Mistakes and imperfections

`0:29:50`

you're like, "Ah, I messed up, but I kind of got to go with it." Sort of like the path that you were talking about earlier. Whereas with the delete key, you can just look at the screen and go, "Delete, delete, delete, delete." And I just wonder if the delete key has contributed to a kind of polish in contemporary writing. Good question. I think you're probably right. I mean, also like grammar checkers and spell and these things like look, they can be useful, I'm sure. Like in some cases, but I think when they become a crutch and you lean on them and you're aiming for again, like technical precision. There are some writers who are wonderful at that, but I think it goes too far for most people and it removes themselves from the piece. Got to be careful of that. So, when you were working with the ink editors, with the rework editors and you

`0:30:37`

were having those conversations, would you go back and rewrite the piece from scratch or would you go in and make line edits? Um both. It depends on the piece. So, some of the pieces like some of the edits were so substantial, they wanted us to really rework the piece and there's a point where I don't know where the point is. It's not like 50%, but there's a point where you just feel like this is moving around so much, it's not the same thing anymore. So, let's not work from the same thing. Let's start over. And they were right. Like this idea would have been better presented this way. So, I'm not going to try to take this ball of clay and turn it into something else. It's just not going to be that anymore. There's not enough material there anymore. So, we'll start over. Other times it was just like nailing a few sentences or like whatever. So, it's it's both. It's not a I'm not rigid in those in those ways. Um

`0:31:24`

but I'm definitely not afraid of throwing out work. Right? I don't think because I put it on the page, it needs to stay there in spirit and you move it around. It like it can go. And I'm not just talking about like a line. I can talk I can talk about like writing this much. It's like close the file, don't save, new, right? Not even the delete key cuz you can undo And I found myself undoing deletes. Like I want to like close the document, open a new document, so it's really fresh and start again. Yeah, I also find that memory is an amazing tool for compression and focusing on what's important. Like your brain doesn't remember things that aren't important. So, if you need to rewrite the thing and you have a thousand words, the 250 that you actually remember is highly correlated with the best stuff. 100% and

`0:32:11`

then I'm the same way with like to-do. I don't keep to-do lists. Is that right? Yeah, I don't keep I don't I have like a few things I need to do every day that I want to focus on and maybe I'll forget to do one. Someone will probably remind me or whatever, but I don't like to have this list that I'm staring at of the things I have to do. I want to remember the things I'm supposed to do so I can think about I want to think about these How do you structure your days running a company so that you still have time to write? Because it's obvious that it's paid off, but it's one of those things like sort of like going to the gym. Like on a day-by-day, it might not be the best thing that you can prioritize, but on a year-by-year, decade-by-decade basis, obviously you should be going to the gym, you know? For sure. Um I'm pretty unstructured.

`0:32:57`

I write when I have something to say. I don't write when I feel like I need to write. I only write when I have something to say. So, it could be something comes up earlier in the day at work. There's like some thing we went through. I'm like, "I should write about that." Or I have some other idea. I should write or I read something I should write about that. But I don't I don't set aside time every day to do this um or every week to do this. I don't have a cadence. It's not like I need to write one thing a week. There's times when I write a good thing every day for a few days, you know? It just it it I have to it's a feel thing for me. The gym's different. Like I have to go to the gym. I have to work out with a trainer cuz if I don't, I won't do it. So, I need an appointment for that. I don't like appointments for writing or any creative things um except for when I'm learning something. So, like I'm learning drums right now. I'm