Matt S. Law Studios

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  • Trick Question: Quality or Quantity?

    Trick Question: Quality or Quantity?

    In high school I wrote a report on Stephen King. Two actually, for my junior and senior year English classes. (Well, one really, and a later “revised edition”). Whether you like or dislike Stephen King as a writer, you cannot deny that he is successful. During my research I read about King’s work habit in an interview. He would write for 8 hours every day, 362 days a year (he took off only three days). On average, he would produce ten pages of work every day, producing a book and a half a year. Take a look at his biography, to see the list of awards, movies, and novels with his name attached.

    One more quick story. An art professor teaching a ceramics class divided the class into two groups. Group A, would have their grade based on the total number of pottery pieces they completed during the semester. Group B, would have their grade based on only a single final masterpiece that they had the entire semester to complete. Group A jumped in, churning out ceramics as fast as possible. Group B, planned, studied, strategized then finally towards the end of the semester, built their prize work. And at the end of the semester all the best pieces in the class came out of Group A.

    Even though Group A had no grade incentive to actually produce anything of quality.

    Quality comes out of quantity. As Ernest Hemmingway once said, “The first draft of anything is (excrement).” The first group of students developed the most skill and the best quality work because they spent the most time working. Stephen King, especially early in his career probably wrote a lot of work that he threw away in disgust, but he kept going consistently and persistently. (And fortunately his wife, Tabitha, pulled the first dozen or so pages of Carrie out of his wastebasket).

    Here is my three step process to producing quality work.

    1. Start. Do not wait for inspiration or motivation. Roll up your sleeves and work.
    2. Keep Going.
    3. Go to Step 2.

    Then here are two sub-steps to help guide the process, but I wouldn’t add them in until at least 21 days have passed and you have developed a work habit of some sort. Also, these are always in addition to Step 2 and Step 3, never instead of them.

    4. Review your work. Make sure you are progressing in the direction you want.
    5. Seek Advice. From qualified people.

    That’s my five step process to producing quality work. I know I like to keep things simple, but is that too simple? Would you add another step?

  • Why I Love Superheroes

    Why I Love Superheroes

    I readily admit that I am something of a nerd. I love comic book superheroes. I loved them before the relatively recent flood of actual good superhero movies. I was a nerd, before it was cool to be a nerd (and I’m not sure if that makes me more cool, or more nerdy).

    I finally figured out the reason why I love superheroes, and why I would like to be one. It wasn’t that I wanted to fly, be super strong or shoot lasers from my eyes (although that would be cool). The first reason, is because when I see an injustice I would like to have the power to do something about it. That’s why I wanted to take Karate lessons when I was a kid, so I could protect people from bullies. Well, and protect myself; remember: nerd. Even today, if I saw someone get attacked I would probably (and stupidly) put myself into harm’s way.

    But also, superheroes inspire other people. The best scene in Spider-Man 2 was when our hero stops that runaway train from crashing and that car full of passengers see that he’s just a kid under the mask. When Doc Ock returns to capture him, all those people who were previously defenseless passengers stand up against the super-villain. Of course, they prove about as effective as me with my purple belt in the 5th grade, but still it was an inspiring scene.

    Now watch as I make a smooth transition…

    In my first book, I wrote a section on the power of words. Words have power. A few spoken words can bless or haunt your children for the rest of their lives. The words you use can be positive or negative. Words can spread love or hate. Words have the power to create and destroy. You can speak words of life or you can speak words of death. And in this Information Age, words spread with greater speed and force than ever before. Everyone has the potential for incredible power today.

    That’s why I try to be responsible with my choice of words, because I want to use what power I have to uplift and inspire people. Remember, “with great power comes great responsibility.”

  • Attack of the Crab People

    Attack of the Crab People

    I’ve heard many different speakers and authors describe the phenomenon of crabs in a basket. If you put one crab into a basket, it will climb out. If you throw several crabs into a basket, then none of them are able to climb out. Because as one crab starts to climb, the other crabs grab hold of it and drag it back down to their level. A lot of us have social environments that are full of crab people.

    My last post was about “mental inertia,” so let’s talk a little bit about “social inertia” (I thought I might have actually coined that phrase but as it turns out it already has a definition at reference.com).

    You will rise or fall to about the same level as the people you spend the most time associating with. Your closest friends have the same hobbies, same level of education, probably close to the same incomes. So, if you were to attempt to change any of these things in your own life, that may cause them to get crabby and drag you back down to their level. You are breaking habits when instead of going to watch a movie, you invite them all to a motivational seminar. You are defying tradition by going to night classes on financial planning, rather than going bowling with them on Thursday nights. And they might actually turn negative on you if you start making more money than everyone else.

    Your friends might be thrilled to see you driving a brand new Mazda that you financed, but turn their noses up in disgust at your brand new Ferrari.

    Not every peer group is like this, but I’m guessing this sounds familiar to a lot of people. The world is predominantly negative, so it stands to reason that most of your friends will be negative, too. Just be prepared, if you have a goal to grow and change your current circumstances, there is the possibility that you will have to separate yourself from the crab people.