Taylin John Simmonds

Start treating your essays like art and readers will remember your name.

I'm obsessed with people's bookshelves. They’re basically saying: “Here’s what I allowed to shape me.”

Most people will say you can’t have success in your health, marriage, friendships, bank account and love your work at the same time. Multifaceted people will try anyway. We can't ignore our holistic ambition (and I like it that way).

Linkedin: everyone's fake and trying to sell you shit. Substack: everyone's a "real artist" and calls you out for trying to make any money. Where's the people in the middle?

There’s a difference between effort and force. Effort is showing up and doing the work. Force is gripping the outcome so tightly that nothing can move. The self-improvement industry sells you force and calls it discipline.

Comparing your draft to someone’s finished work is how good ideas die before anyone sees them.

The pressure to be productive is making you unproductive. Push less, play more.

I’d rather make something strange that feels like me than something polished that could belong to anyone.

I care more about finishing small projects than planning big, impressive ones.