Review of Ignore Everybody by Hugh MacLeod
Overall Ranking: 8/10
The first book I purchased on my new Kindle was Ignore Everybody by Hugh MacLeod. I bought it based on this review by Derek Sivers. On the whole, I liked it very much. In fact, I read it in one sitting. Here are my thoughts:
What the book is not:
My Highlights
Upon reading over this, MacLeod really is a lot like Eric Hoffer. Anyway, go get it and read it.
The first book I purchased on my new Kindle was Ignore Everybody by Hugh MacLeod. I bought it based on this review by Derek Sivers. On the whole, I liked it very much. In fact, I read it in one sitting. Here are my thoughts:
What the book is not:
- A step by step manual for doing anything
- A specific guide to doing anything
- Case studies
- A collection of generalized lessons learned from 20 odd years in the creative business
- Extremely well written
- Largely a collection of aphorisms, similar to the work of Eric Hoffer
- Highly motivational
My Highlights
The more original your idea is, the less good advice other people will be able to give you.
If somebody in your industry is more successful than you, it’s probably because he works harder at it than you do. Sure, maybe he’s more inherently talented, more adept at networking, but I don’t consider that an excuse. Over time, that advantage counts for less and less. Which is why the world is full of highly talented, network-savvy, failed mediocrities.
Nor can you bully a subordinate into becoming a genius.
Creating an economically viable entity where lack of original thought is handsomely rewarded creates a rich, fertile environment for parasites to breed.
So now we have millions upon millions of human tapeworms thriving in the Western world, making love to their PowerPoint presentations, feasting on the creativity of others.
So now we have millions upon millions of human tapeworms thriving in the Western world, making love to their PowerPoint presentations, feasting on the creativity of others.
All existing business models are wrong. Find a new one.
Every kid underestimates his competition, and overestimates his chances.Art suffers the moment other people start paying for it. The more you need the money, the more people will tell you what to do. The less control you will have. The more bullshit you will have to swallow. The less joy it will bring. Know this and plan accordingly.
I think one of the main reasons I stayed in advertising for so many years is simply because hearing “Change that ad” ticks me off a lot less than “Change that cartoon.”
We think we’re “Providing a superior integrated logistic system” or “Helping America to really taste Freshness.” In fact we’re just pissed off and want to get the hell out of the cave and kill the woolly mammoth.Your business either lets you go hunt the woolly mammoth or it doesn’t.
Every form of media is a set of fundamental compromises; one is not “higher” than the others.Well, a cartoon only needs one person to make it. Same with a piece of writing. No Big Group Hug required. So all this sex-fueled socialism was rather alien to me, even if parts of it seemed very appealing.
It’s hard to sell out if nobody has bought in.
MAKING A BIG DEAL OVER YOUR CREATIVE shtick to other people is the kiss of death.
To me, it’s not about whether Tom Clancy sells truckloads of books or a Nobel Prize winner sells diddly-squat. Those are just ciphers, external distractions. To me, it’s about what you are going to do with the short time you have left on this earth. Different criteria altogether.
Writer’s block is just a symptom of feeling like you have nothing to say, combined with the rather weird idea that you should feel the need to say something.
PEOPLE ARE FOND OF SPOUTING OUT THE OLD cliché about how Van Gogh never sold a painting in his lifetime. Somehow his example serves to justify to us, decades later, that there is merit in utter failure. Perhaps, but the man did commit suicide.
Part of being creative is learning how to protect your freedom. That includes freedom from avarice.
There’s a famous old quip: “A lot of people in business say they have twenty years’ experience, when in fact all they really have is one year’s experience, repeated twenty times.”
THE LATE BRITISH BILLIONAIRE JAMES GOLD-SMITH once quipped, “When a man marries his mistress, he immediately creates a vacancy.”
Upon reading over this, MacLeod really is a lot like Eric Hoffer. Anyway, go get it and read it.
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