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Isaac Asimov on How to Be Prolific
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- doodpants 10y agoI can't quite put my finger on why, but I suspect that this guy wants people to subscribe to his newsletter.
- avehn 10y agooh good, someone else noticed... I thought it was just me.
- mr337 10y agoAnd its a bit much, I don't mind the sign up in the story, but to top it off, full page sign up box.
- zodPod 10y agoNewsletter signups are such bullcrap. Especially the pop-over ones. They're the worst.
- zodPod 10y agoAlso interesting to note, the comments.
- buckbova 10y agoBrian says: October 26, 2016 at 4:21 pm It’s my pleasure! Sign up for my newsletter and get some exclusive content + a weekly digest of everything I’ve written that week
- duderific 10y agoI'll pass on the newsletter signup. His writing is less than stellar; there are all kinds of fragment sentences which make the article difficult to read.
- rokhayakebe 10y agoMaybe it's the double overlay that requests it. You close the first one, then there it is again, then you close that one, and bam there it is once more within the content. However I am sure it is working somehow.
- ars 10y ago> expanding a short story about a collapsing universe, and expand it into a novel. What story is this? When I google it I get non-fiction links.
- hueving 10y agohttp://www.asimovreviews.net/Books/Book182.html http://www.asimovreviews.net/Books/Book182.html It's about real science but I suspect the style of the story is what made them refer to it as a 'novel'.
- erikb 10y agoEven if we don't find it let's not forget the inside that joke that is expanding a story about a collapsing universe. He pretty much had to expand the collapse, which one would actually consider being opposites.
- viewer5 10y agoI believe it's "The Gods Themselves", though Wikipedia doesn't have anything about it starting as a short story (at least skimming on my phone)
- rukuu001 10y agoI was thinking that's exactly what it sounded like, which is my hands-down favourite Asimov book.
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- johnwheeler 10y agoA lot of us are prolific makers, we're just not prolific sharers. I've amassed a ton of bitbucket repos the world has never seen. Now, I'm learning to share my work and focus on marketing in conjunction with development. I wrote a piece last night about it: https://blog.oldgeekjobs.com/be-a-prolific-sharer-31bfdfb50a40 https://blog.oldgeekjobs.com/be-a-prolific-sharer-31bfdfb50a... It's about not being afraid to share the things you make and tuning them until they resonate with your audience.
- shorttime 10y agoThat's kind of funny you should say that. A book I'm currently reading advocates that our best writers of today's day and age won't be those on the internet that share their work easily but instead hidden away, released to small groups of audiences. One such forum referenced was TOR and Darknet.
- johnwheeler 10y agoThat sounds interesting. How does the book argue that quality of work correlates with availability and audience size? What book is it?
- LanceH 10y agoIt's a small book for a select audience :)
- kjdal2001 10y agoI think hes talking about "But What If We're Wrong?" by Chuck Klosterman. Sorry to spoil the secret! edit: Its highly recommended. Also, its not an argument about quality. The author speculates about what kind of art produced in the present day that people in the future will value.
- shorttime 10y agoYep, that's the book! Good find.
- Procrastes 10y agoCached version here: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:VMbrnBWdtncJ:briangroat.com/2016/10/26/asimov-on-how-to-be-prolific/+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:VMbrnBW...
- babesh 10y agoHis older novels such as the later Foundation series were crap. Fad idea of the day (Gaia) instead of exploring a topic a bit more in depth (advantages of large populations in combating stasis). His best work was his early short stories (three laws of robotics, ultimate question). IMHO, his quality gradually went down before falling off a cliff. Traded quantity for quality?
- coldtea 10y ago>His older novels such as the later Foundation series were crap. Fad idea of the day (Gaia) instead of exploring a topic a bit more in depth (advantages of large populations in combating stasis). While the writing was a little pulpy (then again, it always has been), the ideas were worth exploring. Doesn't matter if it was based on a "fad idea of the day", it was still a concept worth exploring in the context of the series. Besides sci-fi writers have done the Gaia idea dozens of times, way before it became a fad. His classic "robot" stories, on the other hand, I always found ho-hum. In any case, the second foundation series is no worse in writing than the "Pebble in the Sky" -- and that was his very first novel, after tons of short stories.
