Stew Fortier
@stewfortier
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This is your annual reminder that if you type "" into your browser, it will create a new Google Doc.
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Pretty obvious that Microsoft’s OpenAI investment will go down as one of the greatest decisions in business history
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Last year, I met the guy who discovered and advised Jon Stewart, Bill Maher, and just about every other famous comedian.
He utterly blew my mind with how he guided them early on in their careers to find their “signature move.”
Here’s everything he shared 👇
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I bought a Chromebook to help me write more.
I set it up to minimize distractions – no Slack, no email, no Twitter. Just a man and a text editor.
The result?
Literally nothing changed. Dear God this was an enormous waste of money.
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One theme in all of Bill’s advice was to deeply and consciously know and trust what makes you different.
Bill signed off our call with this epic line:
“You have to find your own rainbow to follow. There is no gold at the end of somebody else’s rainbow.”
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Hill I will die on: reading a physical book is 1,000x superior to reading the same thing on a screen of any kind.
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Writing Twitter, I come bearing gifts...
I’ve been working with former editors from The New York Times and The Hustle on a lightweight editing guide.
It’s a simple, high-impact checklist you can use to edit your work like a pro.
RT this or reply below & I’ll DM it to you.
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Easily one of my favorite books of all time… great writing tells the truth & there are few business books as honest as this one.
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One theme in all of Bill’s advice was to deeply and consciously know and trust what makes you different.
Bill signed off our call with this epic line:
“You have to find your own rainbow to follow. There is no gold at the end of somebody else’s rainbow.”
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What’s a book that’s had a meaningful, tangible impact on your life?
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Bill was convinced that Jon was so sharp and likable that people would love him for him. Plain and simple.
Bill told Jon:
“You are not the vehicle for your material, your material is the vehicle for you.”
Here’s the impact Jon said that had on his career:
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Introducing Type –
An AI-first document editor that helps you write remarkably fast.
Writing with Type is like sculpting. Type generates high-quality text that you can effortlessly refine in a beautiful doc editor.
🪄
Invites go out today! (1/6)
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I asked GPT-3 to generate a 911 transcript where
@paulg
reports that a startup has died.
The results are stunning and hilarious.
"Yes, just before it died it was saying things like 'servers are not needed anymore' and 'this is good for humanity'"
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I've edited nearly 100 blog posts this year -- some for well-known writers, others for promising new writers.
I've noticed a few writing pitfalls that are amazingly similar across both groups.
Here are the 5 most common writing "mistakes" I see.
Thread time! 👇
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@Jack_Raines
Appreciate this, Jack. I’m starting to notice letters everywhere now. Pretty cool
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Bill was convinced that Jon was so sharp and likable that people would love him for him. Plain and simple.
Bill told Jon:
“You are not the vehicle for your material, your material is the vehicle for you.”
Here’s the impact Jon said that had on his career:
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Update: glad to see this resonate with so many people.
Whenever I come across stories like this, I typically send them out in my newsletter:
In related news, I just emailed Bill & am going to do lunch with him next week. I'll report back with a story...
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Writing Twitter, I come bearing gifts...
Last year, I worked w/ former editors from The New York Times and The Hustle on a lightweight editing guide to help you edit like a pro.
The Foster community just refined it & it's even better now.
RT or reply & I’ll DM you the link :)
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Lord grant me the confidence of somebody with 76 twitter followers giving audience-building advice
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I'm totally convinced that the less judgmental you are, the faster you learn.
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With that, The Comedy Cellar was born.
Bill paid comedians well. He let them order anything on the menu they wanted. He set up a VIP table for them.
He even vetted audience members and wouldn’t let in drunk idiots.
Soon, every comic in NYC wanted to perform there.
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Born into poverty in pre-war Scotland, Logan Roy rose to build a $46 billion media empire.
When asked recently what caused his meteoric rise, his answer was simple:
"My Notion setup."
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@royr
Fairly certain a 10,000% return on $1B of capital gets you qualified for the hall of fame
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For some messages, ending on a period is too serious. But an exclamation point is too much. We must invent a new punctuation mark.
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Pleased to announce I will be taking a break from mental health to focus on my tweeting
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With that, The Comedy Cellar was born.
