Merlin Mann famous quotes

Joining a Facebook group about creative productivity is like buying a chair about jogging.
-- Merlin Mann

#Creative #Jogging #Joining

Trying to talk somebody out of the stuff that they enjoy in life is like trying to talk them out of their faith or their sexuality. It’s a pointless exercise that can never be anything but acrimonious and will only highlight unnecessary amounts of difference about things that ultimately don’t really matter. Buy the steak you like, worship the god you love, neck with the people that you treasure and don’t worry about the numbers.
-- Merlin Mann

#Exercise #Differences #Numbers

The mindless junk of your past crowds out opportunities and sets pointless limitations. Move out the junk, and you create room for the rest of your life. Ultimately, it's not just a question of tidying your house; it's a question of liberating your heart.
-- Merlin Mann

#Moving #Heart #Past

Everything takes more time than you thought, everything costs more money than you thought, and almost everything turns out not quite as cool as you expected.
-- Merlin Mann

#Cost #More Time #More Money

Feeling creative produces great work in approximately the same way that "feeling like a doctor" makes you a gifted thoracic surgeon.
-- Merlin Mann

#Doctors #Creative #Design

People with tiny glasses and costly shoes can always find a couple of hours to explain how you did it all wrong.
-- Merlin Mann

#Couple #Shoes #Glasses

Go a little easier on yourself, and in so doing, be prepared to make and do things that might seem silly at first. Just keep moving: don't ruminate and stare at the wall. Don't just play with your phone: go out and produce something.
-- Merlin Mann

#Wall #Silly #Moving

My narrative is that I've never known what's coming next-I still don't. I fell down the right set of stairs and have been surrounded by people who have picked me up and said, “Let's try this again.” It's been one anxious block of uncertainty after another.
-- Merlin Mann

#Block #People #Trying

All self-help is Buddhism with a service mark
-- Merlin Mann

#Buddhism #Self #Helping

I'm a project manager, not a magician. Magicians have way cooler hats.
-- Merlin Mann

#Way #Hats #Projects

Like tornadoes and cold sores, good work happens with total disregard to whether I'm 'into it.'
-- Merlin Mann

#Tornadoes #Cold #Good Work

People either make things or they don't. Inspiration is a poster.
-- Merlin Mann

#Inspiration #People #Posters

Workflow is understanding your job, understanding your tools, and then not thinking about it any more.
-- Merlin Mann

#Jobs #Thinking #Understanding

Thinking can really be the enemy of action, and thinking can be the enemy of reality.
-- Merlin Mann

#Thinking #Reality #Enemy

You got to be careful to not get too comfortable with incremental improvement. I think sometimes you just got to jump off a ledge.
-- Merlin Mann

#Thinking #Ledges #Improvement

Personally, it's changed my game - it's how I think now. Can't imagine writing more than a paragraph in anything that doesn't do MMD.
-- Merlin Mann

#Writing #Thinking #Games

Priorities Are Like Arms; If You Think You Have More Than A Couple, You’re Either Lying Or Crazy.
-- Merlin Mann

#Couple #Lying #Crazy

When you die, no one's going to remember what iPhone you had.
-- Merlin Mann

#Iphone #Remember

If you want to make a chili, you're going to break some cows.
-- Merlin Mann

#Want #Cows #Break

Thing is: the internet's made of IP addresses, opinions, and assholes. It's what's there. That's the basic equipment.
-- Merlin Mann

#Addresses #Opinion #Internet

Distractions have never prevented a Writing Writer Who Writes from writing; distractions are an excuse proffered by Non-Writing Non-Writers Who are Not-Writing for why they are not writing.
-- Merlin Mann

#Writing #Excuse #Distraction

It's just that it's mind-boggling to me how many people I encounter every day who are struggling to subsist on a diet of bad advice about fake solutions to nonexistent problems.
-- Merlin Mann

#Struggle #People #Fake

Make the time to be scared of more interesting things
-- Merlin Mann

#Interesting #Scared #Interesting Things

Although your time and attention are finite, the demands on your time and attention are infinite.
-- Merlin Mann

#Marketing #Demand #Attention

A lot of the best work I've ever done started out as something completely different because I gave myself permission to have space around my time and expectations.
-- Merlin Mann

#Space #Expectations #Done

I think all of the best nonfiction that has ever been made comes from the result of someone who can't stop thinking about a certain topic - a very specific aspect of a certain topic in some cases. And second, they got really good at figuring out what they had to say about it.
-- Merlin Mann

#Pain #Thinking #Topics

Typing in all lowercase is popular among young people, SMS users, and anyone who feels literacy has become too time-consuming.
-- Merlin Mann

#People #Sms #Literacy

Being consistent is WAY less interesting than being yourself. And if you're not interesting? Good luck with your Big Consistency Project.
-- Merlin Mann

#Being Yourself #Good Luck #Interesting

Creative work, summarized: In the time you set aside each day to work your ***** off, ignore anything that makes you consider stopping.
-- Merlin Mann

#Creative #Each Day #Stopping

Stop. I’m not going to take any more input until I’ve made something with what I got.
-- Merlin Mann

#Input #Made

Never let the guy with the broom decide how many elephants can be in the parade.
-- Merlin Mann

#Elephants #Guy #Parades

Don't just play with your phone: go out and produce something.
-- Merlin Mann

#Play #Phones #Produce

Everything you agree to do is other things you can't do
-- Merlin Mann

#Agree

Creative work only seems like a magic trick to people who don't understand that it's ultimately still work.
-- Merlin Mann

#People #Creative #Magic

If you need to appear on an internet list to know whether you're someone's friend, you may have problems a computer can't solve.
-- Merlin Mann

#May #Lists #Needs

By my reckoning, I only need about 200 more takeout coffee cups to complete my bitterly ironic mosaic of Al Gore.
-- Merlin Mann

#Coffee #Ironic #Mosaics

You're gonna die. You're gonna die. And nobody's gonna care which version of the iPhone you used to make something on Twitter, or to go and post about your bowel movement on Facebook. And I'm not even talking about legacy; I'm talking about the fact that I personally feel most alive when I'm making something, and I feel least alive when I'm being led around by some obnoxious use of my attention that I wasn't aware of. To me, that's the thing. You can buy the jogging shoes and you can buy the Runner's World, but until you put them on and walk out the door every day, you're just a fat man.
-- Merlin Mann

#Men #Doors #Talking

A priority is observed, not manufactured or assigned. Otherwise, it's necessarily not a priority.
-- Merlin Mann

#Priorities