- babesh 10y agoGaia made no sense. Especially evident nowadays with global warming. It showed lack of depth and lack of exploration of the topic. I also noticed numerous mistakes in the novels, sentences cut off, misspellings, etc...Didn't notice that with the earlier stories. There could be various reasons for that.
- coldtea 10y ago>Gaia made no sense. Especially evident nowadays with global warming. What kind of sense? Like, whether it was accurate as a model for the real world? Why, did the Mule make sense in that way? Or the Second Foundation? Or psychohistory for that matter, what with the later developments into chaos theory? I'm also not sure how global warming has anything to do with validating or discarding Gaia, either the fictional or the real theory. Wikipedia: "The Gaia hypothesis, also known as Gaia theory or Gaia principle, proposes that organisms interact with their inorganic surroundings on Earth to form a synergistic self-regulating, complex system that helps to maintain and perpetuate the conditions for life on the planet." The theory might not hold, but not because there's global warming, as global warming can be accounted in a dozen of ways within the theory. E.g. humans as intelligent agents are outside the "synergistic/self-regulating" system and throw it off balance with their emissions and such. >I also noticed numerous mistakes in the novels, sentences cut off, misspellings, etc...Didn't notice that with the earlier stories Aren't those a matter of editors, as opposed to authors?
- Matachines 10y agoI stand by the idea proposed by Cal Newport that the best way to do great work is to do "Deep Work"—large (but not all day) amounts of no-distraction, in-the-zone work. Harder to do than ever, but when I can do it I'm amazed.
- newfolder 10y agoDeep work isn't a new concept. I just finished Cal's book and, while it's a decent read, I didn't learn anything. Maybe because I read a lot of productivity-based articles and blog posts?
- madengr 10y agoThen pass it in to your boss. That's what I'm going to do, now that I'm finished with it.
- anantzoid 10y agoMaybe it doesn't teach anything new, but it does act as a refresher and makes you go back to Deep Work. I had almost completely forgotten about it and my work schedule was full of tab switching and short breaks. After going through the book, I started using Toggl and minding my time.
- Matachines 10y agoHow about trying to actually do it? I agree self-help books are mostly fluff that can be said in half the length, but I do think "Deep Work" is a useful technique. One problem I did have with the book was that Deep Work might not be useful for someone whose work is largely mechanical or mundane, though in that case I'd apply Deep Work to learn skills to into more interesting jobs if one wishes.
- cel1ne 10y ago> "Deep Work"—large (but not all day) amounts of no-distraction, in-the-zone work. I honestly don't understand how that is different from "regular work". How else do you work if not undistracted?
- michaelpinto 10y agoSomething to keep in mind is that Asimov was very much a product of the age of pulp magazines, so early on in his career he was paid by the word for his work. A side geek note: If you were active in NYC fandom from say the 50s on chances were very good that you would actually get to see Isaac in person at many local science fiction conventions. For some reason he disliked air travel, and would show up at almost any local convention that he was invited to. If you want to read a really good book on being a geek from the depression era to about the 50s I would highly recommend reading The Way the Future Was by rederik Pohl.
- dannyobrien 10y agoAlso good on that topic: The Futurians, by Damon Knight
- mromanuk 10y agoHe had fear of flying, I remember reading that in one of his autobiographical books. He was aware of that and wrote a lot about space travel, on the cave of steel he depicted humans as being agarophobic
- teddyh 10y agoThat’s “agoraphobic”.
- orf 10y ago90,000 letters is equal to 4 a day for 61 years. That's a superhuman output
- kleer001 10y agoIt's amazing what people can get up to if they're not being distracted by the internet or other popular media.
- jcoffland 10y agoThat's just an excuse. Most people back in the good old days didn't get up to much either.
