Smokey Robinson on Staying Focused on What Matters

A profound exchange on a new, favorite podcast moved me to write this post. SongCraft [https://www.songcraftshow.com/] is a podcast around the stories of the greatest songs in modern day history. Their tagline: “You probably know their names, and you definitely know their songs. We bring you their…

Brick by Brick

Over the weekend I spent several hours pressure washing. The process is meditative. After the first few minutes I realized two aspects quickly: one, everyone becomes detailed oriented once a pressure washer gets put in their hands. Two, the process takes much longer than I remembered. So, I put in…

Curation-as-a-Service

A few weeks ago the most upvoted app on Product Hunt was a simple website that curated the best Youtube channels to learn new skills [https://www.producthunt.com/posts/channels-stack] called Channels Stack. The website organizes hundreds of popular Youtube channels into defined categories that help you learn. Simple…

Insights Per Minute

Last week I came across a podcast on Andreessen Horowitz’s blog titled “How We Podcast. [https://a16z.com/2019/11/26/a16z-podcast-how-what-why-500th-episode-behind-the-scenes/] ”  General Partner, Connie Chan [http://www.conniechan.com/] enumerates several concepts, learnings, and lessons on the best ways to execute building a successful podcast. One concept still…

Belief In Your Story

After receiving three inputs from the universe, I normally write it down somewhere, whether it be Homework for Life [https://www.jonbirdsong.com/2019/07/18/6-months-of-homework-for-life/], my personal journal, or here. Over the past few days the concept of “belief” has peaked up in a few instances that makes…

Build Petri Dishes For Creativity

A recent pattern of how amazing people think and create revolves around building petri dishes for creativity. What does this esoteric comment mean? Rereading this digital landmark of writing on Yacht Rock [https://www.atlantamagazine.com/great-reads/confessions-cover-band-yacht-rock-revue/] , I discovered a good example of a petri dish for creativity. Back…

The Grapes of Wrath - Review and Reflection

> “…I am not writing a satisfying story. I’ve done my damndest to rip a reader’s nerves to rags, I don’t want him satisfied” – Steinbeck The Grapes of Wrath should be mandatory reading post high-school. John Steinbeck’s novel about The Joad Family trekking across country from…

Faith, Coffee, and the Human Spirit

Yesterday, I finished a meeting in Ponce City Market around 10:00 a.m. Most mornings by that hour, I’ve consumed one or more cups of coffee. When the meeting completed, I hadn’t had any coffee yet — an oddity. Leaving the meeting, I proceed to Spiller Coffee located…