
I wrote a book called Winning Isn't Normal - jasonshen
http://www.jasonshen.com/winning-isnt-normal/?hn
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tannerc
While I'm a fan of Jason and his writing, I can't help but feel that this is
more of the "book about success that doesn't tell you how to actually do
anything" category of self-help books (re: [http://kottke.org/13/10/the-
fallacy-of-success](http://kottke.org/13/10/the-fallacy-of-success)).

~~~
jonnathanson
G.K. Chesterton is one of the most under-appreciated wits and writers of the
last few centuries. And he makes some great points about the "self-help" genre
in that excerpt. But he's also being a little glib here, and we risk losing
some of that nuance when we just repost his excerpt.

Is 99.99% of the self-help industry bullshit? Probably. No, let's go even
further: almost assuredly. And to Chesterton's point: even the authors who
_aren 't_ bullshitting us might be drawing upon very personal experiences and
idiosyncratic circumstances that we can't replicate. So be it. But here's the
thing: nobody's ever gotten massively successful at any endeavor, skill, or
enterprise without trying. If nothing else, books like Jason's may provide a
boost of motivation and a wake-up splash of cold water (literally or
figuratively) to those of us who've temporarily lost our paths or our focus.
And if it does that for even one reader, it's served its purpose.

I don't get the impression that Jason is selling snake oil or magic checklists
here. I _do_ get the impression that his book could probably be summed up in a
few sentences, and one of those sentences is probably "Get off your ass!" But
a lot of people could benefit from hearing that. I know I could from time to
time. I spend a heck of a lot of time writing on HN, daydreaming, and putting
my biggest ambitions on hold. If this book slaps me across the face and tells
me to get my shit together, so be it. Maybe I'm the kind of person who needs
to pay $8 to learn that lesson -- and if so, $8 is pretty cheap compared to
the opportunity cost of never learning it, or of allowing myself to forget it.

To Chesterton's point, no book about success is ever going to tell us how to
be successful. But books that motivate us, that provide us interesting skills,
and that -- if nothing else -- remind us to stay hungry and buckle down, can
tell us why we're _not_ as successful as we want to be. From there, it's up to
us to figure out what to do about it.

Publishing magnate Felix Dennis wrote a really interesting self-help book,
cheekily titled _How to Get Rich_. The book is essentially a very long-winded
way of saying that what worked for Felix Dennis worked for Felix Dennis, and
it probably won't work for you -- but, as he puts it, and as I'll paraphrase,
'Nobody ever became extremely rich without _wanting_ to be extremely rich.'
And by that he means, becoming extremely rich (or successful by any other
metric) has to become a laser-guided focus, to the exclusion of all else. It's
a very difficult choice people have to make, and in fact, Dennis argues that
it's the _wrong_ choice for most people. Regardless, we need to be cognizant
of our choices on a daily and even hourly basis, and that's a _lot_ easier
said than done.

~~~
atlantic
I don't think Chesterton was under-appreciated. When my father attended
university in the 40's, he belonged to something called the Belloc-Chesterton
club, and apparently those authors were all the rage at the time, right up
there with George Bernard Shaw. However, unlike Shaw, Belloc and Chesterton
were overtly religious, so they were discarded as religion itself went out of
fashion.

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b_emery
Ok, I'll buy it if you can make a convincing argument for cold showers. To
convince me you'll have to address:

1) Given the finite resource model of will power, why should I spend a
considerable amount of it forcing myself to take a cold shower?

2) I spend the vast majority of my so called free time doing things I don't
want to do, why deny myself the pleasure of a hot shower? [1]

3) The shower is prime alone top-idea-on-your-mind time [2]. Why minimize
this?

[1] I have kids - my life was not like this before. (Seriously, it's like navy
seal training without the guns.)

[2] [http://www.paulgraham.com/top.html](http://www.paulgraham.com/top.html)

~~~
jasonshen
My goal is only to convince you to try taking one, perhaps a week of cold
showers, and see if you like it and want to keep going.

1) First off, if you're not exercising much, you should probably spend your
willpower on ramping that up. In general, research has shown that willpower
acts more like a muscle than a purely "fuel tank" model and taxing your
willpower in small increments can actually strengthen it in the long run. [1]
But in general, your shower time is already allocated for, and happens at a
regular interval, so after exercise (which takes up time that people sometimes
say "they don't have") it is a good place to do some willpower strengthening.

2) In the book, I actually explain that I start cold for 3 minutes and then
end warm/hot. It's actually better than just going warm right away.

3) I admit that when the water is cold, you are not able to think about much.
But if you turn it back to warm after a period, you still can spend the rest
of the shower thinking. Also I find that clearing your head via the cold means
the rest of your day's thinking is more clear, which may be worth the trade
off.

Ultimately, you should just try it once, go through it, and see if it serves
you.

[1] [http://blog.bufferapp.com/what-the-research-on-habit-
formati...](http://blog.bufferapp.com/what-the-research-on-habit-formation-
reveals-about-willpower-and-overall-well-being)

~~~
diminoten
I've got a weird question regarding this idea of "flexing the will muscle":

Do you write at all about stoic philosophy, and where it fits into your
whole... outlook, or whatever the sum of your book and blog posts represents?
Because the idea of subjecting oneself to unpleasant experiences (mostly in
the form of denial) is a significant part of stoicism.

~~~
jasonshen
I've read a tiny bit of stoic philosophy (Marcus Aurelius's Meditations) but
have not written much about it, mostly because I just find other things more
interesting.

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dmix
Hmm this sounds like a "motivational-speech" type of self-help book. I've read
way too many of those in my early 20s.

It could just be the copywriting that turned me off. But I'm thoroughly
cynical so I'm probably not your typical audience.