- kleer001 10y agoMost people, sure. But they weren't going to do great works anyways. It's the exceptional ones are more likely these days to be eaten up by transitory media along with everyone else. But who knows. It's all speculation from me. There's no ethical way to run the experiment.
- arvinsim 10y agoMight it also be that modern telecommunications have lessened the need to write letters?
- wccrawford 10y agoIndeed. Are emails considered "letters"? How many IMs does it take to equal a "letter"? What about forum posts? I suspect that if you measured it word for word, I write at least "4 letters" worth per day.
- cryoshon 10y agowow. on my best days (which are rare) i hit 5k...
- grillvogel 10y agostep one: grope everyone you see
- cairo_x 10y agoYou're thinking of Arthur C. Clarke (pedo).
- grillvogel 10y agothats wrong. but asimov was a notorious lech at conventions
- cairo_x 10y agoIn his own words: "I have never had the slightest interest in children – boys or girls. They should be treated in the same way. But once they have reached the age of puberty, then it is OK," Mr Clarke was quoted as saying in the Sunday Mirror. "If the kids enjoy it and don't mind it doesn't do any harm … there is a hysteria about the whole thing in the West." Mr Clarke subsequently denied he was a paedophile, saying: "The allegations are wholly denied." But he never sued the Sunday Mirror and died aged 90 at his Sri Lanka home in 2008. Source: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/press/notw-editor-spiked-paedophilia-scoop-on-arthur-c-clarke-for-fear-of-murdoch-7920816.html http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/press/notw-editor-sp... "I am trying to think of the youngest boy I have ever had because, of course, you can't tell it here. I think most of the damage comes from the fuss made by hysterical parents afterwards. If the kids don't mind, fair enough,'' he was reported to have said in the interview which was conducted at his house.
- protonpopsicle 10y agoThe "Candy Store" this article refers to (and Asimov in the quote) is in my neighborhood. Hilariously I discovered this through Pokémon Go.
- protonpopsicle 10y agoIts no longer a candy store of course.
- SwellJoe 10y agoIt's interesting that Asimov offered advice that suggests writing without concern for whether everything fit together; just getting the first draft out was the goal. This somewhat conflicts with Asimov's own style of writing (which he talked about in at least one of his three memoirs, as well as other places), which was effectively to write the final draft the first time. He was not prone to heavy editing after writing, and was also not prone to editing while writing. So, he was basically just writing and handing it off to his editor/publisher (and I think it's also been established that his editors also had a soft touch with his work). So, maybe he was just being kind enough to not hold everyone to his own standards. And, maybe he developed his skill for writing without a net through tremendous amounts of practice (more practice than almost every other human who ever lived...he's among the most prolific book authors the world has seen). Anyway, I read everything about Asimov I come across. But, this is kinda blogspammy. Asimov's own memoirs are worth a read. I have not read Janet Asimov's books about Asimov, yet, but surely will eventually. Also, this site breaks the back button for me in Firefox. That's gross, and I literally hate every person who's ever intentionally broken basic browser functionality for profit, ego, or whatever reason they thought made it OK.
- SyneRyder 10y agoI agree the site is blogspammy, but is the back button a Firefox issue? I tried the site in Safari & Chrome as well and there's no issues with the back button there, only in Firefox.
- SwellJoe 10y agoThe back button in Firefox works fine on sites that don't fuck with the back button. So...no, I don't think we can reasonably blame Firefox. Firefox has a reasonable implementation of the History API, so it isn't that Firefox doesn't support some feature that a single page app would need in order to make stuff like URLs work right. And, it's not like Firefox is some obscure browser with 1% of market share.
- louhike 10y agoMaybe his style of writing has evolved through time and what he was doing at the end of his carreer wasn't something to do when you start writing.
