Dominic Vaiana

I Replied to Spam to Make an Example Out of Lazy Journalism

I never thought the act of blogging in itself would become the subject of my writing, but I couldn’t resist sharing this.

One of the most effective tactics in building an online readership is guest posting, that is, writing for other people’s sites in hopes that you absorb some of their readership – this is easier said than done. There’s millions of blogs, but finding one that’s influential and agrees to let you write for them takes persistence. But of course, there’s a way to cheat the system.

Here’s how I (almost) got duped.

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I was excited when I first saw that email from Scott Davis. I thought I’d reached a new level: people want to post their stuff on my site.

Wrong.

Whoever sent that email didn’t read one word of my site. They didn’t know my name or what I write about. In fact, the sender probably wasn’t even a real person.

After some research, I determined that “Scott” was actually a content management system (CMS), a type of software widely used for web-based publishing. It’s essentially a shortcut for people looking to get viewers, but are too lazy to send an authentic email.

I guess if you throw a million darts, one of them is bound to hit the bull’s eye.

But instead of deleting spam like a normal human, I decided to toy with the system. It was a blast. Below is my response to “Scott’s” original email. reply1

Unfortunately, the robot couldn’t read. Not only did he (it?) ignore my slew of insults, but tried again to scam me. Little did the operator of this service know that setting automated replies would only further clarify my example. reply2

Thanks, “Scott.” You’re the poster boy for spam and lazy publishing.

Perhaps some day I’ll be one of those cool bloggers with dozens of guest posting requests. But until then I’m stuck publicly shaming the ones trying to cheat the system.

Dominic Vaiana studies writing and media strategy at Xavier University. His personal articles, essays, interviews, and book recommendations are sent in his bimonthly newsletter. For questions or comments, email dominicvaiana@gmail.com.

One Year Ago, I Learned How to Read

“And for homework…read 75 pages from the book that the school says you have to read, no matter how irrelevant, outdated, or disengaged from your interests it is.”

High school corrupted reading for my generation. It took something fascinating and tainted it by eliminating our options, then asking us to regurgitate information on a test. Who cares if you can apply it to real life, right?

I graduated in 2014 and swore to myself I’d never waste my time reading in college. I didn’t want to waste my time in the library sifting through hundreds of pages like I my mom or grandparents did.

But one year ago, I unintentionally rewired my brain.

During the fall of my sophomore year, a mentor of mine suggested that I research the work of media guru Ryan Holiday to supplement what I was learning in my PR and marketing classes. That same night, I stumbled upon his controversial book Trust Me I’m Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator. I wasn’t ready for what would happen within the next week.

After receiving my package from Amazon and scanning the pages of my new book, I noticed something strange: I was eager to read it. But how, after years of rejecting the idea of reading, had my attitude changed so quickly?

I didn’t come up with a solid answer to this question until this week, which prompted me to write what you’re reading right now: you don’t know how to read until you do it for yourself, not for a grade or external validation. Trust Me I’m Lying resonated with my personal interests and nobody forced me to read it. That’s how reading should be. It’s like working out – it sucks when someone’s over your shoulder telling you when, where, and how to do it. But once you do it for it’s own sake, you can appreciate it with a new perspective. This, however, is only the start.

Many devout readers have a root book – one that inspired them to make reading a habit, not a chore. TMIL is the root of nearly every book I’ve read over the past year. Its “further reading” section, bibliography, and endorsers all led me to the books that ended up shaping my life. Once you find your root, something clicks. You crave more, your brain makes connections on its own, and material overlaps. One book leads to another, and soon enough you’re down the rabbit hole, never turning back.

I’m often asked why I don’t buy ebooks or audiobooks to save money. The thing about physical books is that you can reference them, take notes, share them, see patterns, and track your progress. Twitter and iMessage aren’t a click away with a hard copy.

Of course, some books will disappoint and seem impossible to engage with. Just as an investor has to know when to cut his losses, a reader should be able to do the same. It’s okay to be wrong; in fact, there’s an old rule for this: read 100 pages minus your age (if you’re 20 years old, read 80 pages). If it’s not adding value to your life by that point, put it down.

Your high school English teacher would probably cringe at that rationale, but it ties back to the lesson that put me on a new, better path a year ago: I couldn’t read because I wasn’t doing it for myself. Read what keeps you reading, read what makes you better. Nobody is watching.

