Mark Manson
Medellin, AT
Male, 28
I am a professional blogger, internet entrepreneur, and world traveler. I've been to over 40 countries and am currently working on my second book about long-term travel and how to work/live abroad. On my blog I write about self development and creating a unique lifestyle for yourself. Feel free to ask me anything.
Yes, I do. One of the best pieces of advice I ever got related to this actually came from my high school math teacher. He was an old dude and had been teaching for 40 years or something. And he told us that he noticed that when kids were stumped on the test, if they started writing something, anything, their brains would naturally start to trial-and-error their way into the problem and come up with something. But if they just sat there and stared and thought, nothing ever came of it and they only got more and more frustrated. On my site, I refer to this as the "Do Something Principle" I apply the same concept to writer's block. When I have writer's block I force myself to just start writing, even if I think what I'm writing is total shit and silly and useless, I just keep going. And inevitably what happens is I find one or two things I like and want to keep and then expand on those, and then that gives me new ideas and I continue until I'm over it. But it often takes a number of attempts. What I've found is that some article ideas give me a lot of writer's block while others come out of me effortlessly. Not completely sure why.
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I think they're growing. More and more companies and corporations are offering opportunities to work remotely. I also think that the information age promotes more creative freelance type work. There will always be those jobs that always require you to show up, but I think things are going to be more flexible in the near future. It's likely that in 10 years, this lifestyle won't be uncommon at all anymore.
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The first book is about dating and women. The site began years ago as a men's dating site. You can find it here: http://postmasculine.com/models
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It's penetrating further and further. I think it's inevitable, the social and economic changes happening, as well as the philosophies of the younger generations are converging on this type of lifestyle. It's kind of our version of the "free love" revolution I suppose. They are hard ideas to grapple with, but change always is. I think a decade from now people's attitudes towards this type of lifestyle will be quite different it will be considered a lot more mainstream.
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Toll Collector
What happens when a car blows past a tollbooth without paying?
Certified Nurse Aide
What's it like going into a room in the morning to find someone dead?
Border Patrol Agent
What's the most creative way you saw cartels getting drugs across the border?
I have mixed feelings for it. I think on the one hand, it does a lot of good and has some admirable goals -- self improvement, increasing self awareness and self respect in men, helping anti-social men become more social and confident, a support group for men's issues and insecurities. These are all great things. I think some aspects of it are quite toxic as well -- the singular focus and obsession on sex, the objectification of women and occasional misogyny, the narcissistic tendencies some companies teach men to have, and the weird cult mentality many men develop as a result. The major thing that inspired my current site was creating a positive and healthy alternative to the seduction community for men.
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Before when I was primarily a pick up and dating site, my competitors were obvious: the other pick up businesses and coaches. Now that I've branched out into more self development and lifestyle and focused much more on my personal brand rather than specific advice, my competition and market has become more ephemeral. I think my biggest competition are the modern men's sites: AskMen.com, ArtofManliness.com, Men's Health, etc. But I think they are competition less in what they sell, and more in the space they occupy in pop culture and in men's perceptions of themselves. Ultimately, the goal of my site is to redefine what masculinity is and how a new generation of men perceive themselves. So while some sites or businesses may compete directly with my style product or my dating product, ultimately I'm competing for a space in the mind's of men at large. It's a lofty goal, but hey, dream big, right?
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A couple years ago, I had a regular feminist commentator who would often disagree with me respectfully. Although it didn't happen immediately, she slowly, over the course of months, influenced me to start considering other perspectives. Unfortunately, a lot of the reader influence happens because of the bad apples. For instance, if I try to teach a concept in a certain way and some guys with that problem are able to rationalize their way out of the advice, then it forces me to sit down and re-think how I'm explaining concepts. I enjoy good criticism (emphasis on "good") and my work has been criticized a bit over the years that has helped me shore it up and make it stronger. But I can't think of one single reader comment or email that changed everything for me. Most of the influence I've gotten from readers has been a slow, long-term progression.
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