Non-standard work requires non-standard approaches.

LinkedIn job's one in a million odds is not it. Retweeting hustle culture tips to market your biz is also not it.

Meet ppl in person. Make a website that stands out. Be kind. Find undervalued platforms. 🌱

Look at the incentive structures to predict the working dynamics 3 months from now.

How are the incentive structures set up? Where does funding or success come from? Is it a volume/time/prestige game?

The quality of our work attracts people of the same caliber.

You must offer something uniquely cool to work with uniquely cool people.

The only way to get here is to do the work, and then *reflect* & iterate.

One step at a time.

Enjoy and be good at the core of what we do.

What's the core of what you do in one sentence? Does it play into your natural talents and does it give you energy?

If not, how can you tweak what you’re already doing to use your strengths?

The compass is inner peace & flow 🧭

1. Non-standard work requires non-standard approaches.

If you’re looking for a job that’s balanced, challenging, and fun, it’s a non-standard job.

So how and where you look and how you define what it is that you’re looking for should also be non-standard. I found my current role (that I love) on Twitter. LinkedIn is saturated for finding jobs, so you need to look for uncrowded approaches to take (e.g. going to conferences and networking in person).

If you’re an entrepreneur, how you craft and market your offering is upstream of being able to do unconventionally cool work. You must offer something uniquely cool to work with uniquely cool people.

2. Who we work with is almost more important than what we do.

We know this, yet we still make mistakes when we choose who to work with. Do an audit of all the times you chose to work with the wrong person or took the wrong opportunity - do you have any repeating mistakes that you can look out for going forward?

3. Look at the incentive structures to predict the working dynamics 3 months from now.

My startup is completely funded by our founder, who has founded multiple successful companies. This incentive structure means that we don’t need to waste time gathering vanity metrics or rushing towards a Series A evaluation.

But it also means he 1) has a high bar and 2) wants to see value for his investment. Going back to point #2 about choosing who we work with, he’s also a smart, emotionally intelligent person who’s great to work with.

4. The quality of our work attracts people of the same caliber.

To attract nuance, be nuanced. The only way to get here is to do the work, and then reflect on it.

When I look back at my earlier writing, I see why people weren’t knocking down doors to read it, and I just try to improve it a little more each time.

5. We must enjoy and be good at the core of what we do.

Simple, but it can be hard to be honest with ourselves. What is the core of what you do in one sentence?

1. Are you good at it?
2. Do you like it?

If not, how can you tweak what you’re already doing to use your strengths? It can be terrifying to do something different, but what if it was just a slight variation of what you’re already doing? What are some mini-experiments you could test out in a low-risk way?

Writing is just a mirror without a flattering filter.

Your writing mirrors your thoughts, beliefs and habits back to you plainly.

Looking through my previous writing is like using two mirrors to see my face from an angle you're not used to seeing.

New perspectives, new ideas.

For founders and entrepreneurs, niche discovery is self discovery.

As a product manager, it's my job to guide all types of founders, leaders and teams figure out what value we're uniquely capable of contributing to the world. The process of dialing into your authentic niche takes time, experimentation, and reflection.

While it is a highly ambiguous space, there are structured questions you can ask yourself to create clarity through this process.

If you had to give a TED talk tomorrow, what would it be on?

It's something you're just drawn to and find yourself researching in your free time.

You might not even realize you're "researching," it's just something you know a surprising amount about where the average person does not.

Maybe you're someone who's really interested in calming, aesthetic interior design and the importance that light fixtures have on the vibe of a room.

Not only have you designed your own home this way, but you're familiar with all the best and affordable brands out there and could easily go on for hours on this subject.

What are you a (relative) expert on?

This is typically what you do for a career, but it doesn't have to be. It can be a specific skill.

If you have expertise in something but hate it, break it down into the components you're good at and like.

For instance, maybe you're a researcher and you really don't like the paperwork, but you really enjoy researching new solutions and problem solving.

What would it look like to combine the two?

Maybe you decide to put together a well-researched guide of which interior lights to get for specific types of rooms.

Not only do you want to explore the different combinations of those two items, you should identify specific demographics of who your customer is.

Oftentimes we build for people like us. If that's the case, describe your own demographics.