P.S. If you’re looking for a place to start, I send a newsletter with book recommendations twice per month. I’ll start you off with my “5 Books to Base Your Life On.” Just click this link or send me an email: dominicvaiana@gmail.com

Dominic Vaiana studies writing and media strategy at Xavier University. He founded a campus newspaper and went on to advise, ghostwrite, and edit for colleagues and startups. His personal articles, essays, interviews, and book recommendations are sent in his bimonthly newsletter. For any questions or comments, email dominicvaiana@gmail.com.

How Ryan Holiday Made an Ancient Philosophy Cool

Ryan Holiday built his reputation by being one of the most hated and controversial figures in the media industry. As American Apparel’s marketing director, he ran some of the most provocative ad campaigns of the decade, including one featuring a half-naked elderly woman. He started fake boycott groups and destroyed his own billboards just for the publicity, then exposed all of it in his book Trust Me I’m Lying – all before he turned 25.

Holiday, now 29, has made more high-stakes decisions than most professionals will make in a lifetime. Your typical twenty-something would have cracked under the pressure. But your typical twenty-something also doesn’t practice an ancient Greek philosophy known as Stoicism. ryan-holliday

For most, the word philosophy conjures up images of stuffy intellectuals and thick textbooks filled with obscure discourses that complicate life instead of simplifying it. Stoicism, however, differs from lecture-room philosophy in one distinct sense: it’s purpose is for practical application, not endless intellectual debate. Its practices enable us to control our emotions and discipline our mind. To sum up its rationale in one sentence: we cannot choose what happens to us, but we can choose how we respond.

Although Stoicism originated over 2,000 years ago, it proves to be more functional than the barrage of self-help courses and success gurus of the 21^st century. Until recently, it was severely underappreciated in the world of business, sports, and everyday life. Ryan Holiday, however, would change that.

For the past 10 years, Holiday has studied, written about, and applied Stoicism to his own life. He has leveraged his audience gained through his marketing skills and edgy writing to resurrect a nearly-forgotten philosophy and create a cult-like following around it. This transition from business to philosophy raised a few eyebrows, but nonetheless solidified his reputation as one of today’s prominent writers and thinkers.

Following the release of Trust Me I’m Lying, Portfolio Penguin was reluctant to accept Holiday’s proposal to write a book about a relatively unknown philosophy. Nevertheless, he took a pay cut in order to fulfill his calling to write the book that would give Stoicism the prominence that it rightly deserved. The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph was released in May 2014, and its wisdom quickly circulated worldwide. Within months, the book made its way into the hands of Arnold Schwarzenegger and LL Cool J as well as the locker rooms of the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks. Suddenly, Stoicism was no longer reserved for library dwellers, but for entrepreneurs, athletes, and politicians.

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But a book simply describing Stoicism wouldn’t have reached such a vast audience. Holiday brought Stoicism to life by relating its principles to the lives of iconic figures such as Steve Jobs, John D. Rockefeller, and Amelia Earhart – human beings just like us who thrived in spite of unfortunate circumstances. And while Obstacle dealt with Stoicism in relation to external obstacles, it would only be fitting for Ryan to follow it up with a book that used Stoicism to combat the greatest internal obstacle: ego.

One of the most highly-anticipated books of 2016, Ego Is the Enemy debuted as an international bestseller. A treatise on the hazards of our own mind, Ego further progressed the transformation of Ryan the media manipulator into Ryan the strategist and intellectual – and his audience didn’t hesitate one bit to stand by his side.

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Waves of new Stoic fans (pardon the irony) have emerged seemingly from nowhere. The subreddit r/Stoicism now has over 36 thousand readers. Holiday has given talks about Stoicism to teams such as the Texas Rangers and the University of Alabama football team. Fans constantly post pictures of themselves with Obstacle and Ego on Twitter and Instagram. Books, philosophical ones in particular, are finally cool because he actually made them with the reader in mind. And just when you thought he would rest on his reputation as a bestselling author, Holiday decided to contribute once more to the movement he started in 2014.

The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living, set to release this week, is a daily devotional of Stoic insights and exercises, featuring new translations from Stoic icons like Marcus Aurelius, Seneca, Epictetus and more. This new work has already garnered more media attention than other philosophical writers could dream of, and if Holiday’s prior work is any indication of what’s to come, he’s sure to attract even more enthusiasts.

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It would be easy for someone such as Holiday to let early success get to his head, but living out the Stoic principles that he teaches is perhaps what has enabled him to produce such a large body of work. He has managed to eschew the limelight and make superior-quality work his priority.

