paulyunow

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#65 - Vincent Van Gogh painted for an audience of one for a decade

2025/2/28 Friday

In a Colin and Samir podcast, Jack Conte, the founder of Patreon, said that this video about Vincent Van Gogh was his absolute favourite video on YouTube. It’s about the hidden years where Van Gogh painted endlessly for an audience of just one, his brother. 9 years of painting, working on his craft, getting good, and finally selling a painting. It’s particularly inspiring because he was so bad at it when he started at the age of 27. He just loved drawing and painting so much that he kept going. Perhaps it’s this love for the craft that is most important to an artist.

Here’s the video link:

[paulyunow]

#64 - I remember what I hate about Instagram

2025/2/16 Sunday

Notes from my stream of consciousness writing #151

My girlfriend noticed that on Instagram I saw her story but did not “like” it. Long ago, I’ve deleted Instagram and replaced it with DFinsta (DF stands for distraction-free) and I don’t see stories on my home screen. I only see stories among the people I’m messaging in the messenger page. I think checking who saw your story and who liked it is toxic. It’s exactly one of the things I hate about Instagram. I feel like, if you post something, you shouldn’t be able to know who saw it or who liked it, and you should only see comments. That’s the way YouTube works. You don’t see who liked it or who saw it, you only see comments. There’s so much more peace of mind because then it doesn’t matter who saw it or who “liked” it.

Cal Newport, the author of Deep Work and other bestsellers, said not to waste time on interacting with posts from your friends. Don’t hit that like button. Instead, reach out to your close friends for a call or quality in-person time. In fact, better not to see any posts from your friends at all and just hear about it directly from them.

My uncle said that social media is a useful tool for keeping in touch with tertiary friends. Friends that you’re not super close with but friends that you’re on good terms with and hardly see. You can see what they’ve been up to (although you can’t really tell how they’re doing because you have no idea what’s going on inside of a person regardless of outward happy appearances). My question is, is it even worth keeping “in touch” with tertiary friends? I haven’t done that and I’m just fine, meeting a few friends in person once in a while is all I’ve needed.

[paulyunow]

#63 - How Elite Athletes Speak Differently

2024/11/7 Thursday

Time to eliminate “probably,” “maybe,” “think I could,” and “try” from my vocabulary.

Here’s the video I learned this from:

[paulyunow]

#62 - The Value of This Blog

2024/11/7 Thursday

Based on stream of consciousness writing #125

A friend said she found and read my blog. I hadn’t checked or posted on it for months, so I asked what she thought of it. She said she found it inspiring. This prompted me to revisit my blog for the first time in a while. When I started skimming through, I realized that my blog is super valuable, perhaps most to me. It’s a collection of my thoughts and lessons I’ve learned, and it’s worth revisiting on a regular basis. This made me want to start blogging again.

Having even considered whether I should get rid of this blog because of the monthly and yearly costs, just reading it myself now and having a friend tell me it’s inspiring shows me that the cost is totally worth it. Even if hardly anyone else reads it, it’s worth it just for myself. So here’s to getting back into blogging and continuing it.

[paulyunow]

#61 - “The Answer” by Dan Koe

2024/11/7 Thursday

I’m currently persisting making YouTube videos, so my answer is experimentation.

[paulyunow]

#60 - “Write more” by Dan Koe

2024/11/7 Thursday

Most successful people write every single day.

It's their first lever-moving task.

They write:

Video scripts

Newsletters

Emails and outreach

Advertisements

Social posts

Threads

Articles

Landing pages

Books, eBooks, and guides

Education products

If you're a freelancer, creator, creative, coach, founder, or simply a beginner looking for a way to set themselves up for a lucrative future of independent work:

Writing is the foundation of your success.

You can have a product or service, but if you don't have an audience (from writing) then you don't have a business. You have a hobby. Or just a way to feel like you're making progress.

Write for 1-2 hours in the morning.

—Dan Koe

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#59 - Don’t know your niche?

2024/8/21 Wednesday

I’ve been posting on YouTube for over a year, but I still don’t know my niche. Then I read this:

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#58 - What can you do to be more successful?

2024/8/17 Saturday

Let me share something that I’ve been reading over and over again from the book Hell Yeah or No: what’s worth doing

I can’t help but think, maybe he’s on to something. What if I dedicate 4 hours every day to completely disconnect? I want to find out.

[paulyunow]

#57 - Started livestream vlogs

2024/7/16 Tuesday

Notes from my stream of consciousness writing #119

It’s been almost a month since my last stream-of-consciousness writing. The reason I’m writing this is because Austin Kleon in the book Keep Going said he handwrites journals every morning and he also said to read them regularly to see what you pay attention to.

Started livestream vlogging yesterday, partly because I miss having a record of daily videos I can look back on and partly because of what Austin Kleon said that I mentioned above. One thing I’ll miss is that there’s no Mochi the dog and Tigger the cat montage at the end. Maybe I’ll watch them on my screen at the end to show them?

