Playing With Networking (Weekly Recap 5/10/2025)

Let's connect some dots from this week's notes.

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On to the recap…

The 95% Rule: Why Great Art Happens at the Margins (And Why That Matters)

In a world where creative content increasingly feels mass-produced and inauthentic, this post introduces two complementary principles: Buck's Law (95% of content is crap, true art exists only at the margins) and Finnerty's Law (protecting the remaining 5% of quality content requires actively calling out the bad). Using music critic Pat Finnerty's protest against LoCash's uninspired interpolation of Stevie Wonder's "Isn't She Lovely" as a launching point, the essay explores the contrast between manufactured pop-country and the authentic regionalism of artists like Bob Seger, who remained loyal to his Detroit roots despite international fame. The piece argues that creating and defending authentic art isn't just about aesthetic preferences, it's how we find our people, our causes, and ultimately, ourselves. In an age of algorithmic content and AI-generated slop, fighting for cultural authenticity becomes not just an artistic stance but a form of community building.

Quote from the (Personal) Archive: "Creating authentic art is how we find our people. And even if you don't feel like it's 'art' - reflecting, sharing, and discussing authentically is the point. Amazing things happen when we embrace life in the margins. You'll find your friends. You'll find your people. You'll give them something to smile about. You'll figure out causes to fight for. You'll find the value in sharing your creations is a means of figuring out who will get behind it, with you."

For Every Pathology, There's A Profession: Jim Carroll And Bob Seawright On JUST PRESS RECORD

This post celebrates the beautiful alignment between our personal quirks and the work we're drawn to do. Using the metaphor of building a plane while falling, daily jumping off a cliff with a box of parts and assembling them before hitting the ground, the reflection explores how what others might see as "crazy" can become our greatest professional assets. Through a conversation with Jim Carroll and Bob Seawright on the Just Press Record podcast, the author shares a profound insight from Carroll's college professor: "For every pathology, there's a profession." This perspective reframes our peculiarities not as flaws to overcome but as guideposts leading us toward fulfilling work. The piece encourages embracing these distinctive traits rather than hiding them, suggesting that our seemingly odd obsessions and approaches might be precisely what make us valuable in the right context.

Quote from the (Personal) Archive: "Who we are, how we're wired, guides us to the work we do. Our quirks, our obsessions, and even our weaknesses, they're all there. They're all part of our path. Pathology, as a term, makes so much more sense to me now too. Your greatest potential assets are in those quirks, obsessions, and even your weaknesses. Others might think you're crazy for leaning into them, but don't worry. If it feels good, if you're not hurting others, if you're not hurting yourself - Jump."

Grow Your Network: Bob Seawright Is A Better Letter Writer

In this network expansion feature, Bob Seawright's journey from law to finance illuminates three transformative principles applicable to anyone's career journey. First, his candid assertion that "it's a lie that you can be anything you want" challenges the typical motivational narrative, instead advocating for honest self-assessment of our actual strengths and limitations as the pathway to authentic fulfillment. Second, Seawright's discovery of strategic silence as a creativity catalyst, intentionally turning off music during chores to create space for ideas to emerge, demonstrates how reducing stimulation can paradoxically increase insight. Finally, his approach to writing as a tool for testing and refining thinking rather than merely communicating established ideas offers a practical method for distinguishing between coherent beliefs and flawed reasoning. Through these frameworks, the post encourages readers to align their aspirations with their natural talents, create deliberately quiet moments in their lives, and use writing as a discovery process rather than just a communication medium.

Quote from the (Personal) Archive: "One of my favorite expressions is, 'The trash can is your friend.' I love it because it reminds you that you don't have to keep everything. As you work stuff out, as you iterate, you're going to hit dead ends, and when that happens, the trash can is there for you. Life doesn't demand perfection. If anything, it dictates the abundance of imperfection. Befriending the trash can is as essential a first step as I can imagine for starting to figure out what tiny shrivel of your scribbles actually deserves to stay on your desk and get repurposed for further use."

Thriving And Driving

This reflection begins with Alex Honnold's sobering observation from a cross-country bike trip: "Nobody is thriving. The landscape isn't thriving. The people aren't thriving. The communities aren't thriving. Nothing about this is working." Contrasting this with a personal road trip experience where thriving occurred on a micro scale (the author, his wife, and their dogs enjoying vacation), the post explores the disconnect between individual wellbeing and community flourishing. It raises the crucial question of how we might scale up personal thriving to larger social ecosystems without clear answers, but with a conviction that solutions won't come from top-down approaches. The piece captures both the comfort of personal contentment and the unease of recognizing its limitations in addressing broader social and environmental challenges, suggesting that perhaps the small-scale successes of mid-sized communities like restaurants might offer clues for bridging the gap.

