Posts Tagged ‘Harvard’

writing under pressure

Friday, December 5th, 2008

One of the best classes I’m taking this semester (or should I say took? 1 class left!) is taught by Maralee Schwartz, former political editor of the Washington Post. In this class, titled “How Politicians Connect,” we study the connecting strategies of Obama and McCain.

Of course it entails a good amount of reading and writing. Hmm… connecting, writing/reading… Seem to go together, no? A good book, or in Scripped-land, a good screenplay, connects the writer to the reader. It is done not just by writing well and looking good (Mitt Romney) but by being straightforward (McCain, at least in his better days) and always genuine (Obama, frustratingly consistent). Finding your true voice and being honest with yourself is what readers respond to in good writing. It’s probably why writing under pressure often produces your best stuff.

Like today. I got an email from Sunil asking me to put another one of my awesome blog posts together. I thought to myself, I have nothing to write about. Then I self-corrected - there is always something to say if I let my true self out. The best way to do that? Give yourself a time limit. I have contact@scripped emails to respond to before my lunch date with said Prof. Schwartz! Plus my own personal overflowing inbox! Plus economic problem sets to grade!

We all have our obligations, but taking the time to write, if that’s what you like to do, is critical. I leave with one last anecdote. Yesterday I had the good fortune to lunch with Jeff Taylor, the former “Chief Monster” at Monster.com (wildly popular job/resume website) and current head of Eons.com. He asked the other students at the table what we do for fun. Odd question from a bad ass CEO, right? Well, he told us he’s a DJ and spends his Sunday mornings sourcing music from all over the world and does his mixing on Thursday nights. Then his mix goes off to Sirius and XM where they broadcast his creation.

He told us that as you get older, it becomes increasingly important to do what you love. It helps you connect, stay straightforward, and be genuine and sincere with yourself. So thank you, Sunil, for making me write.

And with that, I return to those emails…

Ryan

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Posted in Uncategorized, Writing, ryan | 9 Comments »

community-powered everything

Monday, November 24th, 2008

I write this from an empty bar named “The Muddy Charles” on the MIT campus. Serving pitchers of Bud and Sam has been my Monday afternoon routine for months now. Today is the first time I’ve had the bar all to myself.

It usually bustles with the likes of the 3 Peters: PB, PC, and P… something. There’s another guy who downs a pitcher while doing the Boston Globe crossword puzzle. Some do construction jobs on campus, others are MIT staff, and there is at least one emeritus professor, an old lovable man named Bernie who teaches astrophysics.

I like it here. It’s one of just a few hubs in the MIT community. Hubs are important to have, no matter what community you belong to, and if you’re somewhat of a binge networker like me, you try to infiltrate the leadership. It’s why I couldn’t just patronize this cozy little campus pub; I had to be a bartender! And as expected, the networking is great. Coincidentally, this picture of me in Variety magazine was taken at the Muddy. The fireplace in the background keeps us warm when it’s 30 degrees out.

Anyway, let me bring this back to Scripped. I set up a profile for Scripped in the VenCorps community, a new “community-powered capital” platform set up by a big-time venture capital company. Since they’re still in alpha, I can’t provide any links, but suffice to say we managed to get in pretty well with these folks too. Just today it was announced that Scripped took 3rd place in a “showdown” against 9 other other startups who made it into the finals. We’re very happy with that.

The irony of this is, of course, that Scripped is still a closed platform. We are aware of that and can’t wait to watch the networking that you’ll do when we blow the lid off this thing. Rest assured we’ll make sure it’s safe to do so and all the legalese is done properly. It’s mostly script and idea protection that is drawing the process out, but we’ll get there.

In the meantime, keep on writing…

Ryan

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Posted in Scripped, business model, entrepreneurship, launch, ryan, script frenzy | 7 Comments »