Toby Nelmes

Freelance Graphic Designer and Senior Designer for ROCK

[Toby Nelmes @NelmesDesign]

@Claire_S Notion definitely!

[Billy Oppenheimer @bpoppenheimer]

On March 7, 1987, the Beastie Boys' album “Licensed To Ill” became the first rap album to top the music charts.

The group’s lawyer called their producer Rick Rubin and asked,

“You have the No. 1 album in the world—how does it feel?”

After a few seconds of silence, Rick said,

“I've never felt worse in my whole life.”

Rubin was 23 years old when his dream of having a No. 1 album came true. Previous to that point, on and off, he experienced varying symptoms of depression. During low moments, he would think about one day achieving his dream, and that thought gave him hope. “When that happens,” he'd think, “this hole inside me—whatever it is inside me that makes me feel bad—will go away.”

When the day came, Rubin was overwhelmed with a feeling of hopelessness because...

“The thing that I’d been waiting for my whole life, the thing that was going to fill that hole inside me, had happened, and I didn’t feel any better. The hole was still there.”

Takeaway 1:

Many rich, award-winning, celebrated people talk about chasing money, awards, or recognition, getting it, and realizing that it didn't feel like they thought it would. That it didn't, as Rick said, fill the hole inside them.

“Most people who are really driven to achieve something,” Rick explains, “are doing it because they think it’s going to satisfy something in them. Yet most worldly things tend not to be so satisfying.”

Takeaway 2:

If not worldly things—awards, money, celebrity, etc.—what should we strive for? What actually is satisfying?

In his book “The Creative Act,” as well as in interviews, Rick talks about anchoring your satisfaction and your sense of success to the work itself.

“Success isn't about popularity, money, or crtical esteem,” he says. “Success has nothing to do with variables outside yourself...All that matters is the work itself. Success occurs when you've done all you can to bring out the work's greatest potential.”

There's a word for being someone who gets their satisfaction from the work itself:

Autotelic.

From the Greek "auto" (self) & "telos" (end)—an Autotelic is "someone or something that has a purpose in, and not apart from, itself."

As opposed to someone who focuses on having a No. 1 album or other worldly things—for an Autotelic...

“The work is the win,” as Ryan Holiday once told me.

Since you control the work itself more than how it’s received, Ryan said,

“Ultimately, you have to love doing it. You have to get to a place where doing the work is the win and everything else is extra.”

- - -

“He does not have to be a painter or sculptor to be an artist. He can work in any medium. He simply has to find the gain in the work itself, not outside it.” — Robert Henri

Follow @bpoppenheimer for more content like this!

[Hiut Denim @hiutdenim]

We live in an age where we think we can do anything.

We all have cameras but does that make us all photographers?

We all have editing software on our computers but does that make us all filmmakers?

We’ve all watched MasterChef but does that make us all cooks?

[Toby Nelmes @NelmesDesign]

@StephenKing Absolutely loving Holly. Another wonderful character.

[Sahil Bloom @SahilBloom]

In 2009, Stanford business professor Tina Seelig split her class into groups and issued a challenge:

Each group had $5 and 2 hours to make the highest return on the initial money.

At the end, they'd give a short presentation on their strategy.

The results were fascinating...

Most of the groups followed a basic approach:

• Use the $5 to buy a few items.
• Barter or resell those items.
• Repeat
• Sell final items for (hopefully) more than $5.

These groups made a modest return on their initial $5.

A few groups ignored the $5.

They thought up ways to make the most money in the 2 hours of allotted time:

• Made and sold reservations at hot restaurants.
• Refilled bike tires on campus for $1 each.

These groups made a better return on their initial $5.

The winning group took an entirely different approach.

They had three core realizations:

1. The $5 was nothing more than a distraction.

2. The 2 hours of time was not enough to make an attractive, outsized return with a mini-business (like selling restaurant reservations or filling bike tires).

3. The most valuable "asset" was actually the presentation time in front of a class of Stanford students.

Realizing the value of this hidden asset, they offered the presentation time to companies looking to recruit Stanford students.

They struck a deal to sell the time slot for $650, netting a monstrous return on the $5 of initial capital.

The losing groups thought in linear, logical terms and achieved a linear, logical outcome.

The winning group thought differently.

So, what can we learn from this story?

There are two types of problems:

1. Low-Stakes: Lower potential, linear rewards. Decisions are easily reversible.

2. High-Stakes: Higher potential, asymmetric rewards. Decisions are not easily reversible.

With low-stakes problems, given the reward potential is low and the decisions are easily reversible, we can use shortcuts and heuristics to choose our path. We can take a logical, linear approach.

With high-stakes problems, the high, asymmetric reward potential means we need to think differently. We want to take a creative, non-linear approach.

Three steps to start thinking differently:

Step 1: Avoid the Distraction

There will always be an "obvious" solution that is simple, clear, and entirely wrong.

In the challenge, the $5 was nothing more than a distraction. It was a trap.

To find the best path, you have to avoid the distraction.

Step 2: Ask Foundational Questions

Ask and answer questions that expose and vet underlying assumptions and logic.

• What's the real problem you are trying to solve?
• What's your hypothesis? Why?
• What are your core assumptions? Why?
• What evidence do you have?
• What are your core options?
• What alternatives exist?

This takes time, but it's an essential exercise when facing a problem with the potential for non-linear rewards.