Bill paid comedians well. He let them order anything on the menu they wanted. He set up a VIP table for them.
He even vetted audience members and wouldn’t allow in drunk idiots.
Soon, every comic in NYC wanted to perform there.
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I've now asked 30+ successful newsletter writers how they got their first 1,000 subscribers.
Their answers are amazingly similar.
Here's how to go from 0 to 1K subscribers (thread):
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Jon was a bartender at a Mexican restaurant down the street who came in to perform one night.
He completely tanked, but Bill saw potential.
He told Jon to come back the next night and to hold the mic instead of keeping it on the stand.
He needed to loosen up.
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Those were just three of the comics that found their footing at The Comedy Cellar.
There were countless more, including:
•
@SarahKSilverman
•
@chrisrock
•
@michelleisawolf
•
@JewdyGold
•
@davechappelle
•
@attell
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So he did something genius.
He found a restaurant in Greenwich Village that had a basement and made a pitch to the owner:
Let me start a comedy club in your basement. I’ll keep the cover charge, you keep the food and drink sales.
The owner said yes.
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Currently reading
@ElieNYC
's book. I wish more people wrote like this – razor-sharp, witty, honest. Zero ambiguity on what he actually thinks.
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Bill was now at the center of the NYC comedy scene.
He was still doing some standup himself, but he started to realize that his real superpower was identifying talent.
He began advising the comics that he thought were great.
Jon Stewart was one of them.
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Ah, finally. Slack killed email. And replaced it with 25 never-ending conversations that I'm always late to.
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Language can never capture the full human experience, but that's what makes writing so much fun.
It's a game: how much of the human experience can I capture with words?
The delight is in surprising yourself and realizing it's more than you think.
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I have decided that my fear of being disliked is making my tweets too boring and I will be turning up the spice from here on out
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So he did something genius.
He found a restaurant in Greenwich Village that had a basement and made a pitch to the owner:
Let me start a comedy club in your basement. I’ll keep the cover charge, you keep the food and drink sales.
The owner said yes.
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Bill was now at the center of the NYC comedy scene.
He was still doing some standup himself, but he started to realize that his real superpower was identifying talent.
He began advising the comics that he thought were great.
Jon Stewart was one of them.
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Ray and his manager took the advice.
Ray doubled down on the family man image and played into it every chance he got.
The result is TV sitcom history...
CBS noticed and picked him up for what became Everybody Loves Raymond, a show centered on him as the supreme family man.
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Jon was a bartender at a Mexican restaurant down the street who came in to perform one night.
He completely tanked, but Bill saw potential.
He told Jon to come back the next night and to hold the mic instead of keeping it on the stand.
He needed to loosen up.
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Writing and publishing regularly is so difficult that I'm convinced if you just don't quit, you are virtually guaranteed some level of success
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@isadwatson
It’s so dumb. Doubly so because a lot of them have those degrees themselves and work with people they met at school 🙈
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Thrilled to announce
@typewithai
's $2.8M seed round, with participation from
@ycombinator
and a number of other incredible funds and angels.
Here's a transparent look at Type's mission, product, and our plan to expand our team in New York:
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First, the backstory:
In the ‘80s, every comedy club in NYC treated comedians horribly.
They barely paid them. They made them order food off a separate, cheaper menu. They’d let in drunk hecklers to every show.
One of these underpaid, exhausted comics was Bill Grundfest.
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Recently learned that the 5-Hour Energy founder (now a billionaire) created energy shots because he didn't want to compete in crowded refrigerators.
He used the exact same ingredients as other drinks, but positioned them differently.
His "innovation" was escaping competition.
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Like Jon Stewart, Ray was super likable – but in a different way.
He was a blue-collar family man, a loyal husband, a good father.
Bill met with Ray and told him:
“Get rid of any material that doesn’t support the idea that you are a standup husband and dad.”
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Another comedian he spotted early on was Bill Maher.
At the time, most political “jokes” were a series of political opinions with a half-baked punchline slapped onto the end.
But Bill realized that Maher was different:
His *observations themselves* were hilarious.
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That conversation planted the seed for Maher’s first show, Politically Incorrect.
