Quotes by Merlin Mann - Page 1

Come back, paragraphs. America needs you.
Merlin Mann /
America
Need You
Needs
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All self-help is Buddhism with a service mark
Merlin Mann /
Buddhism
Helping
Self
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Make the time to be scared of more interesting things.
Merlin Mann /
Interesting
Interesting Things
Scared
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Everything you agree to do is other things you can't do
Merlin Mann /
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If you want to make a chili, you're going to break some cows.
Merlin Mann /
Break
Cows
Want
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When you die, no one's going to remember what iPhone you had.
Merlin Mann /
Dies
Iphone
Remember
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Don't just play with your phone: go out and produce something.
Merlin Mann /
Phones
Play
Produce
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People either make things or they don't. Inspiration is a poster.
Merlin Mann /
Inspiration
People
Posters
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I'm a project manager, not a magician. Magicians have way cooler hats.
Merlin Mann /
Hats
Projects
Way
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Never let the guy with the broom decide how many elephants can be in the parade.
Merlin Mann /
Elephants
Guy
Parades
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Thinking can really be the enemy of action, and thinking can be the enemy of reality.
Merlin Mann /
Enemy
Reality
Thinking
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Stop. I’m not going to take any more input until I’ve made something with what I got.
Merlin Mann /
Input
Made
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Joining a Facebook group about creative productivity is like buying a chair about jogging.
Merlin Mann /
Creative
Groups
Jogging
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People will always despise you if you end up doing less stupid BS than they choose to suffer.
Merlin Mann /
People
Stupid
Suffering
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Like tornadoes and cold sores, good work happens with total disregard to whether I'm 'into it.'
Merlin Mann /
Cold
Good Work
Tornadoes
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Priorities Are Like Arms; If You Think You Have More Than A Couple, You’re Either Lying Or Crazy.
Merlin Mann /
Couple
Crazy
Lying
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Although your time and attention are finite, the demands on your time and attention are infinite.
Merlin Mann /
Attention
Demand
Marketing
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A priority is observed, not manufactured or assigned. Otherwise, it's necessarily not a priority.
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Workflow is understanding your job, understanding your tools, and then not thinking about it any more.
Merlin Mann /
Jobs
Thinking
Understanding
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Creative work only seems like a magic trick to people who don't understand that it's ultimately still work.
Merlin Mann /
Creative
Magic
People
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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
Glasses
Shoes
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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
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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
Internet
Opinion
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Typing in all lowercase is popular among young people, SMS users, and anyone who feels literacy has become too time-consuming.
Merlin Mann /
Literacy
People
Sms
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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 /
Lists
May
Needs
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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 /
Improvement
Ledges
Thinking
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Feeling creative produces great work in approximately the same way that "feeling like a doctor" makes you a gifted thoracic surgeon.
Merlin Mann /
Design
Creative
Doctors
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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 /
Games
Thinking
Writing
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Creative work, summarized: In the time you set aside each day to work your ass off, ignore anything that makes you consider stopping.
Merlin Mann /
Creative
Each Day
Stopping
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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
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Where you allow your attention to go ultimately says more about you as a human being than anything that you put in your mission statement.
Merlin Mann /
Attention
Mission Statement
Missions
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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 Money
More Time
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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
Different
Expectations
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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 /
Fake
People
Struggle
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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 /
Distraction
Excuse
Writing
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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 /
Moving
Silly
Wall
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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 /
Success
Heart
Moving
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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
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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
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Email is such a funny thing. People hand you these single little messages that are no heavier than a river pebble. But it doesn't take long until you have acquired a pile of pebbles that's taller than you and heavier than you could ever hope to move, even if you wanted to do it over a few dozen trips. But for the person who took the time to hand you their pebble, it seems outrageous that you can't handle that one tiny thing.
Merlin Mann /
Funny Things
Hands
Moving
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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 /
Differences
Exercise
Numbers
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Before you sweat the logistics of focus: ﬁrst, care. Care intensely.... Obsessing over the slipperiness of focus, bemoaning the volume of those devil "distractions," and constantly reassessing which shiny new "system" might make your life suddenly seem more sensible - these are all terrifically useful warning ﬂares that you may be suffering from a deeper, more fundamental problem.... Know in your heart that what you're making or doing matters... First, care. Then, as you'll happily and unavoidably discover, all that "focus" business has a peculiar way of taking care of itself.
Merlin Mann /
Focus
Heart
Sweat
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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
Iphone
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William Blake
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Tuesday, Aug 15, 1769
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Carl Sagan
Astronomer
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John Lewis
U.s. Representative
Wednesday, Feb 21, 1940
Billy Graham
Professional Wrestler
Monday, Jun 07, 1943
John F. Kennedy
35Th U.s. President
Tuesday, May 29, 1917
Friday, Nov 22, 1963
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Poet
Wednesday, Oct 21, 1772
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Paulo Coelho
Lyricist
Sunday, Aug 24, 1947
Saint Augustine
Saint
Saturday, Nov 13, 0354
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Julius Caesar
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Winston Churchill
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Monday, Nov 30, 1874
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Merlin Mann Quotes - Page 1

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