I don’t think I’ll monetize livestream vlogs. People hate ads, Nicolas Cole said in his book, The Art and Business of Online Writing. Plus my vlogs will hardly get any views anyways.

Am I going to write online? I mean not just on my blog but on some social media platform. I don’t know if it’s worth the extra time when my focus is YouTube.

[paulyunow]

#56 - Feedback on my shitty texting

2024/6/18 Tuesday

Notes from my stream of consciousness writing #117

I’ve been shitty at texting girls. I don’t text that often and I don’t know what to text, so many interactions have ended because of that. After asking her, one girl gave me feedback on my shitty texting. The following is what she said:

If you're interested in me, you'd think about me and be excited to talk to me, but you're not so. Why can't you initiate a conversation? If you like me, show me. Check up on me. No need to play games. There's no such thing as boring texts if someone likes you and you like them. Be interested in what I do, how my day's going, update me on whatever you're doing. Why do you only want to text me at night? There’s no such thing as boring questions. I feel more appreciated if you text me often. Actions speak louder than words.

That was super valuable to hear. Even with girls I’ve been interested in my texting has been so shitty. Time to learn from this feedback.

[paulyunow]

#55 - Valuable tips from a lecture on writing

2024/6/16 Sunday

Notes from my stream of consciousness writing #115

Yesterday I listened to a lecture on writing while doing my 20,000 steps. Know who your audience is, what they want, why your writing is valuable to them. You can say, "you're wrong", one way to get their attention. Assume they don't trust you and are looking for any reason to stop reading/listening. So make every sentence count, making them more interested and entertained. Always think about the audience, what they want to hear like having their problems solved, questions answered, thoughts challenged. Ask a question they have and then answer it.

Tozak made a new video saying become sensitive to input by being in nature and being still. Does that really help with creativity? Timmy also said pay attention to your input.

[paulyunow]

#54 - Walking 20,000 steps yesterday was miserable by the end

2024/6/15 Saturday

Notes from my stream of consciousness writing #114

Yesterday's 20,000 steps were miserable by the end. It was Day 5 of my 7-day challenge. My feet were hurting and I was tired of walking. Even while listening to Dr. K, by the end it felt like too much walking.

My Samsung Galaxy Fit 3 smart fitness band/watch arrived yesterday. We'll see how long I use it.

It's a constant struggle to get myself to schedule my whole day.

[paulyunow]

#53 - Walking 20,000 steps is helping me fall asleep quickly

2024/6/13 Thursday

Notes from my stream of consciousness writing #113

Yesterday was Day 3 of 20,000 steps. Last night I fell asleep within 20 minutes even though I went to bed an hour earlier than the night before at 10 pm instead of 11 pm. Seems like walking 20,000 steps is definitely helping with falling asleep quickly.

[paulyunow]

#52 - Studies on the power of music and praising/complimenting

2024/6/12 Wednesday

Notes from my stream of consciousness writing #112

Yesterday I listened to two podcasts by Huberman during my Day 2 of walking 20,000 steps. Let's review what I learned.

Music changes the frequency of your brain. It affects your emotions and mood. Listening to novel music is good for you. When you're sad, listening to slow, sad songs for 13 minutes helps. If you want to feel happier, listen to 9 minutes of generally fast songs. Music boosts motivation. Music boosts focus and learning if you listen during breaks. Silence or white noise, brown noise, or 40 Hz binaural beats are the best for focusing.

Always praise effort, not innate ability. Praising effort enhances performance, and praising innate ability does the opposite.

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#51 - YouTube is no longer my hobby, it’s my job now

2024/6/11 Tuesday

Notes from my stream of consciousness writing #111

Jon Jon checked that I earned a cumulative $19 up to yesterday from AdSense. My videos are making me money.

Chase is right. YouTube is no longer a hobby for me. It's my job. I'm actually getting paid to make videos now. Okay, I better not slack off like I have been for the last week. Let's work hard and it'll pay off big time eventually. LET'S DO THIS

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#50 - Walking solves most of your problems?

2024/6/9 Sunday

Notes from my stream of consciousness writing #109

One thing I got from Leon Hendrix yesterday was: don't have screen time before 1 pm. Then you'll naturally focus on work.

Dan Koe said if you feel bored, go on a walk. If you feel uninspired, go on a walk. I am both bored AND uninspired. Dan Koe said most of your problems can be relieved, if not solved, by going on a walk. Let's see if he's right. Time to test it out.

[paulyunow]

#49 - Walking 20,000 steps takes 3 hours

2024/6/8 Saturday

Notes from my stream of consciousness writing #108

I didn't realize that walking 20,000 steps takes 3 hours. I thought it takes like 2 hours, but no. 3 fucking hours. Do I really want to do this challenge?