![]() One Day in an Elevator With Obama, Then Out of a Job And we can often rely on their judgments that what makes good headlines in print or on will also be powerful on Twitter.Īs one example, the story of a security guard’s run-in with the Secret Service during a presidential visit went out over our Twitter feed one evening with a headline that was similar to what appeared in the paper. ![]() Our colleagues on copy desks around the newsroom are excellent wordsmiths. On the Times social media desk, we work to maximize the impact of our journalism on Twitter. We hope to share some ideas about what guides our use of Facebook in the near future. He writes that because our friends are not always frank and forthcoming with us about our shortcomings, “we have to depend on our enemies to hear the truth.” Your enemy will point out your weak spots for you, and even if he says something untrue, you can then analyze what made him say it.Īnd these excellent Kate Beaton cartoons, which make me think of one of my favorite movies: Ridley Scott’s first feature, The Duellists.January 6, 2014Much as we did last year, we paused at the end of 2014 to take a look back at some of the lessons we learned as well as the principles that helped guide how we ran on Twitter - which is nearing 15 million followers. In Plutarch’s “How to Profit by One’s Enemies,” he advises that rather than lashing out at your enemies or completely ignoring them, you should study them and see if they can be useful to you in some way. There were a few things I forgot to throw in, like Plutarch on how to profit from your enemies: This, by the way, is how theses newsletters often begin: with a bubble map of my mind. (I previously wrote about how feelings are information and how making an enemy of envy can lead to new creative work.) The point is not to be consumed with debilitating bitterness or rage but to summon just enough precious envy to put to constructive use. The purpose of an artistic nemesis is to harness the narcissism of comparison, helping us identify the critical differences between our work and theirs, to emerge with a clarified sense of who we want to be instead. I start out by quoting Dana Jeri Maier’s Skip To The Fun Parts: Today’s newsletter is on the benefits of having a creative nemesis. (I block off all of Monday on my calendar to write.) On a micro level, I rarely have a “vision” for the Tuesday newsletter - I think about it often throughout the week, and I keep a list of potential topics, but I wait for Monday morning to wake up, do some kind of exercise, and then work on it most of the day. I’ve had fun lately posting “rough drafts” - little mind maps - of the newsletter online as a kind of #showyourwork style tease. I don’t have a grand vision for the future… but I have a practice, and I am curious to see what turns up, and that’s why I get up in the morning. There’s a Sex Pistols song with the lyric, “Don’t know what I want, but I know how to get it.” Stick to your practice, and things will appear. Sometimes creative work really is just going through the motions. In the letter, I suggest that instead of worrying about some grand vision for your life, you focus on practice:Įstablish a daily practice and use it as a way of getting through your days. (A few people told me this was their favorite letter.) Took me a few hours to read and respond to all the comments. Yesterday’s newsletter was called “ You don’t need a vision,” and seemed to be a big hit with some folks.
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