🚀 We’re going for it this year – 10 Things Worth Sharing

Newsletter #011

This blog was adapted from my monthly newsletter, which you can subscribe to here.

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We’re going for it, you guys. The new studio is coming along -and- I just hired my first full-time teammate. We want to be able to take on more projects, grow our stationery brand, and even pop-up at a few events selling merch and goodies.

Here’s 10 things worth sharing:

1. “It’s hard work to stick around long enough to get lucky.”
   - Seth Godin on two kinds of luck.
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2. “People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.” I’m proud of my work from the last few years, but lately I’ve been digging deeper to think about why I’m doing it. I am loving Simon Sinek’s book, Start With Why… I can’t believe I’ve waited this long to read it.
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3. The Hot Dog squad is growing! My first teammate, the talented Molly Smith, joins next week as a Junior Designer. As AI replaces entry-level jobs in every industry, I’m excited to prepare the next generation the old-fashioned way: human collaboration. “Automation erases the ‘training ground’ work that once created experts. When machines do the junior tasks, no one learns the senior ones.”
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4. “There is no such thing as your favorite Beatle. You’ve never HEARD of John Lennon without Paul McCartney… Is Wings your favorite band? Paul McCartney, one of the greatest musicians of all time, had to sing backup for All You Need is Love.” This interview with Ethan Hawke was so fun and so inspiring to watch. Everything he said resonated deep in my bones.
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5. Economist Kathryn Edwards (“Keds”) shares insights about how a giant new budget for immigration enforcement foreshadowed what is now happening with ICE. “What’s happening on the streets of Minneapolis is almost as predictable as it is tragic when you give an untold amount of money to a law enforcement agency.”
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6. “I think we are well advised to keep on nodding terms with the people we used to be, whether we find them attractive company or not. Otherwise they turn up unannounced and surprise us, come hammering on the mind’s door at 4 a.m. of a bad night and demand to know who deserted them, who betrayed them, who is going to make amends.” - Joan Didion, On Keeping A Notebook
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7. I’ve been obsessed with Kurt Vonnegut lately: reading Man Without A Country, Breakfast of Champions, and watching the documentary, Unstuck in Time. I started this wormhole because a friend, Hannah 👀, shamed me for quoting Vonnegut in a newsletter last fall – having not read any of his books. No regrets, Han. “Kurt trusted his writing best when he sounded like a person from Indianapolis, Indiana. Which is what he was.”
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8. “What looks like success is often just patience.”
   - Shane Parrish
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9. “Truth is, the things you’re naturally good at never feel special… It took me too long to realize: your gift will never feel like a gift to you. It feels too easy, too obvious—like a secret everyone should know but somehow doesn’t.” - Mark Manson
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10. “My working day is over, we’ll go swim our cares away.” I made a winter playlist of songs I’ve been singing along with lately (literally singing).
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Stay warm out there. Talk soon.

Justin

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