Ryan Holiday lives in the real world, not inside his own head like thinkers of old. He wears jeans and button-downs, not upscale suits. His tone is relaxed and conversational, not self-righteous or preachy. It’s undeniable that Holiday revived Stoicism and influenced thousands in the process, but whether his books stand the test of time is what will ultimately determine his legacy.

Dominic Vaiana studies writing and media strategy at Xavier University. He founded a campus newspaper and went on to advise, ghostwrite, and edit for colleagues and startups. His personal articles, essays, interviews, and book recommendations are sent in his bimonthly newsletter. For any questions or comments, email dominicvaiana@gmail.com.

I Don’t Know: The Humbling Phrase You Probably Don’t Use Enough

This article originally ran on The Good Men Project

I’m sure it was agonizing to watch.

I writhed in humiliation, scanning my mind for some scrap of an idea to prove that I knew enough to answer my professor’s unnecessarily-complex question. After a series of “um’s” and “I think’s” followed by some off-topic answer, I had a subtle yet liberating realization.

I could have simply said, “I don’t know.”

But wait, “I don’t know” connotes laziness and indifference – I’m supposed to be better than that. Of course, this is what our ego tells us: that we need the answer now, and if we can’t formulate an answer out of thin air we’re unintelligent.

It’s time to call bullshit on this.

Used strategically, “I don’t know” is a tool of humility, and ultimately a tool of power. The moral philosopher Publilius Syrus once said that it’s better to be ignorant of a matter than half know it, and there’s a reason why that saying survived over 2,000 years. Scrambling for answers to questions we’re unprepared to answer not only makes us look dumber than if we admitted ignorance, it makes us look insecure as well. Too often our ambition often seizes us and we indebt ourselves to opinions that we’re unqualified to defend.

Fortunately, we have this alternative.

The idea that you don’t have to pull an answer out of your ass is freeing. It saves you from weak answers that start with “I hope,” “maybe,” probably,” and “I think.” You’re off the hook. And after five minutes, nobody will care or remember that you said “I don’t know.”

But what do we really mean when we say we don’t know? Not that we’re devoid of ideas or theories – everyone has their two cents. “I don’t know” is an easier way to communicate that that you haven’t tested your assumptions enough to make a compelling case. It isn’t an excuse for not learning, it’s buying time to learn more.

Certainly, there’s something to be said for contributing to group discussions and brainstorming. But we cross into dangerous territory when we place too much confidence in ourselves and forget how difficult it is to be truly sure.

That impulse to be sure is perpetually enabled by a world that values instant gratification. It takes constant effort to rewire our brains, come down to earth, and embrace humility.

“I don’t know” is underrated. It’s like your 5^th Amendment right for daily conversation. Let the others aimlessly run their mouths until the dust has settled – until you know.

Dominic Vaiana studies writing and media strategy at Xavier University. He founded a campus newspaper and later went on to advise, ghostwrite, and edit for colleagues and startups. His personal articles, essays, interviews, and book recommendations are sent in his bimonthly newsletter. For any questions or comments, email dominicvaiana@gmail.com.

Your News Feed Consists of Garbage, and It’s Your Fault

I wrote this out of frustration and disgust when the “top headlines” of my day involved Kim Kardashian’s see-through dress, bacon-wrapped tater tots, and mannequins that got breast enhancements. What follows is a critique of our broken media culture and a shaming of a society that values clickbait over reality and suffocates dignity and logic.

Those clickable headlines I mentioned are fun in the same way that eating Cheetos is fun: it’s convenient, easy, and we can’t seem to get enough. And just as too many Cheetos cause our bodies to become lethargic and gross, so too does media junk food have the same effect on our brains. If you’re a frequenter of online media, you know that clickbait and gossip drive the agenda – but how did we get here in the first place?

Try to determine which of these headlines were from the late 1800s and which were trending online last week.

“Couldn’t Sell His Ear, Old Man Shoots Himself”

“Is There a Right Way to Get Naked?”

“Owl Frightens Woman to Death in Hospital”

“You’ve Been Shaving Wrong This Whole Time”

“War Will Be Declared in Fifteen Minutes”

“How Fancy Can You Decorate a Bedroom for $200?”

People today are suckers for the same slop they were over 100 years ago: lies, exaggeration, and overly-sensationalized “news.” The only difference today is that those headlines glare at you from your iPhone screen instead of being yelled at you on a busy street corner.