Are you a female in her late 20s/early 30s who expects products that are not only extremely useful but also aesthetic?

tl;dr

1. Take note of what you're naturally drawn to in your free time

2. Identify what you have experience & natural talent in

3. Targeting a smaller niche increases your likelihood of success.

1. Some of the most high achieving people are extremely "unproductive" 80% of the time. Optimizing for efficiency at all times ≠ high achieving.
   

2. Is being busy part of your identity?

3. "You can do anything, but not everything." - David Allen.

4. Designing a life that enables flow state means working on things out of intrinsic motivation, making space for rejuvenation, and working on hard things in the short term for long term benefit.
   

5. "To be is to do." - Socrates. Balance your doing with being; your achievements with your existence.

Japan is about as opposite as you can be from the U.S. and many western countries.

This is why preparation is incredibly necessary, even as a Japanese-American who has traveled between the two countries numerous times. The prep that I do enriches my experience x1,000 and it's also a way to respect the locals who welcome and guide me when I visit (including my family).

Here are just 3 of the types of prep that I do before going to Japan:

Brush up on my Japanese etiquette.

Japan is a country with many rules, and with the big influx of tourists, it's important to be mindful of the ripple effects that we have when we visit.

I always watch YouTube videos to brush up on all the etiquette rules even though I know many of them. I always learn or remember something new.

Over the years, I've noticed that less-thoughtful tourists have affected local cultures in less than positive ways.

I make sure I'm not one of them.

Plan a good mix of small towns & big cities

Everyone always goes to the big cities, but I always recommend spending about 50% of your time to stay at small towns.

If I'm not staying with my grandmother, this is where I stay in ryokans (traditional inns), get to know locals, and eat the best food.

I also use ChatGPT to help create an itinerary to find these awesome local spots.

Actively seek out cultural activities

Engaging in cultural activities is a beautiful way to experience lived Japanese values and craftsmanship. Arts are often passed down through generations, and you can feel the familial wisdom just by being in the same room as them.

I recommend checking out onsens (natural hot springs), festivals, tea lessons, kabuki (theatre), and pottery making. I research ahead of time to understand the cultural significance, any relevant etiquette, and history.

These activities end up being one of the most meditative and memorable parts of my trip.

"I am the niche!" I thought angrily after months of hemming and hawing.

All the advice on the internet was telling me to figure out exactly what I was going to write about before starting a newsletter. But that's because most of them assumed I was trying to sell a product, service or a company.

But if your goal is to share ideas and build and own your relationship with other like-minded people (rather than be platform-dependent), then I don't think you need a super clear niche.

You are the niche.

That doesn't mean that you don't have to be super thoughtful about what you choose to write about. Since you are the niche, the quality of your work reflects on your personal brand.

Why take on the additional, optional burden of writing a newsletter? Read on.

The newsletter is a long-term investment in myself.

I'm building a time and topic durable platform that I control.

I own my relationship with my readers. I'm not reliant on algorithms to show my content in subscribers' inboxes. I've also built in flexibility into the topics I discuss. Evergreen writing is also a reusable, scalable form of content.

Even with life's twists and turns, I've set the newsletter up so that it can dance with me.

Creating a writing habit is upstream of a lot of other good habits.

I strive to make fewer decisions.

Making one decision to write is actually making at least 5 other decisions. It means that I'm also deciding to wake up earlier, go to bed earlier, manage my time tighter, and creating a regular habit to practice slow thinking.

These are all constraints that help simplify what I focus on.

I enjoy writing.

It would be silly to do this if I hated writing.

There are a million ways to be successful and fulfilled in this life. Why not choose a path that uses a strength of mine?

I write this as a reminder to myself. I've been feeling the pressure to write something useful and catchy for others.

But sometimes I'm not writing for others. I'm writing for myself. To give myself time to process things.

There's not always a clear, marketable reason for why I'm writing.

And I think that that's okay, but maybe this type of writing belongs in a journal and not a public blog.

For someone who takes their writing and their audience seriously, this type of meandering writing almost feels disrespectful to post.

Am I wasting others' time? Should I keep these thoughts to myself?

But what's the alternative?

Should I only post when I have some intense content like "5 ways to increase your audience by 20%"? What kind of internet culture does that create?

It seems like it contributes to a hustle, growth-at-all-costs, grind every day culture.

