Fifteen Pieces

It would be convenient and profitable if I could tell you which pieces of writing resonated versus those that landed with a quiet, dull thump. If I could reduce the hundreds of pieces I've published over the decades to a hypothetical ten, here's the breakdown of what I expected to occur for a piece versus the actual reaction.

• 5 pieces — High expectations. Lots of work. Deep investment. Zero substantive reaction.
• 2 pieces — Moderate expectations, which were met.
• 2 pieces — Had zero expectations about reaction. Reaction was totally bonkers.
• 1 piece — Poured my heart into it, loved it, everyone else loved it, too.

You can write for yourself. Journaling is how I became comfortable with publishing. The improvements to that writing come from the feedback, the reaction. There are the small comments regarding an error or a change to a thought. There are larger chunks of feedback, "I really don't get this." And then there is the collective reaction, "I wrote something that influenced many."

Fifteen pieces is my estimate. After the hundreds of articles here, fifteen are works that greatly exceeded our collective expectations.

Shields Down is one of those fifteen, and I am hesitant to tell you how it came into being. It never happens like this until it does:

• Random conversation with the exec team at Pinterest. Arguing about stock options.
• I am trying to make a point about the moment when employees choose to leave, and I am failing to do so.
• I pause and say something like, "And in that moment, their shields drop, and they start listening to other offers."
• The idea works. Everyone at the table starts talking about the shields-down moment.

I left the meeting, got in the back of a car driving me somewhere, and wrote the piece you can read here. Hit publish before I arrived. Hits galore. Inquiries about republishing. There are shirts, too.

This is the story I tell myself when the writing doesn't come. It's what I think about when that piece I loved is a dull thud.

(#1)

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