We get tired of real life stories. Real life is harsh, complicated, and requires us to stop and think. So instead, we immerse ourselves in a fantasy land of celebrity slideshows and sped-up cooking videos.

The genuine, thought-provoking journalists and stories that we desperately need are out there. So why can’t they rise to the top where they belong? Well, basically because of people like you (and me).

As you can imagine, the industry is a slave to money. But how do blogs such as Buzzfeed, Gawker, Elite Daily, and Total Frat Move generate so much cash? It’s not through subscriptions like The New York Times or The Wall Street Journal. Blogs make money from selling ads, usually at a rate of 1,000 impressions. The publisher’s revenue equals the cumulative cost per thousand impressions (CPM) multiplied by the number of pageviews. Bottom line, views equals cash. And every time you click, you put a little more money in the pockets of the scam artists.

But of course, these calculations mean nothing unless there’s something shiny to entice us. Algorithms continuously troll the web for lucrative search terms that are hot at the time. The popular sites you follow then create, listicles, quizzes, and “articles” based on those search terms, cap them off with a clickbait-y title, and hit “publish.” Whether the information is important, helpful, or accurate is irrelevant. What matters is speed and quantity. You can think of it as a digital sweatshop.

So there you have it – that’s how your media sausage is made. How you choose to interpret this information is up to you. This is the culture in which I was brought up, and the only solution seems to be developing awareness to navigate around the bullshit and stop funding corrupt media with clicks. I have seen too many promising writers and thinkers go into journalism, only to be consumed by the slowly rotting system of pageview-centric garbage that is online media.

What’s left is a generation that can’t think independently or distinguish truth from opinion. Maybe you think you’re not affected by the system. I hope this is true, though it probably isn’t.

The Cheetos of the Internet will always be out there – you can’t avoid them. But it’s never too late to go on a diet.

Dominic Vaiana studies writing and media strategy at Xavier University. He founded a campus newspaper and later went on to advise, ghostwrite, and edit for colleagues and startups. His biweekly newsletter with his personal articles, essays, interviews, and book recommendations can be found here. For questions or comments, email dominicvaiana@gmail.com.

Thriving In A Dying Industry: An Interview With One Of Today’s Prominent Editors

james Many people claim to be writers, but few are as immersed in the craft as James Ranson. A writer and editor for over 18 years, James has partnered with several publishing experts to create The Master Wordsmith, a team that turns ideas into profitable masterpieces. He is also an editor for Tucker Max’s Book in a Box publishing group. In addition to working on several Wall Street Journal and Amazon bestselling books, James has edited multiple articles for The Huffington Post and Good Men Project, among other sites. I’ve been fortunate to have James as a resource over the past months, and I’m happy to share some of the lessons he’s taught me. I recently interviewed James – here is our conversation.

It seems like some of the greatest writers, both past and present, don’t necessarily choose to become writers. Their experiences take them on an indirect path where they stumble upon writing. Did you set out to be a writer or has it been a complex process?

Definitely a complex process. When I was a kid I dreamed of being a fantasy author like Brian Jacques or Terry Brooks, but for many years after that I wanted to be a professional singer. It wasn’t until halfway through college that I realized I loved performing in groups way more than performing as a soloist, and that while all my other singer friends were treating voice and acting practice as a break from other work, I was treating them as work that I took breaks from to read books. So while I kept singing in groups for fun, I started moving back in the direction of writing as a career, which led me to everything from publishing an academic paper at a national conference, to writing grants for three opera companies, to building up a freelance editing business into The Master Wordsmith’s current state, and even starting to write my own (nonfiction) books.

A fear exists among young adults that they can’t make a career out of writing anymore. What are your thoughts on this?

Well, it’s tough to make a career out of writing the way our parents did, that’s for sure. Being a professor in academia, a reporter for a newspaper, a book/music/film reviewer, an editor in a publishing company, or even a book author–these things don’t work the way they used to. Many of those industries are dead or dying, many of them have way more applicants than there are jobs or opportunities, and many of them don’t provide full-time jobs with benefits anymore at all. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t find or build a writing career, only that you need to look at it from a different angle. I know several people who make good money writing articles for websites, or sales copy to help businesses sell their products. I also know many businesspeople and entrepreneurs who have used writing to grow their businesses, either by writing blogs, guest posts, books, or all of the above. The big difference now is that instead of writing something first and then trying to find people to read it, most successful present-day writers first find people who either need things written or need a written solution to their problems, and then write the things those people need to read. That takes some work, and often a significant mindset shift, but it’s very doable.

