Reading//Writing
I was just turned onto Ben Casnocha‘s blog a couple weeks ago through another blogger, Colin Post. Ben recently mentioned a post by writer Justine Musk titled “To Develop Your Writer’s Intuition, You Must First Read Like A Maniac.”
The first thing that caught my eye was this quote: “Reading is the inhale, writing is the exhale.”
You should really read the entire post. It’s full of great, passionate writing like this:
“Reading is the ‘learning’. You can never learn enough. The more I read, the more experienced I become in just what other writers do to achieve a powerful level of storytelling. As a reader, I enjoy myself, and as a writer, I file those examples away deep in my undermind where they join up with other examples and play around and cross-fertilize and wait for the moment when they’re needed. They become the river of knowledge, influence and inspiration that I can draw from and the more I read, the deeper and wider that river gets.”
I think Musk’s observations encapsulate a lot of the reasons why Planners should read (and write) a obsessively.
Read to learn more about the world.
Write to get a better understanding of what you just learned.
by the way, really good blog. A grip of useful links. If I didn’t know you, I would have thought you’ve been in the planning industry for years. Feel free to check mine out, not as developed, but working on it. jchu17.wordpress.com. It’d be useful to hear your thoughts on some of these ideas from another planners perspective, want to know if I’m on the right track or just not making sense, hah.
that’s good you’ve been staying busy with relevant work, that always proves to be beneficial. Secondary research is definitely useful. As for me, I guess you can say I’m taking option B. Been contacting agencies out here in Amsterdam and having informational interviews with other planners. Have been getting a lot of useful information, but as you said, it’s just a difficult time right now. Especially for one that doesn’t know Dutch. There are opportunities, but scattered about. Hoping something will turn up soon, don’t have much time/money to just sit around. If nothing appears here, I’ll probably try to make use of stopping through London for a bit. Trying to exhaust all my options before I’m forced to head back home and search there. I met with Wieden and Kennedy, DDB, will be meeting with Sid Lee, THEY, and 180. Just kind of nice to get advice and see how agencies vary. I actually have an EU passport (passed down from parents because they were UK citizens), so that’s why I’m trying my best to find something out here before I head back.
Not sure if you heard of this before, but I was recommended checking it out from a senior planner, http://likemind.us/. You should definitely check it out. It’s basically a monthly get together to just chat about ideas over a cup of coffee. It’s held everywhere and many planners attend.
Keep me informed with your progress and if I make a stop in NYC before i hit LA we should definitely grab that coffee. Best of luck mate!
Hey man,
I just checked out your blog – thanks for the link love. I’ve been blogging just over a year now. Not as consistently as I’d like, but working on it. My best advice, before you worry about web analytics, site design or anything else it to just try to do it at least 3x a week. Write about different topics too. Mix it up: Top 10 Lists, Book Reviews, Technology Reviews, Trends you’ve noticed, etc.
I’ve actually been to Likemind before in NYC a few months ago. It’s tough for me to head in since I don’t live in the city right now, but I’ll be a regular whenever I get around to moving.
Was it hard to get an EU passport? My dad’s Italian so I was thinking of getting dual citizenship.
Look me up next time you’re in NYC.
twitter: @DennisDemori blog: http://dennisdemori.com/ tumblr: http://dennisdemori.tumblr.com/
well said. I’ve never been a passionate reader, but i can say easily say… the key to planning.. and knowledge.. and pretty much everything.. is reading. Starting to train myself into that habit. how you been doing over there in NYC? working yet? Just graduated MAS a few weeks ago.. hanging around Europe to see if any opportunities develop.
I’m doing alright. It’s been tough – there’s not a lot of opportunities out there, so you need to make your own.
I’ve been working on building skill sets that will be attractive to employers. For example, I started doing some freelance work a couple weeks ago. It’s secondary research for a company that specializes in consumer insights and trends. It’s not Planning per se, but it’s something that I think will be useful down the road.
I think there’s two major options right now: A) sit on the sidelines and apply to jobs you find online B) get out there, network and take any job where you can learn skills that you can leverage. I’m not saying take ANY job, but if you can freelance or even intern somewhere and learn about social media, online marketing, product design, etc. I think it can be a major selling point.
How’s things looking in Europe? Where have you looked? Do you have a visa and all the other required paperwork so you can work there?