What would it look like if we wrote about topics we have unique contributions to AND meandering or just-because topics like this one?

Is it useless?

Or does it make the internet more human and less commoditized?

Those who are the most creative need to cultivate the most discipline.

As the third employee and head of product at a startup, I'm primarily responsible for creating the vision, mission, and user experience of a wide-open concept.

There is no clear right answer, but it's my job to create one.

Creativity is the use of the imagination or the constructing of original ideas. It's equal parts systematization to create reproducible results, non-obvious problem solving and making esoteric connections where there don't seem to be any.

Applied creativity is a fickle flower and it only blooms where the soil is favorable.

Consistent creativity requires the discipline to create the absence of distraction

As a general rule of thumb, subtract before you add.

We have simple brains that get overloaded easily. If you're smart, this applies especially to you.

It's easy to know what a distraction is, but it's difficult to stop acting on it.

Useful creativity requires the discipline to reflect and create.

Once your mind is clear of cluttering inputs, you have the space to reflect.

To reflect is to process the inputs so that you can output something unique.

Creating something good from scratch is hard. It means you had the discipline to wrestle long enough to understand what the right problem is to solve. It also probably means that you carved a new path to figuring out a solution.

If you created something good once, that's fantastic.

Now how do you do it again, on command?

You have to get good at building a very nuanced process.

Applied creativity is one of the most fulfilling types of work a human can do.

It's simultaneously soft and hard.

It pushes you to be a well-rounded, high-agency thinker who can have original thoughts and outputs consistently.

I've met a lot of creators over Twitter this week and many seemed to be figuring out what products they could offer their customers.

"I have an idea for a product but I'm not sure if people will buy it."

In the language of product management, this process is called finding "product-market fit," and there are well established systems you can use if you're in this boat (read: don't recreate the wheel).

If you want to get a sense of whether your product is compelling enough, test your idea before your spend months building it.

I've built a lot of digital products for Fortune 200 companies and startups across multiple industries, and these are some of the ways I test our product ideas before we build them:

1. Test your offer by creating a lead magnet (an asset like a "how-to" doc that is genuinely helpful for your target customer. In exchange, you can collect information about the potential customer. Pro tip: ask questions that will help the customer, i.e. "your answers will customize the doc we'll provide you."
   

2. Build a waitlist on your product to gauge interest. Advertise your product in spaces your ideal customers live in and see how many people sign up. You can even ask questions as part of the waitlist to better understand what your customers are looking for and let them know their needs will inform what you build. You'll learn 1) whether you can reach your target audience in the first place and 2) whether they're interested in signing up.
   

3. Build a prototype of your product and test it with real people. It actually takes 10 minutes to set up user interviews. I recommend using userinterviews.com because they specialize in finding niche users who fit your target demographics.

Every week I make time for a retrospective on my writing process to reflect on learnings, wins and areas of improvement. Here's what I wrote down for this week:

What went well?

• I'm using Parkinson's Law to help me reach my goals. Work expands to fill the time given to it, and publishing a piece of writing every day for 30 days certainly limits the time given to the task. It's resulted in less sleep, less perfect writing but faster feedback, iteration and learning.

• I broke through this invisible barrier in my head that I can't DM a total stranger. I've made a real effort to connect with people on twitter whose writing I genuinely enjoy and have met some really cool people that I would have never met otherwise.

• I've started to openly talk about my personal newsletter, which has led to some growth. I was hesitant to post about my newsletter because I don't want to shill my stuff to people, but it's helped me find those who are genuinely interested in the topics I write about.

What could have gone better?

• Being disciplined about time boxing my writing to the mornings. Having to finish writing at the end of the day by the next morning gets tiring. It's hanging over my head all day.

• Build a backlog of articles so that I have some breathing room. It would give me some space to reflect, research and enjoy the process a bit more in the moment.

What are my next steps?

• Schedule a time boxed session to write and stay within that timeframe. I think it'd be useful to create a much shorter time limit than what I actually have so I have some time to think.

• Brainstorm 2 ideas and outlines tomorrow.

The first year I created a bucket list was actually the summer of the pandemic.

Quarantining was in full effect, and people were afraid to make eye contact on the street. My younger sister had just moved into my studio apartment after her college evacuated all students. After a few weeks of being bored (and scared) as hell, we decided to create a bucket list for that summer that we were together.