What are some tactics that people can implement to make their own writing more compelling?

1. Tell stories. No one wants to hear me talk about the five reasons you need to hire a great editor, but everyone will sit up and listen when I remember the time a prospective client was in tears on the phone with me because three different bad editors had screwed up her book draft and she didn’t believe it was any good anymore.

2. Read your writing out loud before anyone else sees it. If it doesn’t SOUND good, it won’t read well.

3. Clarity is king. Never assume that just because YOU understand something, your audience will understand how you write about it. As Denzel Washington said in the film Philadelphia: “Explain it to me like I’m a six-year-old.”

4. Write about things you’re excited about! Readers can tell when you’re writing bored almost as easily as cops can tell when you’re driving drunk.

5. Work with the best damn editor you can afford. If that means buying your English major roommate a six-pack every week, do it. If it means paying someone like me four or five figures, do it. Don’t fall into the trap of choosing quick and cheap editing for the sake of saving time or money. You’ll have to take more time and pay more money to fix a bad editing job later.

What is your most valuable trait as a writer?

I call myself The Master Wordsmith professionally because it sounds impressive and authoritative, and because I coach and guide people to create masterpiece books. But I also chose that name because it reflects one of my great writing talents: I know words intimately. I’ve spent two decades mastering them. Finding the right word, the most compelling description, the clearest explanation, the most commanding message, are like muscle memory for me. And most of my clients tell me that my words (and/or edits) say what they wanted to say, the way they wanted to say it, but better than they could have said it themselves. This ability, I believe, is what has made me most successful as an editor and ghostwriter.

What can we expect from James Ranson within the next year or so?

I just finished the first draft of my first book, called Buy Once, Cry Once: How Shortcuts Cost You In The Long Run. That will come out in early October. I also have a couple other books in the works, one about how A-students can become successful entrepreneurs, and one about a two-year road trip I took around the US, and I ultimately plan on writing 12 books on 12 different topics as quickly as is practical to still write well. I’ll also continue growing The Master Wordsmith, ideally taking on half a dozen full-package book creation clients in 2017. Other than that, I just finished visiting the lower 48 states of the US, so I’m looking forward to NOT traveling much for a while, hahaha.

I always include book recommendations in my newsletter. What are a few books that you personally recommend?

Nonfiction:

The Happiness of Pursuit, by Chris Guillebeau (actually anything by Chris is awesome), Break Through Your BS, by Derek Doepker, On Writing Well, by William Zinnsser, Better Than Before, by Gretchen Rubin, Level Up Your Life, by Steve Kamb

Fiction: The Dresden Files series, by Jim Butcher, The Phantom Tollbooth, by Norton Juster, Ready Player One, by Ernest Cline

Where can people learn more about you?

Website: themasterwordsmith.com

Facebook: masterwordsmithjames

Twitter: @themasterwords

Email: masteryourwords@gmail.com

Dominic Vaiana studies writing and media strategy at Xavier University. He founded a campus newspaper and later went on to advise, ghostwrite, and edit for colleagues and startups. His biweekly newsletter with his personal articles, essays, interviews, and book recommendations, can be found here. For any questions or comments, email dominicvaiana@gmail.com.

Taking the Long View From College (Guest Post for Hill Investment Group)

This post was originally published on Hill Investment Group’s “Our Latest Thinking” blog.

This summer we were privileged to work with a young man named Dominic. He was a huge help around the office and we miss having him here! Below you can read about his experience in his own words:

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t reluctant to join Hill Investment Group for a summer internship. My background is in public relations, media studies, and writing. I’m not even part of the Business School at Xavier University where I’m entering my junior year. In fact, finance and investing were nowhere to be found on my radar until Rick Hill walked me through a Monte Carlo Simulation during my first week at the office.

But what I found most valuable about my time at Hill Investment Group wasn’t my indirect personal finance lessons from Rick nor the investment lingo that I picked up from John Reagan. As I talk with other college students, I can’t help but notice how ego shapes their opinions about work, specifically internships. So often, the main concern is the title of the position or what type of tasks they’ll be assigned. What I’ve discovered is that valuing learning and opportunity over credit and titles opens the most doors. This was confirmed during my time at Hill.

