Mark Mercer

Love a good sitcom episode, web fanatic, writer, dog dude, foodie!

[internet hall of fame @InternetH0F]

Took her a while to notice 😂

[Nicolas Cole 🚢👻 @Nicolascole77]

Meet John Grisham.

He’s the author of 49 consecutive #1 bestsellers.

His books have been made into movies starring Tom Cruise, Sandra Bullock, and Samuel L. Jackson.

Here are 10 of his timeless writing insights (on talent, routine, and dealing with criticism):

[Tom Vaughan @storyandplot]

One of the great studio films from the 1990s. THE FUGITIVE is smart, mature, and a total crowd-pleaser.

Its structure was a huge influence on my screenwriting.

1st half: Escape and evade.
2nd Half: Solve the mystery.

It FEELS plot-heavy, but it isn't. The throughlines are clear and simple. So many great scenes and sequences.

I must have watched it 10 times on VHS as I wrote the first screenplay I ever sold.

Tommy Lee Jones may have locked up the Oscar for this monologue alone.

I love this movie.

[Mark Mercer @Markmerce]

@IOHK_Charles Me!!!!!

[Tom Vaughan @storyandplot]

After 27 years of screenwriting, this is my process before I outline:

1. Find the story. Who transforms and how?
2. Find the dramatic question. What do they want and why?
3. Scene generation. Does the concept generate great ones?

Do this and I'm ready to outline anything.

[Mark Mercer @Markmerce]

@andrewrosener Love a happy ending!!!!

[Morgan @morganlinton]

I started walking everyone morning after hearing more and more about the benefits of a morning walk.

At first I thought - it’s just a walk, what impact could it possibly make 🤷‍♂️

Two weeks in and I can tell you, for me, it makes a big difference. Even just ten minutes of walking can go a long way.

I find I’m in a better mood, less stressed, and feel inspired when I start the day. Compare this to my old routine of waking up and jumping right into emails and it’s a night and day difference.

If you don’t walk in the mornings - give it a shot, you might be surprised at the impact it makes.

Here’s a 40s clip from my walk this morning 🌲

[Justine Bateman @JustineBateman]

There is no such thing as “AI Art.” The term is an oxymoron.

[Mark Mercer @Markmerce]

@JustineBateman So true! Hope this is understood soon by all!

[Casey💎 @CorporealCasey]

gm gm☀️☀️

@jenisuart

[Mark Mercer @Markmerce]

@danwestworld You're genuine!

[Mark Mercer @Markmerce]

@joel_eisenberg Awesome! Classic! Stylish!

[Billy Oppenheimer @bpoppenheimer]

Shortly after Steve Jobs returned as the CEO of Apple in 1997, he met with Jony Ive, Apple’s Senior VP of industrial design.

Apple had 40 products on the market.

“Jony, how many things have you said no to?” Jobs asked.

Ive was confused.

“You have to understand,” Jobs said,

“There are measures of focus, and one of them is how often you say no.”

“What focus means,” Jobs taught Ive, “is saying no to something that you—with every bone in your body—think is a phenomenal idea, and you wake up thinking about it, but you say no to it because you're focusing on something else.”

Jobs walked up to a whiteboard and drew a 2 x 2 grid. On top, he wrote “Consumer” and “Professional.” Down the side, “Portable” and “Desktop.”

Four products—meet Apple’s new radically focused product line, Jobs said.

After that meeting, over the next two decades, Jobs and Ive—focused on making a few high-quality products while saying no to everything else—transformed a dying, near-bankrupt company into one of the most valuable companies in the world, worth over $2.9 trillion.

Takeaway 1:

The philosopher Marcus Aurelius pointed out that the focus of doing less “brings a double satisfaction.”

You get the satisfaction of having fewer things to do. And…you get the satisfaction of doing those fewer things at a higher level.

You get “to do less, better.”

During Steve Jobs’ first visit to Jony Ive’s design studio, he looked around, and then he said, “Fuck, you’ve not been very effective, have you?”

It was clear to Jobs that Ive was full of ideas and potential he wasn’t able to execute or fulfill under Apple’s previous leadership.

In the Jobs era of “doing less, better,” Ive was very effective.

Some products he designed include: iMac, iPod, iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and AirPods.

Takeaway 2:

Even though he slashed the product line down to four products, Jobs loved to have and hear ideas.

“Steve used to say to me,” Ive said, “and he used to say this a lot, ‘Hey, Jony, here’s a dopey idea.’ And sometimes they were: really dopey. Sometimes they were truly dreadful.

But sometimes they took the air from the room, and they left us both completely silent.”

It made me think of what Jerry Seinfeld identifies as the ultimate skill of the artist: “taste and discernment.”

“It’s one thing to create,” Seinfeld says. It’s one thing to have ideas.

“The other is you have to choose. ‘What are we going to do, and what are we not going to do?’” What are we going to add to the product line, and what are we not going to add?

“This is a gigantic aspect of [artistic] survival,” Seinfeld continues.

“It’s kind of unseen—what’s picked and what is discarded—but mastering that is how you stay alive.”

- - -

“Everything just got simpler. That’s been one of my mantras—focus and simplicity.” — Steve Jobs

Follow @bpoppenheimer for more content like this!

[Mark Mercer @Markmerce]

@TheZestyQueen @brandbucket @margotb @MichaelCyger @DomainSmoke Congratulations!

[Mark Mercer @Markmerce]

@andrewrosener @MediaOptions @zuiker_chris @J10enbaum @KingWillChalton @MatthewZuiker Congratulations, Andrew!

[Mark Mercer @Markmerce]

https://t.co/aXaQjl938A

[TodayInSports @TodayInSportsCo]

The snow in Buffalo is intense ❄️

[aggrokat.eth @dglase4]

Love this new series! ❤️💙💜💛

[Dachshund Community(USA) @usa_dachshund]

It's so Jushi🤤🤤
#Dachshund #Dachshunds

[Mark Mercer @Markmerce]

@RealAlexMeneses Pretty sure you just asked a question. Sorry, my mind is a bit busy!!!!

[Mark Mercer @Markmerce]

@shaquaylamims Thank you so much! Very valuable lessons!