now, and I think a lot of value can be added to other entrepreneurs if you can show them in a simple way which books credible entrepreneurs found helpful (in addition to all the other cool stuff I want to show them). The information is out there; it’s just not organized in a way that’s easy to use.

Social proof is a proven psychological phenomenon, and deploying it could be a great way to enhance discovery of books by entrepreneurs who’d find them helpful.

I need to think about this more, but those are my preliminary ideas.

Current Project: Reading books about entrepreneurs and sharing what I learned from them

Mission: Create a library of wisdom from notable entrepreneurs that current entrepreneurs can leverage to increase their chances of success

Cumulative metrics (since 4/1/24):

• Total books read: 56
• Total blog posts published: 357

This week’s metrics:

• Books read: 1
• Blog posts published: 7

What I completed this week (link to last week’s commitments):

• Read An Honorable Titan, a biography of entrepreneur and publisher Adolph Ochs, who bought The New York Times
• Caught up (mostly) and rekindled conversations with prospective developers

What I’ll do next week:

• Read a biography, autobiography, or framework book
• Reach out to two more developers about this project
• Explore using Gumloop, Lindi, and Manus to see if they can help with this project
• Adjust layouts for a list of entrepreneurs on my blog
• Crystallize and write down idea for a biography-related website

Asks:

• If you can get me an invitation code to Manus, please let me know!
• If you know any full-stack developers interested in working on the software for my current project, please introduce us!

Week two hundred sixty-one was another week of learning. Looking forward to next week!