Episode 015 Neil Strauss

Summary

• Neil Strauss is a seventime New York Times Best Selling Author.
• He has written many books, including The Game, Emergency, The Dirt about Motley Crew, and Rules of The Game.
• He has been a Contributing Editor at Rolling Stone and a Staff Writer for The New York Times.
• Tim Ferriss and Neil Strauss discuss the creative process and how to become a creative powerhouse.
• Neil Strauss believes writer's block does not exist and is a form of performance pressure.
• He suggests having a deadline and breaking down the writing process into smaller tasks to overcome writer's block.
• Writing can be difficult due to performance anxiety
• The essence of creativity is to "**** around"
• The first draft is only for the writer and should not be shared
• The second draft is for the reader and should be filtered for what is interesting and what is boring
• The third draft is for the haters and should be factchecked and immune to criticism
• Neil Strauss discusses the concept of "haterproofing" his books, which involves writing them in a way that answers critics and questions in a fun and entertaining way.
• When writing The Game, Strauss made sure that women were not objectified and that there was an underpinning of a great story arc.
• Strauss also included culture point quotes from feminist thinkers to provide a female point of view.
• Tim Ferriss and Neil Strauss both take a similar approach to addressing criticism in their books, such as introducing assumptions and processes in the beginning of the book.
• Strauss has people come to his house to proofread his books, and he uses real names and identifying details in his first drafts before the lawyers get their hands on it.
• Neil Strauss discusses the importance of feedback and criticism when writing a book.
• He suggests using a “catcher’s mitt” metaphor to evaluate feedback: if it’s true, insert it; if it’s not true, throw it away; if it’s a ‘maybe’, show it to others and reevaluate.
• He typically has two stages of proofreading: early stage with a few people to see if it’s engaging, and a later stage with as many people as will tolerate to get as much feedback and criticism as possible.
• Tim Ferriss suggests giving proofreaders three to five chapters, and asking what their favorite and least favorite chapters are and why.
• He also suggests testing titles, but not relying solely on the results; instead, use testing as one input among intuition, expert opinion, and friends’ opinions.
• Finally, he emphasizes the importance of considering the cost of interruption when managing time.
• Tim Ferriss and Neil Strauss discuss the cost of interruption for makers, such as programmers, writers, and musicians.
• Neil Strauss recommends Freedom and Intego Family Protector as computer programs to help with time management.
• Ayn Rand's book on nonfiction writing suggests that writers will do anything to avoid writing.
• Tim Ferriss advises wouldbe writers to allocate at least a year to writing a book, assuming fulltime work.
• Neil Strauss suggests that marketing should not be considered until the book is created, as it is a distraction from creativity.
• Neil Strauss shares an example of a writer who wrote a book in a week and got it on the New York Times Best Seller List.
• Neil Strauss also shares an example of a 25 page book he wrote in half a day.
• Neil Strauss discusses his experience with interviewing, having interviewed many musicians and actors for Rolling Stone.
• Neil Strauss developed techniques for live interviews to get to the core of the subject quickly.
• Preparation is key for any interview, including researching the subject, writing down questions, and studying them like an exam.
• Questions should be tailored to the subject's perspective, not the interviewer's.
• The interviewer should wait for the subject to bring up the elephant in the room.
• Journalists often use false facts to try to get a correction, but this is a weak technique.
• The 'Yes Ladder' technique is a persuasion technique that leads the subject to something interesting.
• Neil Strauss discusses the idea of fractionation and hypnosis when interviewing someone.
• He suggests breaking the interview into two parts and having a break in between.
• He advises not to go on to sell, but to represent oneself.
• He recommends reading fiction to learn more about life.
• He suggests not accepting the norms of one's time to innovate and achieve success.