Quote from the (Personal) Archive: "If we know how to thrive small, like my wife and my dogs in the car, what are we doing to thrive bigger because - I see what Honnold's saying here. And I don't have a good answer. Not yet. But I'm working on one. If I know how to thrive small, at a 1-1 (or 1-3?) level, theoretically, I should know how to scale it up too. There's a community layer to build on top of it. There's a community to community layer to build on top of that."

Grow Your Network: Jim Carroll Is A Volatility Whisperer

This networking feature expands on the conversation with Jim Carroll, highlighting three key lessons from the volatility expert's career journey. First, Carroll's insight that "for every pathology, there's a profession" shows how our unique traits can become our greatest assets when properly channeled, illustrated by the author's own need for variety and stimulation that once seemed like a weakness. Second, Carroll's strategy of finding "uncrowded ponds" rather than competing with giants in saturated markets demonstrates the value of cultivating specialized niches where your particular skills can flourish. Finally, his practice of writing to test ideas reveals how articulation helps clarify thinking and identify gaps in reasoning. Through these three lenses, work, life, and legacy, the post offers practical frameworks for readers to apply to their own careers, encouraging self-reflection about personal quirks, competitive advantages, and the power of writing to refine complex ideas.

Quote from the (Personal) Archive: "I don't just believe in writing stuff down to record it, I believe in adding your reflections to the thoughts too. The only person experiencing this moment the way you are experiencing it is you. The events that happen, and the reactions you have, are actually durable. You, writing them down, tests the ideas. It's the first step. But then there's another step. You can share them with others, and even if they don't share the same sentiment, they will notice that you were OK with sharing what you shared."

Sunday Music: Clear Eyes, Full Hearts, Devil Town: Daniel Johnston's Anthem For Friday Night Lights

Daniel Johnston's hauntingly simple song "Devil Town" serves as a perfect metaphorical backdrop for the cultural complexities explored in Friday Night Lights. The post examines how this deceptively cheerful-sounding track (written in a major key despite its dark subject matter) captures the essence of small-town dynamics and personal transformations central to the show. Through the metaphor of realizing you're "a vampire too" living in "devil town," the song mirrors the characters' journeys of self-awareness, recognizing their complicity in the very systems they sometimes resist. Whether it's Coach Taylor navigating the corrupting influence of recruitment or Tami's complicated relationship with boosters, the song's themes resonate throughout the series as characters come to terms with their place within their community, even when that awareness "brings them down."

Quote from the (Personal) Archive: "The most haunting part of Daniel Johnston's 'Devil Town' is that it's in a major key. It sounds forlorn. It sounds, somehow, nostalgic for something, if nothing else maybe the pre-realization period. But it's not a sad song. It's an admission of being a vampire too, of how it brings a person down, but that, hey, I'm here, I'm in this."

Where Else I Showed Up This Week

Click Beta is back (and this conversation inspired not only the essay about Bob Seger above, but I got a Sage Francis comment on a tweet about it and… life is just wild sometimes).

Jack Forehand and I worked through a bunch of clips on Excess Returns discussing if diversification, or at least the 60/40 portfolio, is indeed “dead”

I’m adding this to my “people I want to talk to when the world feels like its trying to end series” list - here’s Dave Nadig and I trying not to just talk about music with Cameron Dawson:

Personal Archive Prompts (for you):

• What "devil town" do you find yourself living in, and how has recognizing your place within it changed your perspective?

• Which creative areas in your life might benefit from applying Buck's Law and Finnerty's Law to defend quality against mediocrity?

• How might you scale up your personal "thriving" to positively impact your broader community?

• What personal "pathology" of yours might actually be pointing you toward your ideal profession?

• Which "uncrowded pond" could you explore where your unique skills would face less competition?

• What would happen if you introduced strategic silence into your creative process?

• What deeply held belief might benefit from the clarity that comes through writing it out?

As always, I did my part, now it's your turn to write some reflections in your own Personal Archive.

(then, be sure to let me know where you're keeping it, I'm in search of the others too)