Instead of looking at this internship as something on top of everything else in my life, I found instead that it complimented aspects of my life that I never thought possible. Because of HIG, I was able to apply the skills I’ve cultivated to a real, professional business. In addition, the HIG team taught me what it means to run a client-centered operation. They instilled in me the value of connecting to clients on a personal level – knowing the names of their kids and where they go to school, asking about family vacations, etc. Such an environment inspired me to implement the same approach into my personal life, as well as my future career.

Hill Investment Group oozes trust and confidence. I sensed this beginning with my first email exchange with John all the way through my last day when I wrote the post you’re reading right now.

As I spent more time with the team, I couldn’t help but notice that the reasons I was drawn to HIG were the same reasons I was drawn to Xavier University: a small group of loyal, purposeful individuals, maximized attention to detail, and a simplified approach to solving problems. But perhaps the most striking feature of HIG is its transparency.

I’ve heard office horror stories warning newbies to keep quiet and never interrupt “the boss.” Such a culture is nonexistent at HIG. Because team communication is so greatly emphasized, it wasn’t rare for a work project discussion to digress into a personal, real-life story. If you don’t think that’s possible or efficient, read Matt’s book Odds On: The Making of an Evidence-Based Investor.

The opportunity to work with HIG was unexpected to say the least, but oddly, it’s the unexpected things that prove to be the most valuable down the road. I don’t know where I’ll be in one, ten, or twenty years, but the tools that HIG equipped me with have prepared me to take on life with purpose and fortitude.

I’m proud to say that I take the long view.

Dominic Vaiana studies writing and media strategy at Xavier University. He founded a campus newspaper and later went on to advise, ghostwrite, and edit for colleagues and startups. His biweekly newsletter with his personal articles, essays, interviews, and book recommendations, can be found here. For any questions or comments, email dominicvaiana@gmail.com.

4 Productivity Hacks Every College Student Needs This Year

This post was originally published on Laura Vanderkam’s personal website, which was a great honor. Laura is the author of several time management and productivity books, including What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast, and 168 Hours. She has appeared in publications including The New York Times and The Today Show.

As a college student, I dislike the phrase “time management.” Time management implies that I’m obliged to find time for everything – to juggle a multitude of tasks and force space for an endless list of responsibilities. I’ve been fortunate to have great mentors in my life whose lessons I’ve applied over the past two years at Xavier University. In regards to productivity, I’ve found that the most effective strategy involves more of cutting things out of my day and less of making space for what people put on my plate. Here are four tactics I’ve used that have enabled me to stay on the Dean’s List, start a newspaper, compete in Division I track, and enjoy myself.

Sleep. College glorifies the all-nighter. We like the story about the guy who got an A on his final paper after slamming six Red Bulls in the library at 4 a.m. Nobody hears about the guy who wrote his paper over the span of a week and received the same grade, even though he didn’t look like a zombie the morning it was due.

The belief that you need to sacrifice sleep to increase productivity is nonsense. Functioning on less than 7-8 hours of sleep per night in college is not only detrimental to performance, it’s not sustainable. When work impedes sleep, poor planning is to blame – not superior will power. For the students who brag about their long hours and minimal rest, it isn’t their performance that keeps them going. It’s just ego and obstinacy.

If I find myself studying late, I’ll stop in order to get optimal sleep. This not only allows me to reap the results of increased productivity and wellness, but also saves money because I don’t need coffee to get me through the day. Ample sleep also eliminates the need for naps which slow momentum. There’s an extra hour added to your day (or more depending on your napping habits).

The 80/20 Principle. Formulated over 100 years ago, this principle states that 80% of our outputs result from 20% of our inputs. My study habits during my first semester of college were disorganized and ineffective. After reading about the 80/20 principle, I dissected my study habits and determined which 20% of my study techniques resulted in (roughly) 80% of my retention of material. I ditched flash cards and study groups and amplified my reading and hand-written notes.

The 80/20 Principle applies to activities as well. College counselors often advise students to join an arbitrary number of clubs or organizations – this is useless. Instead, determine which one or two activities make you the happiest and push you to be your best. Bottom line, if it’s not making you significantly better, drop it.

Set deadlines – even if they aren’t real. Without deadlines, even minor tasks will consume time. We lament and dread how awful the paper will be until the next assignment inevitably pops up. Thus the cycle repeats, and at the end of the day nothing is accomplished.

Parkinson’s Law states that work expands to fill the time available for it (and, correspondingly, a task’s perceived importance will swell in relation to the time allotted for its completion). In other words, by creating deadlines for ourselves we rise to the occasion and get things done on time.