Politically Incorrect revolved entirely around Maher's superpower: merciless, funny political observations.
After 3 years, it became Comedy Central’s highest-rated series.
The rest is history.
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I interview successful online writers.
Some are doing $1M+ in revenue – others have built six-figure audiences.
No two succeeded in the same way.
Here's one quote + one lesson from each (thread):
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@michaelrwolfe
IMO it's slightly less about the cash and more about embracing AI wholeheartedly & partnering with the best company in the space (fairly certain they got exclusive licensing rights for lots of OpenAI tech)
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Bill thought the whole thing was corrupt.
These clubs were building their businesses off the backs of these comedians.
He decided he’d start a new comedy club that treated comics with respect.
There was just one obvious problem: he was completely broke.
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Maher still didn’t realize that was his superpower yet, so he took a job hosting a new late-night talk show called Nightshift.
Two months in, he was fired and replaced.
Bill told him:
“You got fired because tons of other comedians can do that job. You were replaceable.”
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THREAD: the internet has given us unprecedented leverage to annoy each other.
Here are some ways to be insufferable on Twitter.
Let's please stop doing these things asap:
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One more: Ray Romano.
Ray performed a ton at The Comedy Cellar.
He found some early success as a standup comic, but eventually plateaued.
He became stuck as a semi-successful comic without much room to grow.
But Bill knew he could get way bigger.
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if you want to discover yourself, starting a company is 100x more effective than backpacking through Asia
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Like Jon Stewart, Ray was super likable -- but in a different way.
He was a blue-collar family man, a loyal husband, a good father.
Bill met with Ray and told him:
“Get rid of any material that doesn’t support the idea that you are a standup husband and dad.”
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That conversation planted the seed for Maher’s first show, Politically Incorrect.
Politically Incorrect revolved entirely around Maher's superpower: merciless, funny political observations.
After 3 years, it became Comedy Central’s highest-rated series.
The rest is history.
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Final update: I had a 3-hour lunch with Bill yesterday.
Here are my non-exhaustive highlights:
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Another comedian he spotted early on was Bill Maher.
At the time, most political “jokes” were a series of political observations with a half-baked punchline slapped onto the end.
But Bill realized that Maher was different:
His *observations themselves* were hilarious.
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There is no correlation between how elaborate somebody’s note-taking system is and how interesting their writing is.
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@liminal_warmth
- The vast majority of capable people aren’t actively trying to get rich. Little competition
- Fear of failure is the 800-pound gorilla that holds most capable people back
- Entrepreneurs don’t build skills then pursue a “career” — they pursue opportunities, then develop skills
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I want to cry every time I check the online communities I joined this time last year.
Most of them are now barren wastelands.
Some thoughts on why online communities fail... 🧶
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Ray and his manager took the advice.
Ray doubled down on the family man image and played into it every chance he got.
The result is TV sitcom history...
CBS noticed and picked him up for what became Everybody Loves Raymond, a show centered on him as the supreme family man.
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@kylewestaway
They invested $1B circa 2019. Not sure about valuation, but I'm sure it already looks cheap :)
They're apparently looking to increase their position, too:
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Paging my fellow AI content nerds – if you've ever paid for a product like Jasper or CopyAI, send me a DM. I want to give you early access to a new thing.
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Maher still didn’t realize that was his superpower yet, so he took a job hosting a new late-night talk show called Nightshift.
Two months in, he was fired and replaced.
Bill told him:
“You got fired because tons of other comedians can do that job. You were replaceable.”
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It is time we rebrand the neurotypical as the neurobasic. You all are the pumpkin spice latte of neurology
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For anybody who wants the recording of the call, you can either apply to
@CompoundWriting
or subscribe to my newsletter (I'll send it out next Tuesday):
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This will forever fascinate me:
In 2013, a group of researchers studied one of the last hunter-gatherer tribes in the Philippines.
The most sought-after skill was not hunting, gathering, fishing, etc.
It was storytelling.
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First, the backstory:
In the ‘80s, every comedy club in NYC treated comedians horribly.
They barely paid them. They made them order food off a separate, cheaper menu. They’d let in drunk hecklers to every show.
