Colin Wright's Blog, page 40

Omnihustle

At the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, folks with factories found themselves with a problem that was — up until that point — completely unprecedented:

They were producing more than they could sell.

Because of the efficiency and effectiveness of their new methods, they suddenly had more product than demand; a serious issue if you’re a businessperson. If you can’t sell your stock of, say, sweaters, you have to store those sweaters. Maybe sell them at a discount. You end up losing a lot of...

Spaces Between Places

An office is a nice thing to have.

My offices tend to be a little chilly, clean, and informal. A comfortable chair and a desk of appropriate height. I can work from such a place, and I can work from there often. But I seldom glean new inspiration while in an office. I can tell past tales, but I don’t usually live new ones.

Home is another location I commonly work from. There are almost always elements of the office in my home, though the formality is stepped down a notch; it’s more comfortable...

The New Tattoo

Most of my friends have tattoos, and that’s great, because I think tattoos are awesome. I don’t think I’ve ever dated a girl who didn’t have a tattoo, in fact. Having one — and what it depicts — says something about a person. In many cases, at least.

I don’t have any tattoos. This isn’t because I don’t like them (obviously), or because I think it will be unbearably painful or anything like that. It’s more that I don’t know what I could possibly put on my body that would remain meaningful forev...

My Life on the Floor

Staring down at all my possessions, it’s easy to become judgmental. Too much. I have too much stuff.

It’s not some kind of ownership anorexia — it’s more a panicky feeling that I can’t carry everything I own with me in one armload. How am I going to travel stress-free with all this junk? How the hell did I accumulate it in the first place? The room’s a mess. Everything pulled from the closets and bathroom and drawers of my desk. Everything I own laid out in a grid, staring back at me like foot...

SquidHound’s Solution

The following is from my new book, a short story collection entitled 7 or 8 Ways to End the World.

“No, that’s not quite right. Let’s give it another go.”

DJ SquidHound pressed his fingers to his temples and rubbed them in small circles, doing his best to alleviate the headache that had slowly grown like a particularly hardy desert weed behind his eyes over the past four hours. After a few moments, he pulled his fingers away from his head and placed them back on his deck. He opened his eyes, fo...

Outrageous Ambition

Some ideas are practical. Manageable. You can fit them in your pocket and tote them around all day, barely feeling the burden. These ideas are great because you can act upon them whenever you like and they’ll still be likely to succeed.

Some ideas are a bit more unwieldy. They pop up in your mind at the most awkward times until you finally find the opportunity to act on them, and as a result they need to be acted upon sooner rather than later if you’re going to make them happen.

And then there...

Are Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus Gay?

Are Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus from The Minimalists gay?

No.

Well, probably not.

That’s not actually the point of this post.

The point of this post is that there are a solid number of Google searches for that phrase, and by choosing it as the title for this blog post, I’m increasing the chances that the eponymous search engine will send them my way. It’s a lightweight form of search engine optimization (SEO). It’s also hilarious.

SEO is a craft that went from belle of the ball to da...

One Size Fits All

A quote from my most recent book, Act Accordingly.

Ways and Means

When speaking to one another, we have different tonal ranges to draw upon which allow us to add information to the things we’re saying. An angry voice, a chipper scream of joy, a grunt of acquiescence — these are all easily-recognizable and oft-used means of communication built into our other communication — using words to encode what we want to say, and delivering those words audibly.

The media we use — the vehicle that delivers the information we wish to convey — can be as important as the m...

Magpie Fight

I love magpies.

They’re sturdy-looking birds, and some of them can use tools. If you approach most other birds, or even just pass by them too closely on the sidewalk, they’ll flutter away, terrified of the massive human-beast that no doubt wishes to eat them.

A magpie, however, will tilt its head toward you, look you up and down, and take the time to decide if you’re worth its effort. Most of the time they think not. They’ll stand their ground, maybe hop a few inches away if you move closer, bu...