Week 52 Roundup

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season. Holidays are tough when you’re thousands of miles away from your family and friends, but the wife and I made the most of ours. We had a gloriously lazy day together, had coffee with friends, and watched a lot of movies.

But enough about us. Ready for some weekly links?

• Author and historian Steven Pressfield (@SPressfield) has an excellent post on his site called “The Most Important Writing Lesson I Ever Learned.” If you’re wondering what this lesson is, it’s this: “nobody wants to read your shit.” Funny, a little cynical, but entirely true.
• Scott H. Young (@ScottHYoung) has tons of solid insights on learning. In 9 Tactic for Rapid learning, he shares a few of these. My favorite tactics on this list are linking, learning by metaphor, and using ambiance catalysts (maybe because it advocates studying in pubs, but I digress).
• If you’re looking for ideas on becoming location-independent digital nomad, check out 64 Ways Location Independent People Earn a Living. A lot of these are  IT jobs, but plenty aren’t. (@CorbettBarr)
• I enjoy seeing balanced (or contrarian, depending on how you look at it) points of view. Cal Newport takes one of these in his post If You’re Nervous About Quitting Your Boring Job, Don’t Do It. So many people talk about quitting cubicle jobs and finding their passion, but they forget that your passion needs to double as a rare, valuable, and marketable skill.
• Finally, I’d like to resurrect my second post ever: How to Cut the Crap and Stop Settling For Less. As you’re making your plan for 2010 (you are making a plan, right?), think about how much stupid stuff you’ve grown accustomed to in your life. What can you cut or get rid of?

Site News

This week at Happenchance, I’ll be posting another article in the series on removing barriers to creating amazing things. This one will  deal with fear: fear of failure, success, and small rodents. If anyone has any stories about overcoming fear, please contact me via twitter (@sethmbaker)

Next week, I’m off to Beijing for the New Year and my 29th birthday, so I may miss  a couple of posts. My apologies in advance.

Finally, I want to give a big, sincere thank you to everyone out there reading these past six months. Writing for you has been more fun than shooting cows with rocket launchers in Cambodia. Not that I’ve done that. That’s just what I hear.

But seriously…

Thank you.

Here’s to a happening 2010!

photo credit: yours truly, sethmbaker