- laacz 10y agoI must say "Thank you". Thank you, Asimov, for my language skills. I started reading Asimov in my native language (Latvian) until I run out of it. It was late 80s. Then I had to work on my Russian reading skills in order to read everything else USSR had to provide from Asimov. Then I read everything libraries in Riga had on sci-fi. And when 90s arrived, I accidentally got a hold of few Asimov books in English. I remember vividly the nights I spent with his book on the left side and English dictionary on the right one. Underlining and writing words and page numbers of words I coulnd't find just to return to them later when context would be much cleaner. Ever so funny struggle with idioms and cultural references I couldn't possibly understand. There was no internet to look that stuff up. So, yes. Thank you, sci-fi in general and Asimov in particular for motivation and opportunity to learn one of basic life skills - ability to read and understand foreign language better than school could teach.
- endgame 10y agoIt's certainly paid off. You write well.
- leonroy 10y ago> I remember vividly the nights I spent with his book on the left side and English dictionary on the right one. Underlining and writing words and page numbers of words I coulnd't find just to return to them later when context would be much cleaner. Ever so funny struggle with idioms and cultural references I couldn't possibly understand. There was no internet to look that stuff up. I salute your perseverance and skill - that's incredible. We take for granted how easily we now obtain the information and literature we want today (tailored to our preferences at that!) thanks to the internet. In some ways I feel we had to use our brains more before technology and data became so universal and cheap!
- TeMPOraL 10y ago> In some ways I feel we had to use our brains more before technology and data became so universal and cheap! Maybe. Funny thing is, we have more opportunity to use our brains better now, and yet it seems we're not taking it. For instance, books. Many people say that they don't read much books anymore - even though today you have access to much better selection of books than before. Issues like being an adult = lots of bullshit errands aside, it's easy to be distracted by blogs and other short-form texts today. I have to constantly remind myself to keep reading actual books. Today you can literally just Google "best book on X", browse several discussion threads and pick out what is possibly the best resource whole humanity has on topic X. It's that easy. But for some reason, it's not an obvious thing to do. It wasn't for me until recently.
- biofox 10y agoWith regards to mortality as a motivator, I often find the opposite to be true. When I am reminded of death or illness, I usually end up falling into a spiral of procrastination -- anything to avoid the thought of oblivion. I find it to be quite a major source of time wastage and I suspect I'm not alone in this. When Asimov was unwell following bypass surgery, James Randi wrote that Asimov fell into a depression and gave up writing altogether [1], presumably for the same reason. [1] http://www.skepticfiles.org/atheist/asimovob.htm http://www.skepticfiles.org/atheist/asimovob.htm
- faitswulff 10y agoIn my younger and more foolish days, and inspired by Steve Jobs, I tried to literally live life as if every day were my last in an effort to be productive. I discovered that if it were my last day on earth, I would much rather spend the time joking around with friends or family rather than working, and I fell into the same funk you describe. If anything, I discovered what my priorities in life were. But I could have done without the moodiness, procrastination, and cognitive dissonance.
- wccrawford 10y agoWhile I've never tried to live like that, I know that I'd act much the same... Without the thought that I'm preparing for a better future, my choice would be to have a better present. Every time.
- biofox 10y agoI'd be interested to know if anyone has advice on how to break out of these thought patterns.
- Lio 10y agoFTA:- “So what if it limps. Its purpose is to get you into the next stage of the story and you take off from there. Time enough when you go through the novel again to correct the transition. For all you know, the material that you will write much later in the novel will make it plain to you exactly how the transition ought to have been. No amount of rewriting and repolishing now will get it right in the absence of knowledge of the course of the entire book. So let it limp and get on with it … Think of yourself as an artist making a sketch to get the composition clear in his mind, the blocks of color, the balance, and the rest. With that done, you can worry about the fine points.” – Asimov’s advice, in a letter, about ‘limping transitions’ in first drafts This would seem to be good advice in any creative endeavour and particularly relevant to startup culture.
- seesomesense 10y agoIssac Asimov's later works are known to have been ghostwritten. Hiring other writers to write under your byline is the easiest way to be prolific.