I'm Josh Kaufman, author of three bestselling books on business, skill acquisition, and applied psychology. Ask me anything!

Context/background: https://joshkaufman.net/debugging-dysthymia/, https://joshkaufman.net/2018-annual-review/

Glad to hear it - chronic fatigue isn't fun, and I'm happy to have helped in some small way. I'm looking forward to hearing more about your new community - it'll help a lot of people.

One of the biggest adjustments has been in how I make long-term future plans and commitments. There's quite a bit of variability in my energy level day-to-day: some days will be fine, and others will not. That makes future commitments, like running live events, committing to deadlines or dates months in advance, etc. challenging. I've always had a preference for flexibility and control over my time/work – this experience has cranked that to 11.

I try to make progress on my current project every day. Sometimes I can manage 6+ hours of focused effort, and some days it's a struggle to complete one. Regardless, sitting down to do the work on a consistent basis is important - even on bad days, consistent effort adds up.

In terms of talking about this in public - it's a bit scary, but it also freeing. Many conditions on this spectrum (and there are thousands) are difficult in terms of symptoms, but feeling the need to present an "all is well" face to the world adds stress and effort on top of it. Being open and honest about what you're dealing with, in my experience, makes it easier to manage.

It's a fine line, of course – it's not in anyone's interest for you to be known primarily for your condition. For clients, colleagues, and people who rely on you for specific results, it's better to be known for what you can deliver – as long as you set clear expectations and communicate that certain ways of working don't work for you.

I've decided to discuss what's going on because much of my work is public, and I think it's valuable to talk about things like this in an open and honest way. Many of the improvements I've been able to make have come thanks to people who are researching and writing about these subjects in public - if I can contribute to that, even a little, it's worth sharing my experiences in the hope it'll help someone else.

I've hired several illustrators over the years. Here's how I think about it, from a jobs-to-be-done perspective:

1. When I need a book cover, I hire a specialist like Pete Garceau (http://petegarceau.com). His reputation in the space is excellent, and his portfolio is optimized to attract that kind of work.

2. Other illustrators have a style that's a good fit for the work - I hired Jeff Brown to illustrate How to Fight a Hydra (https://www.deviantart.com/jbrown67/art/Hydra-730636985) because I loved his approach to both environment and huge scary creatures.

I'd recommend identifying a specific type of work / client you're trying to attract, then invest ~20 hours in creating portfolio pieces around that style, which you can use for marketing your work.

Writing habits & editing: most of my work is synthesis, so a lot of it happens in my head. I read a lot, take notes, sketch out ideas, rearrange them, etc. until I feel like it's "cooked" enough to start drafting long-form. Drafting is always painful and frustrating, and takes the longest time.

Once I have a draft to work on, editing is usually easier and faster - I usually go through 6-10 edit passes before I publish. The first few edits are on my own to polish, then I send it off to my editor (David Moldawer, https://bookitect.com), agent (Lisa DiMona, http://writershouse.com), and early readers for feedback and further editing.

It's a lot of work. The thing that keeps me going is the work itself - I try to choose projects that I want to exist in the world, and should exist, but don't yet. My general rule of thumb is to avoid writing a book unless I want to read that book 20+ times, because that's what it's going to take to create it.

Over the years, I've gotten a lot of milage out of straightforward notetaking - just write down what you're trying to do, how you're planning to go about it, sketching implementation details, and current status. It's not complicated, and it's valuable both in cementing what you've learned and re-loading cognitive state after a break. I've found writing notes by hand a lot more useful than electronic notetaking in all forms.

For code, commenting is essential. It sounds simple, but it's very effective, particularly at the beginning or reviewing code you wrote in the past.

Spaced repetition is good for memorization, and not much beyond that. It's important for some skills (like language vocabulary, retaining concepts in a field, etc.) but overrated in most others. Practical concepts are better reinforced via active use vs. study.

Re: evaluating markets - here are two good places to start: https://personalmba.com/10-ways-to-evaluate-a-market/ and https://personalmba.com/12-standard-forms-of-value/

I'd recommend starting with this: https://booklaunch.com/book-launch-bestseller/

Books are businesses - you need to have a marketing plan.

Sounds like a sensible approach to me - be sure to take notes if you're not already.

Hello!

For print - I'd recommend contacting a local bookseller capable of importing books. They're likely to import the British Commonwealth editions of my books from Penguin, which should be straightforward.

Re: video - I'm planning video courses for my work in the near future. (Personal MBA is first on the docket.) If you haven't already, sign up for my newsletter at https://joshkaufman.net/newsletter - that's the best way to know when new books & courses launch.

This is a very broad question. The most important skills in ecommerce are the most important skills in business: "ecommerce" is just a business that uses specific distribution channels: https://personalmba.com/distribution-channel/

Everything in The Personal MBA applies to ecommerce businesses, as well as every other business.

Also - I think it's important to avoid looking for "single most important" anythings. The world is complicated, and there are always multiple contributing factors. Trying to find a magic bullet or single universal solution can be misleading at best, and destructive at worst. A more useful approach is to identify all of the factors that are important in as much detail and precision as you can, then work on making sure each of those factors is satisfied.

Context: https://twitter.com/joshkaufman/status/1167619492178014214

The new edition of The Personal MBA has edits throughout, plus ~10% new material. It’s a significant update. The publication date hasn't been finalized: sometime in the fall of 2020.

Always. A lot of that feeling is wrapped up in anticipating how people will react to my work. Will they disagree? Will they misunderstand? Will they be offended? Will they think less of me?