Step 3: Select the High Leverage Approach

Slow down and evaluate the options on the table.

Select the path most likely to generate the asymmetric, attractive risk-adjusted returns.

If the story teaches us one thing, it's this:

Creative, non-linear, asymmetric thinking generates creative, non-linear, asymmetric outcomes.

If you enjoyed this or learned something, follow me @SahilBloom for more in future.

[Charles Patterson @CharlesPattson]

"This is a great start"

Designers:

[Romeen Sheth @RomeenSheth]

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Every week, I share frameworks and learnings from bootstrapping a $60 Million company.

https://t.co/cf50KCWA4N

[Matt Schnuck @mattschnuck]

Bill Gurley has funded unicorns like Uber and seen thousands of careers play out.

In 2018 he gave a now-infamous talk about the pattern he uncovered.

Inspired by Tom Petty, it was called "Runnin' Down a Dream."

5 steps to DREAM job success that lasts for decades:

[Light in the Attic @lightintheattic]

Solidarity with the graphic designer who was held at gunpoint until they added grunge textures to the X logo

[Billy Oppenheimer @bpoppenheimer]

When he was 14, Wayne Gretzky moved from his small hometown to play in a more competitive hockey league in Toronto.

He was undersized and during the first practice, he got pushed around.

After practice, his coach pulled him aside.

“When you go home tonight,” the coach said,

“the Toronto Maple Leafs are playing the Philadelphia Flyers—watch Bobby Clarke play.”

Bobby Clarke was an undersized player on the Flyers who went on to be inducted into the NHL Hall of Fame.

“He's not very big,” Gretzky’s coach told him, “but he's very smart.”

“And I studied him and I studied him and I studied him,” Gretzky said.

“I would take out a piece of paper and draw a rink and then without looking at the paper, I’d watch the hockey game on TV, and I would take my pen and I’d follow the puck.”

When Clarke got off the ice, Gretzky would look down at the paper and look for patterns.

He began to notice two things.

First, that Clarke “played the game mostly out of the corners.” Second, that players almost never went behind the net.

So, Gretzky said, “I started playing out of the corner and from behind the net…I started using the net as a decoy. Consequently, I wasn’t standing in front of the net, getting knocked over, and being on my keister the whole time.”

Takeaway 1:

In his books and on his podcast, Tim Ferriss talks about the question he likes to ask when setting out to learn a new skill:

“Who is good at this despite being poorly built for it?”

The idea is to study those, like Bobby Clarke, who found ways to excel even without the prototypical characteristics or advantages.

Then you yourself can use what you learned and, like Gretzky, excel even without the prototypical characteristics of advantages.

Takeaway 2:

Early in his career, in his lab, the neuroscientist Andrew Huberman kept a list of the scientists he loved and admired. “I would read that list over and over,” he said, “I didn’t realize it at the time, but this is what is called introjection.”

In psychology, "introjection" is the process of absorbing the qualities and behaviors of others.

If you regularly listen to so-and-so’s podcast, Huberman explains, “the nervous system begins to ask questions like, what would so-and-so do? That’s a very real thing, and we’re not always consciously aware of it.”

As he regularly watched and doodled the play of Bobby Clarke, Gretzky introjected Clarke’s style, stopped spending so much time on keister, as he put it, and consequently, went on to set 61 NHL records—many of which he still holds—including most career regular-season goals (894), assists (1,963), and points (2,857).

- - -

“I started playing out of the corner and from behind the net because nobody had ever done that before…and by the time they sort of kind of figured it out, I’d retired.” — Wayne Gretzky

Follow @bpoppenheimer for more content like this!

[Toby Nelmes @NelmesDesign]

#NewProfilePic

[Toby Nelmes @NelmesDesign]

@JiffyRugby Can’t go wrong with a Siemens (no pun intended!)

[Toby Nelmes @NelmesDesign]

Thanks Leif Vollebekk for spending 519 minutes with me in 2022. I couldn’t stop listening to Transatlantic Flight. #SpotifyWrapped https://t.co/538OcxCalA

[Toby Nelmes @NelmesDesign]

@Son_Of_Ray Definitely! Quite enjoyable though

[Toby Nelmes @NelmesDesign]

@joannaq @TheAcademy @thenfb @em_fukushima Well done - totally deserved!

[Toby Nelmes @NelmesDesign]

@espiekermann There is only one Meta Erik - yours!

[WalesOnline 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 @WalesOnline]

This is Marcus Rashford. Helping out at a food bank with his mum. The same man who spent last year fighting for free school meals for hungry kids. The same man who's now being abused over a penalty. He's a hero, a role model and 1,000 times the person his abusers will ever be ❤️

[Insole Court @insolecourt]

Desg✅ Lleoliad gret✅ Caffi✅ Wifi cryf✅ Cwmni oedolion✅ Paned✅
Hwn i gyd am £12 y dydd.
Mae argaeledd -Mehefin 21 💻

Desk✅ Great location✅ Café✅ Wifi✅ Adult company✅ Cuppa✅
All of this for just £12 per day.
Availability from June 21💻

https://t.co/r3rAtcVo7r

[Toby Nelmes @NelmesDesign]

Was lovely to be at the (re)opening of @The_Hardwick last night. Thanks @_StephenTerry_ for inviting us. Didn't have phone so no pics of the amazing food but believe me it was wonderful! And great to be out!