With deadlines, you don’t have the luxury of telling your friends how much you hate a class or project. Instead, you just get it done. Deadlines force us to become creative and come up with new ideas constantly. Used in conjunction with the 80/20 Principle, we not only determine which techniques are the most effective, we do them efficiently as well. The result is freedom and structure.

Batching. Without a schedule, laundry either gets done intermittently throughout the week or in one humongous, time-consuming load each month. Food gets bought on an as-needed basis and cooking is done one meal at a time. Email gets checked sporadically during the day.

The antidote is batching. That is, allotting a specific time each day, week, or month for a specific task so time isn’t squandered repeating it more than necessary.

Example: exercise at 9 a.m., study at 7 p.m., laundry on Fridays, groceries on Sundays, etc. Batching can be applied to virtually anything in college: eating, cleaning, sleeping, and more. Not only will this free up time in your schedule, you’ll also have peace of mind knowing that you won’t have to scramble at the last minute for anything.

Let’s end the pity party for college students who are “too busy” and “too tired.” Nobody said college wasn’t demanding or frustrating. But with sustainable tactics and a pragmatic mindset, there is no schedule that can’t be tamed.

Dominic Vaiana studies writing and media strategy at Xavier University. He founded a campus newspaper and later went on to advise, ghostwrite, and edit for colleagues and startups. His biweekly newsletter with his personal articles, essays, interviews, and book recommendations, can be found here. For any questions or comments, email dominicvaiana@gmail.com.

The Strategy That MMA Fighters And Einstein Have In Common

I didn’t know anything about mixed martial arts until I read about Frank Shamrock, one of the sport’s pioneers and arguably the most elite fighter the world has seen. But becoming the undisputed champion of such a ruthless, demanding sport doesn’t happen by chance. Shamrock implements a strategy which allowed him, and now allows many of his apprentices, to construct the ideal balance of power and humility. This is called the Plus, Minus, Equal System.

Each day in this system, the fighter must have someone better who they can learn from, someone lesser who they can teach, and someone equal who will challenge them. The rationale is simple: when one simultaneously learns, teaches, and practices, they improve their craft from all angles. This system eliminates the part of us that says we don’t need any help, it eases the fear that we are inadequate, and it kills the tendency to ease up.

The notion of always associating with someone better than you is intriguing. Normally, we would say that it makes sense to have some sort of mentor in the early stages of developing a skill. But Frank Shamrock was the number one ranked pound for pound fighter in the world – what use would he have learning from anybody else?

What allowed Shamrock to maintain his dominance was not physical talent or work ethic. It was his ability to tame his ego. Our ego tells us that once we reach some arbitrary point, be it an athletic accomplishment or a promotion, that we have somehow reached the pinnacle of the craft. In reality, no one ever completely masters anything. There is no endpoint. It’s a constant influx of new information and experiences that shapes us into better versions of ourselves.

Ryan Holiday touches on this subject in his book Ego is the Enemy with the idea of always being a student. The basis of this theory derives from Epictetus’ quote, “One cannot learn that which he thinks he already knows.” The most difficult part about applying this theory, especially if we’ve tasted success, is initially admitting that you can benefit from someone else’s knowledge.

Those who are among the elite in their craft are where they are because they are more open to learning than anybody else in their field. Say what you want about New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick, but the man has set the bar for excellence by sitting under people ahead of him. He went from intern to six-time Super Bowl Champion, yet he still dissects plays and studies game film to the nth degree every day. He never played a down of college or professional football. Compare this to the countless ex players whose coaching careers have flopped because they tried to skate by on their own experience.

The Plus, Minus, Equal System and the need for a student mindset is undeniably relevant in areas outside of sports. Aren’t the best teachers the ones who seek out new information for their class instead of repeating last year’s lessons? Aren’t the best writers the ones who read above their level to gain new perspectives? Aren’t the leading scientists the ones who stretch their comfort zone to research new methods? Businesses fail to change and adapt because they’ve lost the ability to learn. Their prosperities have told them that they no longer need to be students.

The willingness to ask questions allows us to maintain humility. Daily challenges with an opponent sharpens our skills. And when we teach our craft to a student, we see it from a different perspective and learn it more thoroughly – we become a student again and the process comes full circle.

Plus, Minus, Equal. It’s how Einstein developed the Theory of Relativity and it’s how Frank Shamrock became the undisputed fighting champion of the world.

