Paul Millerd Quotes

American independent writer

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Paul Millerd is an independent writer, freelancer, coach, and digital creator. He has written online for many years and has built a growing audience of curious humans from around the world. He spent several years working in strategy consulting before deciding to walk away and embrace a pathless path. He is fascinated about how our relationship to work is shifting and how more people can live lives where they can thrive

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Please stop just doing things

Pause, breathe, wander

Then just do things

The word burnout was coined in the 1970s by Herbert Freudenberger, an American psychologist who studied workers in free health clinics. He found that the prime candidates for burnout were those who were “dedicated and committed,” trying to balance their need to give, to please others, and to work hard. He noticed that when there was added pressure from superiors, people often hit a breaking point.52

i think over the last few years I got sucked into the creator world in ways that I couldn't really participate in healthy ways. I'm not wired for it.

I'll always be more of an indie blogger type at heart. Slightly disagreeable. Wanting friendly debate. I don't want to join engagement pods. I care about the words, the ideas.

Life is not a linear game

Professors Richard Tedeschi and Lawrence Calhoun have suggested that many people who face crises often experience "post-traumatic growth" and that this manifests as an "appreciation for life in general, more meaningful interpersonal relationships, an increased sense of personal strength, changed priorities, and a richer existential and spiritual life."

We are at the beginning of infinity of everything. This is why exploring ideas is beautiful. Not to build an audience, not to become successful. But simply to push that frontier.

the author-industrial complex is such a weird world

Professor Tim Wu made this point in a widely read essay titled "The Tyranny of Convenience," where he argues that convenience, "with its promise of smooth, effortless efficiency…threatens to erase the sort of struggles and challenges that help give meaning to life."

optimizing for engagement metrics is a great way to hide

While ambition does not preclude aspiration, Callard argues that ambition “consumes much of an agent’s efforts and does not expand his value horizons.”⁠8

committing to writing a book is easy

you just have to be a little bit insane, financially reckless, and married to the right person

I am rooting for you to do the work that matters to you and to stop coping with some made up ikigai diagram that says you need to get paid for it.

when you reinvent your life and steer in a new direction, there is a wandering phase almost all must pass through

you can put this off and distract yourself for years

but thou shall wander through the lostness of life one way or another

I've come to a point where I'd rather fail as a writer than succeed as a lawyer, and I need to try and fail or try and succeed, but I need to do it.

Publishers should give much larger advances to fewer writers. Especially those who already have shown a proclivity to hire teams and spend money to build an audience. The publisher through a large advance then is basically hiring highly skilled creators (at a discount if they had to hire them directly)