Why You Shouldn’t Look Up To Successful People All The Time

/ Stuart Danker / 140 Comments

survivorship-bias-desert-joshua-sukoff

I remember reading my first self-help book and feeling like I had unlocked the cheat code to living. I also remember realising how little these books helped me in the grand scale of things.

Still, the desire to find the secret sauce never waned. Cut to the era of YouTube, and now, instead of books, I can access videos and podcasts on all things productivity.

The danger of that is it locks me into the same pattern of trying to find the silver bullet from these ‘authorities’.

And if there’s one thing I’ve learned about taking advice from successful people, it’s that survivorship bias exists.

Continue reading →

What Video Games Can Teach You About Life

/ Stuart Danker / 86 Comments

gaming-consoles-lorenzo-herrera

Well hello, you. Would you stay a while and listen?

Because as someone who’d grown up with video games, I feel that I have an interesting article for you today.

I used to think that mindlessly hacking away at fake monsters was a waste of time. But now I see the purpose of all those hours sunk into the old DOS games like Flashback or Heroes Of Might And Magic.

It’s so that I can now write you a listicle. Let’s start with the first item on the list.

Continue reading →

What I’ve Learned From NOT Reaching My Goals

/ Stuart Danker / 209 Comments

Man flying face down on pavement with shoes off

I used to have lofty goals. For one, I thought I’d be a millionaire by the age of 30. And I wanted to buy a pub for my parents who used to love drinking with their friends.

But my mum has since passed on and my dad’s stopped drinking, so that’s one goal out the window. And I’m nearing 40, so the before-30 goal’s out of the question too.

That’s how we arrive at my first lesson: goals never stay the same, because life never stays the same. So you best err on the side of action before your opportunities pass you by.

Continue reading →

These Are The Tools I Use As A Writer

/ Stuart Danker / 116 Comments

A woman with glasses holding a book with sparks flying

The tools maketh the writer. Or do they, really? Does using an expensive laptop—say, a Macbook—produce better prose than George RR Martin’s clunker of a PC?

You may be tempted to say no, and I might agree, but there’s no denying the effects that tools play on your psyche.

I’m not here to argue about whether writing tools improve productivity, though. Instead, I’m here to share the important ones that exist in my creative process. So let’s begin with…

Continue reading →

The Types Of Blog Posts You’ll See On WordPress, According To Me

/ Stuart Danker / 222 Comments

Type of blog posts - A group of divers standing on the beach

So I’ve never missed a day of browsing the Reader for at least two years now, and I’ve now profiled every type of blog post with utmost discrimination, much like the TSA.

What I’ve learned is that we all fall into certain categories—archetypes if you will—and today I’m going to share them with you.

But don’t feel offended if you belong in any of these groups, because it’s all just a bit of fun. Besides, if you don’t like it, you’ve already lumped yourself into the party-pooper group, and you wouldn’t want that, right?

Continue reading →