Listening to @EricJorgenson chat with @jackbutcher on @visualizevalue Office Hours about "The Almanac of Naval"
Covered:
- Process
- Compression
- Leverage
- Specific Knowledge
(thread)
Covered:
- Process
- Compression
- Leverage
- Specific Knowledge
(thread)
1/
Who is @EricJorgenson?
Dropped out of College after the 4th year, joining a startup and moving to San Francisco.
Currently, Eric works @zaarly, a marketplace for home services
Has done everything that is “not coding,” currently in partnerships and projects
Who is @EricJorgenson?
Dropped out of College after the 4th year, joining a startup and moving to San Francisco.
Currently, Eric works @zaarly, a marketplace for home services
Has done everything that is “not coding,” currently in partnerships and projects
2/
How did the idea form?
Went to a startup weekend (hackathon) his 2nd year of college. Was told by a founder to read what Naval wrote on Venture Hacks.
Through Poor Charlie’s Almanac, found a lot of curated books, which was where the format of the Navalmanac came through
How did the idea form?
Went to a startup weekend (hackathon) his 2nd year of college. Was told by a founder to read what Naval wrote on Venture Hacks.
Through Poor Charlie’s Almanac, found a lot of curated books, which was where the format of the Navalmanac came through
3/
Committing in Public
Committed to the project on Twitter had accountability from the masses
Was an instant “Oh Shit” moment when Naval decided to endorse it
Went from a 3 month project to a 3 year project
Committing in Public
Committed to the project on Twitter had accountability from the masses
Was an instant “Oh Shit” moment when Naval decided to endorse it
Went from a 3 month project to a 3 year project
4/
Compression Part 1
1 million words - transcripts, thousands of tweets, thousands of articles
Started with a spreadsheet full of tweets - went through Zero to One (good tweets and bad tweets)
Then categorized all the remaining tweets as potential chapters.
Compression Part 1
1 million words - transcripts, thousands of tweets, thousands of articles
Started with a spreadsheet full of tweets - went through Zero to One (good tweets and bad tweets)
Then categorized all the remaining tweets as potential chapters.
5/
Compression Part 2
Added all the sources outside of the tweets (conversations, posts, podcasts)
After running out of steam, did a manuscript review with around 20 people to gather feedback in a tight time frame to react to it all at once.
Used Otter for voice recordings
Compression Part 2
Added all the sources outside of the tweets (conversations, posts, podcasts)
After running out of steam, did a manuscript review with around 20 people to gather feedback in a tight time frame to react to it all at once.
Used Otter for voice recordings
6/
Book Publishing Process Part 1
Book Process
Scribe, originally known as Book in a Box, taking a manuscript and turning it into a ready to publish book.
They offer copy-editing, helping you w/ marketing and launch, getting the ISBN, going through multiple iterations.
Book Publishing Process Part 1
Book Process
Scribe, originally known as Book in a Box, taking a manuscript and turning it into a ready to publish book.
They offer copy-editing, helping you w/ marketing and launch, getting the ISBN, going through multiple iterations.
7/
Book Publishing Process Part 2
High price, alternative is that you can piecemeal it out and self-publish but the effort is a lot higher to make it a cheaper product.
Using a term from the book Scribe gave Eric an enormous amount of leverage to spend time elsewhere
Book Publishing Process Part 2
High price, alternative is that you can piecemeal it out and self-publish but the effort is a lot higher to make it a cheaper product.
Using a term from the book Scribe gave Eric an enormous amount of leverage to spend time elsewhere
8/
Building in Public
People were asking in update all the time, the project was born in public
Had around 2-3000 emails about the book in the first year before the product even existed.
Building off of other people’s excitement in the project to generate interest.
Building in Public
People were asking in update all the time, the project was born in public
Had around 2-3000 emails about the book in the first year before the product even existed.
Building off of other people’s excitement in the project to generate interest.
9/
Measuring Success
Want it to have long relevance, why Eric chose to write about Happiness
Insight density - can open to any page and find value, measure through highlight density
Working with Readwise to see how many highlights are made.
Measuring Success
Want it to have long relevance, why Eric chose to write about Happiness
Insight density - can open to any page and find value, measure through highlight density
Working with Readwise to see how many highlights are made.
10/
What's next?
More to do on this book, before potentially going onto the next book
There is a huge opportunity to take lessons from the book into more actionable items, akin to courses or Daily Manifest from Visualize Value
Potentially some Twitter Bots 👀
What's next?
More to do on this book, before potentially going onto the next book
There is a huge opportunity to take lessons from the book into more actionable items, akin to courses or Daily Manifest from Visualize Value
Potentially some Twitter Bots 👀
11/
General Wisdom
Life is a million little decisions about picking leverage, happiness.
If you do not give yourself the space to make those little decisions, one big decision won’t be able to save you
Finding a new frame of reference to govern the decisions you make
General Wisdom
Life is a million little decisions about picking leverage, happiness.
If you do not give yourself the space to make those little decisions, one big decision won’t be able to save you
Finding a new frame of reference to govern the decisions you make
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