One thing that's helped me a lot is visualizing the size of the audience I'm writing for / marketing to.

Here's a list of stadiums by capacity worldwide: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_stadiums_by_capacity

Pretty much everything I do has an audience that's larger than the capacity of even the smallest stadium. In a crowd that large, even a fraction of a percent of the audience is a sizable number.

It's easy to imagine that, in a filled-to-capacity stadium, a few hundred people aren't going to be into what's happening at any given time. That's not odd, it's an expected outcome, and there's no way to avoid it.

That image makes it easier to do what I do, and not worry about it so much. I can't control someone's reaction to my work, but I can focus on doing the best work I can. That's enough.

I'm not a huge fan of writing forums. Part of that is because I don't identify as a "writer" - I'm a researcher / experimenter. Writing is one of the ways I turn my research into something that's useful for other people.

In terms of motivation, I try to write books I really want to exist, and that don't exist in that form yet. Once I'm in the writing process, it's a combination of stubbornness and knowing there's no partial credit for an unfinished work - it's better to not write a book at all than start working on one that you never finish.

I've always liked this Churchill quote:

“Writing a book is an adventure. To begin with it is a toy and an amusement. Then it becomes a mistress, then it becomes a master, then it becomes a tyrant. The last phase is that just as you are about to be reconciled to your servitude, you kill the monster and fling him to the public.”

I've discussed this with many authors - everyone gets more and more tired of the book they're working the longer they work on it. That's a good reason to work quickly, push the first draft to completion as soon as you can, go through a few rounds of polishing, then publish it.

I'd recommend a cover-to-cover read first. Think of it as a comprehensive business course that costs less than $20 instead of thousands. The book builds on prior concepts as you read it, so you'll make a lot of connections between the various concepts and principles. After that, it's easier to refer to the book as needed.

I've had a lot of readers listen to the audio for the full read, then pick up the print or ebook edition as a desk reference.

I think the way to think about complex skills like language acquisition is "what's the most effective way to invest the next ~20 hours of my time?"

By way of metaphor - professional language acquisition is like this: https://i.imgur.com/BqKyHUP.gifv. Multiple considerations and specialized requirements, high stakes, and plenty of opportunities for subtle errors to have significant consequences.

You can get there, but it's going to require a lot of practice over a significant period of time - no getting around it.

Given that reality, the best approach is to make sure every unit of practice is applied to solid fundamentals + the next specialized skill you need to get where you want to go.

Early practice will look rudimentary. (Extending the metaphor - like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyAVQl9lBAc) As you improve, you ratchet up the level of complexity to slightly above your current skill level. Over time, you learn to perform under complex demands.

The 20-hour process is recursive - you keep doing it until you reach the skill level you're working toward.

The only part of my acquisition strategy that's changed over time is more emphasis on deciding what you want to be able to do. It's crucial: the better you're able to define and describe what skill looks like in your case, the more effective the strategy will be.

Re: language - I have not. Language acquisition is not a high priority for me at the moment, given my current projects and personal circumstances. (See https://www.indiehackers.com/post/91551a5112?commentId=-LoLHalw7T_g-pAwwVNm)

I have a good relationship with my publisher, Portfolio / Penguin Random House. (https://www.penguin.com/publishers/portfolio/) Portfolio published The Personal MBA and The First 20 Hours.

I also publish my own work in some cases: How to Fight a Hydra was the first book I published independently.

There are pros and cons to both approaches. Working with a publisher includes editorial support, production support, retail distribution, and a financial guarantee - all valuable things. The tradeoff is that it's slow, and publishers are locked into certain formats and ways of doing business that are limiting. Independent publishing is faster and more flexible, but you retain all of the production and distribution responsibility, with zero financial guarantees.

Publishers rely on agents to acquire books, so the first step in working with a publisher is to identify a reputable and skilled agent who's willing to represent you.

Indie publishing is open to everyone. If an independent book sells well, agents and publishers are often interested in publishing it through traditional channels.

General writing discussion here: https://www.indiehackers.com/post/91551a5112?commentId=-LoIBNdNkiFBwBSOoPuT

Unexpected struggles: writing a book is a skill, and it takes a while to learn how to do it well. I wrote ~10 drafts of The Personal MBA before I figured out how to make it work. I expected it to be difficult going in, and even being prepared for it, it was more difficult than I expected it to be. There's an enormous difference between writing essays (even long essays) and writing a good book.

I built my initial audience via personalmba.com. My biggest mistake was not collecting email addresses in the early years of the site - it's by far the most effective marketing tool for publishing a book.

Wow - great to hear it. Hard to believe that was almost 15 years ago.

I think the fundamentals of business are the same, regardless of industry or company size. One of the things that helped a lot in writing The Personal MBA was working at a Fortune 500 while running my own one-person business on the side: the only principles that made it into the book were the principles that applied in both circumstances. Large companies operate by the same rules, just at a higher level of organizational and operational complexity.

One of the unique advantages that smaller businesses have is being happy to operate in markets that aren't big enough to be enticing to large firms. Six-to-seven-figure annual revenues are nothing to a huge company, but they're meaningful for small teams with low overhead. There are a ton of opportunities for entrepreneurs to serve underserved markets of all sorts in a sustainable and profitable way.

Re: The Personal MBA - I just finished a new edition, which will be published in late 2020. The vast majority of the book is the same, with about 10% new material. I'm very happy with the longevity of the concepts in the book - I didn't have to change much of the existing material. That's a good sign that the concepts in the book really are fundamentals; the basics of the field shouldn't change very much over time.