Ryan Holiday

This may be a controversial opinion, but I think people put too much stock in mentors. They can be extremely valuable, no doubt. But often the advice they'll give is out in the world if you just know where to look.

I've found that carefully controlling the flow of information reaching my brain - reading books (not just business books - the classics, history, psychology, etc.), cultivating a Twitter feed of people that you look up to, blocking time on my calendar for thinking & deep work, etc. - has had an impact in my life greater than the impact that my mentors have provided. My problems are not as unique as I once thought they were; far more valuable to read someone's carefully considered written thoughts on a topic than fight to get 5 min of face-to-face time to hear the most general version of that advice.

But to answer your original question, you have to provide value to any potential mentor. The absolute worst thing that you can do is reach out and directly ask for someone's mentorship. This is like asking someone to marry you on a first date. The potential mentor has no idea if you're someone who is worth spending their valuable time on; someone they will be proud of and will want to be associated with going forward. A mentorship is a relationship - it's a two-way street. What do you bring to the table? Also, at the end of the day mentors pick people who remind them of themselves, so best to focus on what connects you (alumni networks come to mind as a strong…

http://www.ryanholiday.net/about/
"Ryan Holiday is a media strategist for notorious clients like Tucker Max and Dov Charney. After dropping out of college at 19 to apprentice under the strategist Robert Greene, he went on to advise many bestselling authors and multi-platinum musicians. He is the Director of Marketing at American Apparel, where his work in advertising was internationally known. His strategies are used as case studies by Twitter, YouTube and Google and have been written about in AdAge, the New York Times, Gawker and Fast Company. His first book, Trust Me I’m Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator, was a Wall Street Journal bestseller"

Books from his reading list are very interesting: http://www.ryanholiday.net/reading-list/

On why I posted this interview:
I've been influenced by Ryan's work over the last 4 years. His writing is usually very thought provoking and honest despite the name of his book. I have noticed similarities between topics discussed in this community and Ryan Holidays writing. I think that if HN readers research Ryan a little, they will be interested in what they find. His influence on articles written by massive media outlets becomes increasingly apparent as you read into his work.

One of the best things I've taken from Ryan's work is how to identify Media Manipulation and devalue content that has been affected by it accordingly.

Ironic right?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4a0Vrk4ZEw&feature=youtu.be
Funny interview with the…

It's not a perfect system, but I find index cards to be superior to notebooks in almost every way. Notebooks are good for linear content, but for most of what you described index cards are better because they are modular, fileable, and sortable. Before the Internet, the world ran on index cards.

Cool quote in a book? Put it on a card and file it by theme. Reminder about feedback I want to write up for a colleague? Put it on a card. I did something really great at work and want to remember it at annual review time? Put it on a card and file it under Personal Achievement. Etc. Recipes, Writing ideas, presentation first drafts. Cards work well for all of that.

I'm really using a combination of two systems. The first is Ryan Holiday's index card system for harvesting the wisdom and interesting bits from reading. The second is an index card version of the 43 folders tickler file. It's not a perfect system, but I love t and I like that it is something I can keep doing forever independent of any stupid decisions by Apple or app developers going under.

To get started you need:

- Some nice index cards. I like the Exacompta ones.

- Tabbed divider cards. Smead makes really nice ones.

- A way to carry some with you all the time. Right now I'm using the Nock Co Fodderstack for this.

- A way to file them. You can get some crappy boxes on Amazon, or something nice and vintage off eBay or elsewhere. Index cards used to be a lot more widely used than they are today, so the old…

Some titles I've recently read or at least have placed on my reading list.

--------------------

Philosohpy

Letters from a Stoic: Epistulae Morales Ad Lucilium - Seneca

Meditations - Marcus Aurelius (must read)

The Republic - Plato

--------------------

History

Five Chimneys - Olga Lengyel

The Gulag Archipelago - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (must read)

The Diary of a Young Girl - Anne Frank

--------------------

Fiction

(particularly dystopian) 1984, Brave New World, Animal Farm, Fahrenheit 451

(crime/action) Child 44, The Secret Speech, Agent 6 - Tom Rob Smith

--------------------

Economics

Capital in the Twenty-First Century - Thomas Piketty

Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty - Banerjee, Duflo

Why Nations Fail - Robinson

--------------------

Economics/Decision making/Psychology

Undercover Economist, Freakonomics, Nudge, Thinking Fast and Slow

--------------------

Random titles

The Selfish Gene, Self-Reliance, The Elements of Style (about writing), Slaughterhouse-Five

--------------------

Some links to inspire your reading (though you may want to checkout the websites first to get an idea of the topics they cover)

http://www.gatesnotes.com/Books

http://bookpickings.brainpickings.org/

http://www.farnamstreetblog.com/reading/

http://www.ryanholiday.net/reading-newsletter

I’m just a working-class guy trying to take part in the conversation that all the smart people are having. What books should I read? -…

While poetic and thoroughly motivating, I don't know if I'd apply for a job with a description like that. It reminds me too much of the "need python ninja with postgres jiu-jitsu skillz" spiels you see on freelancing websites. Unless you had a professional advertising company, that description says nothing relevant the actual job he is talking about.

This isn't to say that creative job descriptions aren't amazing, I just feel that they could be better tailored their target audience. Preferably something along the lines of the resume-free job posting, exemplified at http://www.ryanholiday.net/archives/help_wanted.phtml.

Personally, I'd also ask for a description of the applicants favorite algorithm and why. You can gauge their interests and passions from a loaded question like that, and it would be a hell of a lot of fun to write.

I fall into that trap a lot. I have stuff to say, but it can be approached in so many ways and I find it hard to choose one.

Any tips?

One thing I guess works is "just blurt it out spontaneously". Ryan Holiday also has a motivating line on that (https://ryanholiday.net/so-you-want-to-be-a-writer-thats-mistake-1/):

> No one ever reads something and says, “Well, I got absolutely nothing out of this and have no idea what any of this means but it sure is technically beautiful!” But they say the opposite all the time, they say “Goddamn, that’s good” to things with typos, poor grammar and simple diction