Writing every day, finishing the first draft, making the time despite circumstances.
Where it comes up 8
Within this theme 39
Concepts 4
- Beginner's Humility
From martial arts: accept that you are terrible because you have no experience; a year of practice makes you a year better. Combat and solo sports remove excuses and check the ego.
- Victimhood
Both agree that seeing yourself as a perpetual victim is 'the worst thing in this world'. Tamir grants that at an abstract level we're all victims, since none of us asked to be here, but…
- Kitchen Table Novels
Murakami's first two novellas, written by hand for two hours a night at his kitchen table after closing his bar. Tamir's proof that you can make the time.
- Creativity vs Laziness
Grant reframes the human struggle: not good against evil but creativity against laziness, 'the ultimate destroyer', with addiction to consumption as its form.
Books 4
- If—
Poem Tamir quotes ('meet with Triumph and Disaster and treat those two impostors just the same'); Ian's wife has an 'If' tattoo and knows the whole poem by heart.
- Pinball, 1973
Murakami's second kitchen-table novella; Tamir misremembers the year in the title as 1984 or 1983.
- Hear the Wind Sing
Murakami's first novella, one of his 'kitchen table' novels written by hand at night after running his bar. Grant liked it and could see a young writer still finding his way.
- Atomic Habits
Named by Tamir as the kind of direct self-improvement book busy readers reach for instead of Murakami, setting up the closing argument for reading fiction.
People 4
- Seneca
Cited as a Stoic whose life was riddled with tragedy (killed by Nero, family deaths) and who wrote consolation letters, including one to his mother from exile.
- UK TikTok mobility coach
Unnamed man on TikTok in the UK who helps children with cerebral palsy or brain injuries take a couple of steps. He uses swearing, no-kid-gloves encouragement, and makes them feel that two…
- Friedrich Nietzsche
Colin invokes 'what doesn't kill you makes you stronger', adding that not everything does, but being bullied made him stronger.
- James Clear
Author of Atomic Habits, invoked by Tamir as the kind of direct self-improvement book busy people pick over Murakami.
Quotes 6
Maybe that's it: it's not a battle between good and evil, it's a battle between creativity and laziness.
Sometimes the smallest achievements can be the greatest. And I think tough love is better than fake love at the end of the day.
No wall is impregnable against Fortune. Let us fortify ourselves from within. If that part is secure, a person can be attacked but not conquered.
There's no such thing as being good at yoga, because no matter how flexible they are, there's always a deeper layer that they can get into.
If you really have a concrete idea for a novel, write it. Don't talk about it, don't dwell on it, just write it, every day. If it's a thousand words a day, do that.
You're not going to win the marathon, but you can finish the marathon, and that's good enough. That's better than most people.
Insights 5
- Tough love beats fake love
Honest, unvarnished encouragement does more than gentle pretense. It can make someone feel that taking two steps is incredible, and sometimes the smallest achievements are the greatest.
- Being terrible is the price of entry
In any discipline the beginner must accept being bad; after a year of practice you see beginners and realize how far you've come.
- Match the challenge to your level
A crossword made for a five-year-old gives no satisfaction. Literature, like exercise, has to be pitched at your current comprehension and the effort you're willing to give.
- Victimhood gets you nowhere
Technically we're all victims, since none of us asked to be born, but taking that position gets you nowhere. Hardship such as bullying shapes you if you eventually grow out of being the…
- Practice beats journey
'Practice' is a better word than 'journey' because it implies guardrails: watching Netflix all day can be called a journey, but not a practice.
Practices 7
- 75 Hard
75-day program: two 45-minute workouts daily (one outdoors), roughly 4 liters of water, 10 pages of a personal-growth book, a strict diet, no alcohol, and a daily progress photo. Ian is on…
- Make the time, even late at night
Like Murakami writing two hours a night at the kitchen table after work, carve out time despite money, circumstances and space.
- Take a beginner's class
Join a martial arts or other class where you have no skills, to learn humility and see incremental progress.
- To-stop-doing list
Keep a good-and-bad list. On one side list the things to work on, such as procrastinating or leaving friends' texts unanswered for weeks, which Colin calls disrespectful. On the other, a…
- Train reading like a muscle
If you want to get back into reading, don't start with War and Peace. Start with a short story or novella you can finish in an afternoon or two. Reading is a muscle: students whose eyes…
- Finish the first draft ruthlessly
Be ruthless with yourself and allow no excuses to give up until the first draft is done. You won't win the marathon, but you can finish it.
- Write a thousand words a day
If you have a concrete idea for a novel, write every day. A thousand words is manageable; the first days are rusty, but after a week or ten days it grows to 1,500 and you'll reach the end.
Stories 8
- Murakami wrote at the kitchen table
Tamir recounts that Murakami, at 30, ran a bar and after getting home late at night would sit at his kitchen table for two hours writing by hand, producing Hear the Wind Sing and Pinball…
- Bullied without a dad
Colin was bullied mercilessly as a child, picked on, beaten up, and mocked even for not having a father. That pushed him into boxing. He says it made him stronger, not weaker.
- Eight years of aikido in Budapest
Grant trained aikido for eight years in Budapest, plus other arts. Even a forward roll is clumsy at 24; a basic boxing jab turns out complicated. Seeing beginners after a year, and advanced…
- Blindfolded Rubik's Cube kid
Noticing a Rubik's Cube in Tamir's studio, Colin recalls a kid in London who solves the cube blindfolded after studying it for about 30 seconds. Colin didn't ask about his background, only…
- Tamir's ever-positive 77-year-old father
Tamir sees Sheela's optimism in his father, about to turn 78, who had a very difficult childhood and life but was always positive and having fun, never depressed or dwelling on the past…
- "You love to make excuses"
A manager called Colin in and said, 'You know what I like about you, Colin? You love to make excuses.' Colin knew it was a deliberate provocation and fell for it anyway. Being told he can't…
- Planning 75 Hard around a cross-country flight
Ian plans to keep 75 Hard going on a Squamish-to-Halifax trip via Montreal: an airport hotel, a 5:30am outdoor walk, a 45-minute session in the airport, and packed healthy sandwiches. Early…
- Tamir's 75 Hard and lat injury
Tamir did 75 Hard the previous year, doing both workouts in the evening when flying to New York and New Jersey; by the end it was so habitual it felt weird not to do it. He stopped only…
Films, music and art 1
- Central Intelligence
2016 comedy with Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart. Colin recalls the bar scene where Johnson faces down bullies with 'I don't like bullies', a line he has always loved because he was bullied…