“As our island of knowledge grows, so does the shore of our ignorance.” – John Archibald Wheeler

Dominic Vaiana studies writing and media strategy at Xavier University. He founded a campus newspaper and later went on to advise, ghostwrite, and edit for colleagues and startups. His biweekly newsletter with his personal articles, essays, interviews, and book recommendations, can be found here. For any questions or comments, email dominicvaiana@gmail.com.

The More You Talk, The Weaker You Appear: Always Say Less Than Necessary

In November of 2015, Saturday Night Live ran a skit about a fictional TV game show called Should You Chime In On This? The show’s host, Keenan Thompson, made statements about a series of hot-button topics including Syrian immigration, public breast feeding, girls playing football, and Hillary Clinton. He then asked three three dim-witted contestants whether they should chime in on these issues. All the contestants needed to do in order to win the million-dollar prize was simply answer “no” when asked if they should chime in. But of course, these microcosms of our actual society couldn’t help but interject their opinions when given even the slightest window to talk.

Aside from laughing at the contestants’ foolishness, I couldn’t help but wonder when I have acted the same way. How many times have I annoyed people by slipping in my two cents at the cost of disrupting a conversation? Do I talk just to hear myself talk even if I shouldn’t or don’t need to?

It was a wakeup call for me, and a much needed one for a college student. College is a place that begs you to talk, march, tweet, and protest – it turns into a real-life version of Should You Chime In On This. It’s as if you’re obligated to fill a void with your chatter and opinions, even if it accomplishes nothing. But I like the void. It’s cool. In fact, I purposely seek out places devoid of chatter and competing voices. One of those places is the gym, but unfortunately I now have to cross this off my already shrinking list of opinion-free zones.

The culprit was a middle-aged man who looked like the type of guy your dad was embarrassed to say he was friends with in high school. He wasn’t hesitant to pull the trigger on a conversation about how much he loved the equipment at the gym. Deciding not to be rude, I engaged with him (under the assumption that I’d slip away in a few seconds). I don’t quite remember how, but he was able to maneuver our small talk into a political rant, rattling off a list of reasons why I should vote for Donald Trump in the presidential election. Normally, I would say anyone who can make a smooth transition from dumbbells to politics was a master wordsmith. But I quickly realized he was the epitome of what I had been trying to prevent myself from becoming over the past months.

“I don’t know what’s wrong with your generation,” he said. “All this entitled stuff.”

The only thing keeping my mouth shut was remembering Keenan Thompson’s disappointed face when those contestants failed to keep their thoughts to themselves. After several minutes of nodding and attempting to escape, the conversation took a turn for the worse. He felt the need to inform me that he was divorced and that his daughter’s college tuition would be $30,000 per year. Shortly after, he happily announced that he was only legally obliged to pay $12,000, leaving his ex-wife and daughter to cover the other $18 grand. Our conversation eventually dissipated, and my lecturer climbed into his Mercedes-Benz (which was presumably worth two years of his daughter’s tuition).

Congrats, man. Now I know that you have a distorted view of our political landscape and you’re selfish.

As much as I wanted to be angry at the man, I felt sorry for him. How lonely must your life be that you’re so prepared to unleash such an onslaught of your thoughts on an unsuspecting twenty-year-old? What kind of repressed anger and resentment could cause such a desperate and irrational desire to be heard? Regardless of the answer to those questions, I had a clear illustration of what I didn’t want my life to resemble.

In 2014 I read Robert Greene’s fourth law in his book The 48 Laws of Power: “Always say less than necessary,” but I didn’t internalize it until that day at the gym. We desperately want to release the tension and excitement that’s pent up in our minds about some concept or issue. But the problem is that chatter (especially with strangers) is the wrong outlet for this. Oversharing reveals the weaknesses in our psyche before we’ve had a chance to work on them, and we come off as foolish unbeknownst to ourselves.

Excessive talking gives reassurance to the insecure. It’s abundant and free. But we neglect the cost we pay by losing productivity, and worse, wasting other people’s time. What’s scarce, however, is the ability to deliberately remove oneself from the discussion – to listen, observe, and avoid embarrassment.

What would Keenan Thompson think? Are you saying something because it needs to be said, or do you just want to be part of the conversation?

I’ll cut my writing off here before I say more than necessary.

Dominic Vaiana studies writing and media strategy at Xavier University. He founded a campus newspaper and later went on to advise, ghostwrite, and edit for colleagues and startups. His biweekly newsletter with his personal articles, essays, interviews, and book recommendations, can be found here. For any questions or comments, email dominicvaiana@gmail.com.