It gave us something to do, and it was a social contract between the two of us to make the most of quite an unexpected year.

I forgot about it until I came across Joonas Mengel's *ucketlist program, whose videos were so compelling that I decided to do it again for 2024.

Why should you bother?

For one, it's an exercise in imagination and making your intentions explicit. Can you actually list out 50 things you want to do, have or be? Have you tried? It's an incredible mental exercise to get to know yourself.

Secondly, sometimes, if we're not careful, life can feel a little draining. Maybe we're chasing the wrong things. Maybe we're not making space for rest and fun. Maybe we're prioritizing things that don't fill our cup. There's a whole science behind the effectiveness of lists, and this one can help you create experiences, find meaning, and make memories.

Here's what to do:

1. Draft out 50 things you want to do by the end of 2024. Time box to 30 minutes. Come back to it as you think of things. If you need help, think about what a 90 year-old you would tell yourself to do this year. I also like to ask myself: what are things I want to be, have or do?

2. Refine the draft. Time box to 30 minutes. Come back to it as you think of things but try to complete it within 3 days max. Try not to self-impose limitations. Don't worry about how you'll get it done. You'll figure it out as you go.

3. Write it all out and put it on your wall where you'll see it. This is actually the most critical step. It has to be easily accessible and visible. I like to make mine colorful and aesthetically pleasing. I make it joyful to look at.

4. Tag people to help you accomplish the ones you think will be a challenge. There are no rules! Make accountability buddies.

There's no such thing as losing when you put yourself out there.

Adjust the parameters if something doesn't work for you. It's okay if it's not perfect or if you don't cross it all off. If it helped you create one experience that you wouldn't have otherwise had, it's meaningful.

There was a time where I worked 12 hours every day for a year on a project and I absolutely loved it.

Building digital products that change the trajectories of companies is exciting and intellectually stimulating. I found something that I was good at, enjoyed, and felt important.

But one night I remember my best friend giving me some honest feedback - "you talk about work all the time. Let's talk about something else!" It was about that time when I started noticing that if I finished work early, I would putter around my apartment lost, looking for purpose.

"I need a hobby," I decided. I clapped my hands and looked around. It slowly dawned on me that I had no idea what I was interested in.

Create space by subtracting

In my quest to be an interesting human being and find a hobby, I basically just tried doing a lot of stuff for 2 years. But it always felt forced and hectic. I was always so busy, running from thing to thing and the potential-hobby-in-waiting fell by the wayside.

It was only when I started saying "no" to activities and obligations did I experience the stillness to hear my inner thoughts. I learned then that some of the most effective things we can do is to subtract instead of add.

Try creating things for a set amount of time. Once the time period is up, note whether you liked it or not.

The interesting thing about hobbies is that you're always creating something. Food, music, art, cars, whatever. The opposite of hobbies are things where you consume mindlessly. YouTube, video gaming, Reddit, Instagram, TikTok - these things feel different when you're the consumer vs. the creator of the content.

If you want to get to know yourself and accelerate the process of re-becoming yourself, create more than you consume.

So what should we create? Most of us are pretty multi-talented people. We have a lot of hobbies and interests - write them all down! Then try them a couple at a time.

For instance, these next few months I'm focusing on writing daily and cooking for friends. That's it. No more hobbies allowed for these next few months until this time is over. I learned this technique from DaVinci btw, who basically time boxed his interests to teach himself all the things he was interested in like anatomy, painting, and sculptures.

How can I tell the difference between "it's difficult and I don't like it" and "it's difficult but I like it"?

I simply ask myself two questions: 1) Did I enjoy this activity while I did it? 2) How did I feel after I completed the activity?

This second question is the best indicator because sometimes the things we need are difficult, and we confuse that difficulty with not liking it.

Don't overthink this. If you liked it, build a system around continuing to create it.

I'm now a very interesting human

Just kidding. But I do have real hobbies now, and I've become more me than I've ever been before. I've rediscovered my love of writing, focused on building friendships, learned how I like to travel, and discovered a passion for scuba diving. These things genuinely fill my cup.

It takes time to create yourself, but you can be methodical and intentional about it. These steps genuinely worked for me, and I hope they do for you too!