How to Get What You Want

@j_greig Thanks! I've done podcasts before but this was my first time recording text to speech like that. An interesting challenge for sure. You end up ad-libbing a little bit. It was also a great way to do final edits for clarity and smoothness.

@JasonShen A great way to check if you really do "Write like you talk" :) (I try to)

@isaacsrda To be fair, the header does say "a *short* primer"

@isaacsrda hey Rob - that's a totally fair point. I did want to acknowledge that this was not a month long or year long project as to set expectations. This book also isn't going to take you as long to read as a typical book because it is shorter. You can also sample some of the pages to get a sense of what it is about by clicking the cover. Are you familiar with the execute book? It was written in 8 days. http://executebook.com/ And remember, that even if I wrote this book in 2 weeks, it encompasses things I have been thinking about for much longer.

@isaacsrda @JasonShen Good points, and I was also thinking about this. The site mentions that if a person liked your blog, they'd like the book (but it contains new content). If you include blog content, how long was the book's content in the works?

@isaacsrda @staringispolite Great question. When I said "completely new material" I meant that the book did not contain any blog content. Simply that the book content was similar to content on the blog.

@antongu in case you write another what? Another book on the same topic? Not sure I follow. And thanks!

@antongu That's what sells.

@JasonShen I think @antongu was just reacting against a similarity to the stereotypical promise-the-world vague self-help books. I think he meant any future how-to book, not just same topic. Can't judge a book by its cover, but I do think it's on a lot of people's minds for how-to books: "Is this vague inspiration or legit and actionable?" (I suspect you might agree, since @karenxcheng's testimonial speaks directly to this concern)

@antongu @karenxcheng @staringispolite Yep, totally. I think self-help has gotten a bad rap over the years. We read books on how to do better marketing, write better programs, eat healthier, and negotiate. But somehow books that are about living better lives have gotten such a bad reputation - in part because we think they must suck because people are still unhappy. Well, most people are also bad marketers, overweight, bad negotiators and mediocre programmers. But that doesn't mean those books are not valuable. I was actually inspired to write by book after reading a book on information architecture, which is called How to Make Sense of Any Mess: http://www.amazon.com/How-Make-S...