The Connection Newsletter 23 - You did it

The Connection Newsletter 23 - You did it

September 03, 2018

Hello! If you're in the states, hope you're having a terrific long weekend :)

This is edition #23 of

The Connection

, the weekly email I send family, friends, and future friends (hello!) Glad you're here.

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I have a self-imposed no complaining rule. No matter what the situation is, if something is going wrong, I can trace it back to my own behavior. If it’s my own behavior, what is there to complain about? I made the bed, now I sleep in it. I explain this rule a bit more, and point to examples of people who really embody this perspective extreme, in this article. Next, onto the rest of this week’s articles:

…

. How? By being the CEO the company needs him to be. But what worked for Snap before (ignoring critics when it came to product choices) won't take the company to the next level.

"He argues that ignoring critics has served Snap well. Disappearing stories seemed silly in a world where every photo can be saved, except that was exactly what made them cool. Letting people turn their faces into bunnies wasn’t a good business, and then revenue started flowing. 'Over and over again, everyone told us that our company was going to fail,' he says. 'We worked against all odds, especially in this landscape with tech giants.'"

(

. So far, the Book has been pummeling the Ghost, and there’s no turnaround in sight… yet.)

…

 The best pitched idea isn’t always the best idea. The best ideas don’t always come from the most visible employees. And keeping stockholders and customers happy is easy (make money and make a good product, respectively)... it’s keeping the employee happy that’s hard.

“If you don’t pay them enough they’re unhappy. If you pay them more, they’re still unhappy if they lack opportunities to advance. If you pay them a lot and give them opportunities, they still may hate their boss. Or their coworkers. Or their commute. Or they get tired of doing the same thing. Glimpses of satisfaction followed by a gravitational pull towards wanting something else.”

…

I loved Judd Apatow’s description of the lengths Mr. Carrey would go to push his art and become a better comedian:

Just as Carrey had made a name for himself in the States, he did the 
most Jim Carrey thing he could do: He dumped all the impressions that had gained him his following and began experimenting with whatever struck him 
as funny that night."Think about it: Most stand-ups have been polishing the same 
act for years, and then along comes Jim, who goes onstage and just 
opens up his mind," says his pal Judd Apatow. “Sometimes he'd kill, then a moment later he'd bomb worse than you'd ever seen anyone bomb, and then somehow he'd find a way to win the audience back, and it was spontaneous and brave and dangerous. Jim's one of those people who comedians talk about like he's in a different business than the rest of us. It's like a normal rock band talking about what David Bowie is doing."

…

. This is one of the best breakdowns I’ve read on how pay for film actors works. Key takeaways:

- The quote system (how a star’s initial salary is calculated in the first place) will create salary disparity between actors. Focus on blockbusters and franchises, your quote goes up faster. Focus on Oscar-bait, slower.

- Studios collude with rival studios to get accurate reporting on existing quotes.

- An actor's quote can be supplemented with a percentage of profit pools and miscellaneous "perks" e.g. hotels, private jet transportation, etc.

(If you're interested in more about the breakdown of the Hollywood salary game, check out

.)

…

. A 20-minute interview with Skift Table that I really enjoyed.

Thanks for reading!

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