One of these underpaid, exhausted comics was Bill Grundfest.
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*CHANGE OF PLANS!*
I'm afraid I won't get to everybody.
Submit your email using the link below and you'll automatically get the guide:
(thanks for the idea
@tclep
!)
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God, I love Twitter.
@thesamparr
tweets about a site that’s doing $25m/year in revenue. Somebody asks for more info. The founder of the site replies with an essay explaining exactly how their business works. Magic 🪄
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If you love writing and think like an entrepreneur, the next decade is going to be pretty great for you
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Bill thought the whole thing was corrupt.
These clubs were building their businesses off the backs of these comedians.
He decided he’d start a new comedy club that treated comics with respect.
There was just one obvious problem: he was completely broke.
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The biggest lie you were taught about writing in school is that if you write something, people will read it.
Nope. If it's boring, nobody will.
Here are some writing tips I shared at Y Combinator yesterday:
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Pieces of writing produced with zero productivity software:
• The Bible
• The Qur'an
• The Odyssey
• Tao Te Ching
• Plato's Republic
• Origin of Species
• Communist Manifesto
• The Wealth of Nations
• Declaration of Independence
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This quote is now 50 years old. What are some new skills you'd add?
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One more: Ray Romano.
Ray performed a ton at The Comedy Cellar.
He found some early success as a standup comic, but eventually plateaued.
He became stuck as a semi-successful comic without much room to grow.
But Bill knew he could get way bigger.
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After spending 18 months trying to figure out how writers succeed online, I've concluded:
• There is no formula
• If you succeed, it will probably be in your own weird, special way
• Showing up semi-consistently is probably the biggest thing that matters
What would you add?
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Picking a single, lifelong career feels like an impossible task for me.
Alternative strategy: live a dozen lives.
Anything meaningful takes 5 years to do.
If we start working at 20, that’s 60 productive years — or 12 five-year blocks to do new things, then move on.
Thoughts?
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James Clear just disclosed some stats on his newsletter & they are mind-blowing:
• 1,850,000 subscribers
• 40-45% open rates
Put another way, 740,000+ people read his work each week.
I had to Google what an audience that big looks like. It’s all of these photos combined.
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Who's a writer that you'll drop everything to read when they publish something new?
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The careers that are most competitive when you're 20 turn out to be some of the least satisfying when you’re 30.
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One measure of any relationship is how many textures of laughter you've heard in the other person
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I would pay unlimited money for somebody to teach me how to open my laptop, do the one thing I opened it to do, and then shut it.
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Without question, one of the most valuable things I did this year was learn the basics of copywriting.
It's like writing with cheat codes on.
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Here's the morning routine that's helped me co-found multiple startups:
- Begrudgingly wake up to alarm
- Scroll Twitter for 20 minutes in bed
- Allow guilt + anxiety to get me moving
- Eat Costco oatmeal
- Chug cheap coffee
Any questions? 😂
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The Internet is going to be so much more rad and vibrant as people realize they're just as smart as their favorite influencer & should probably be sharing more
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It's becoming pretty clear that technology doesn't help us work less and instead just raises the bar on what we're expected to do.
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I've been reading the notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci.
If he were still alive, I'm pretty sure he'd have the most popular Substack on the Internet.
A few choice quotes:
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The ultimate competitive advantage is actually giving a shit about the problem you're working on.
When Airbnb had just a few dozen employees, Rocket Internet raised $90 million and hired hundreds of people to clone and crush them.
Here's how that went.
My final atomic essay:
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I've now asked 30+ successful newsletter writers how they got their first 1,000 subscribers.
Their answers are all similar.
Here's how to go from 0 to 1K subscribers (thread):
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Twitter reliably generates opportunities that Linkedin never could because it revolves around ideas, not pedigree.
How somebody thinks is a better predictor of virtually everything when compared to where they went to school.
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1. Long, throat-clearing intros.
Don't be the food blogger who starts off a fried chicken recipe with a 2,000-word backstory on their grandma.
"Ol' Granny Hellen sure loved chickens growing up..."
Nobody cares. They want the recipe.
Cut the fluff & get to your idea or a hook.
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