~~~
jasonshen
Less speech, more stories and research. I know I come off a little aggressive
and that's on purpose. Probably a little less cynical than you, but 4 months
working for the gov't has moved the needle in your direction, especially with
the shutdown.

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marcamillion
Out of curiosity....isn't this a distraction from your fulltime
responsibilities?

I am not hating on the book - if you were running a lifestyle, non-YC company
I don't think it would be an issue, but PG & other YC partners are famous for
wanting all founders to focus on just their company.

I can't see how they wouldn't think that this could be a distraction - or am I
missing something here?

Again...more power to you for writing, and I am not trying to be mean....it
just seems that this is either very ballsy of you (to go against what seems
like one of the tenets of YC in such a brazen manner) or a hedge against bad
news for the company.

~~~
jasonlmk
If i'm not mistaken, Jason left his YC-backed startup some time ago. He's
working out of D.C now with the Smithsonian.

~~~
marcamillion
Ahhh....ok.

Well that makes much more sense now.

Carry on....sorry I had to discuss the elephant in the room - but it wasn't
addressed fully on his personal site or on the landing page for the
book...soo.... :)

~~~
jasonshen
Also note that Sam Altman was a part-time partner before he sold Loopt. And I
know plenty of YC co's who do have fairly involved side projects. The good
thing is that the book's content often overlaps with being a founder. It's not
like I released a "1001 Ways to Fold a Paper Crane" book.

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jasonshen
Thanks guys. I've been blogging seriously since 2010 and it's been really
great to take those "best of" articles (many of them that have hit HN) and put
them into a Kindle book.

~~~
larrys
I'm curious why the price of the book isn't on the landing page. Also why not
some sample chapters on the landing page?

~~~
jasonshen
Good point - I can add the price. You can download sample chapters via Amazon.

Edit: Price added.

~~~
mihn
$7.99 on page and $12.29 on Amazon? Something changed or just Amazon hates
Poland now?

~~~
jasonshen
Amazon pricing is crazy. I just told them to charge whatever was equivalent to
7.99 in other countries.

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forgottenpaswrd
Congrats for completing a book, it takes work.

As an entrepreneur I read anything that could improve my business, but I find
kindle Cloud or those services poor. I hate DRM, so normally I have to ask for
the printed version with all the inconveniences and cost(I live outside US),
for then cutting the sides(very fast with a power tool) and feeding the book
to my fantastic Fujitsu Snapcan scanner. Then the pages are stored in a box in
the loft.

So obviously I prefer to buy a PDF which is not available here.

Not having read the book, it seems to me like you are naturally inclined for
achieving things by your own personality(the book is using lots of "how I...",
I, I, I, me, me. The main question in business use to be how people that are
different than you could express their best potential.

I see lots of books or talks of how to improve the business and step number 1
is planning everything, of course the people giving the talk are planners,
they love planning everything by nature, and people that attend are naturally
plan haters by nature too.

If you have dogs you see dogs like golden retrievers that love water, and
others hate it, like some children love some toys and not others by nature.

Usually "one size does not fit all", personality types have to be studied so
you could see what could or could not be done with the people you have.

~~~
jasonshen
Thanks for the comments. I respect your concerns around digital rights. There
are obviously benefits to pushing through Amazon as well. If you buy the book
via Amazon and then forward the receipt to winningisntnormal@gmail.com, I'm
happy to provide a PDF.

As for your point about "I" \- also great and one I don't address enough.

1) I do cite ideas and thoughts by other people as well as research by peer
reviewed journals in the book.

2) That said, most of the book is about _my_ experience. Here is why: I am not
in your head. I have not lived your life. I can only observe other people from
a far distance - look at what they say and do, guess their intentions and
understanding, etc. The only thing I can definitively say with certainty is
what _I_ have learned and what _i_ have experienced.

3) I think self knowledge is extremely important and that you (and everyone)
should seek to appreciate how you differ from other people. And this filter
all advice through the lens of "I'm like this, they are like that, therefore I
should modulate the advice in this way". If you read my book, you get a fairly
good sense of how I think ans approach things. Only you know how to modulate
my suggestions to your own life and your own goals.

There few universal truths when it comes to getting shit done. What I hope to
do is to illuminate ONE path, warts and all, in hopes that others can navigate
their own journeys.

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increment_i
Looks like it could be a cool book, but sorry Silicon Valley, "fittest people
in tech" isn't actually a thing.

Sincerely,

The Rest of the World

~~~
jasonshen
I'm doing pretty well if this is your biggest gripe with the whole project.

~~~
oh_sigh
I doubt it's his biggest gripe(since one can always find something else to
complain about on the internet), but it may be the most prominent gripe, since
it is mentioned in the first sentence of the "About Jason" box.

To me, it just seems like a very irrelevant piece of information to provide at
that point in the text, unless an equally prominent portion of the book is
devoted to discussing why being one of the fittest people in tech(as opposed
to the four thousandth fittest person, which is still pretty darn fit compared
to average) is important.

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Sagat
Why don't you give HN members a free PDF? I thought we were friends.

~~~
jasonshen
We've only been friends for 45 days though. That's maybe like high five
status.

~~~
Sagat
Off topic question: It says on your profile that you studied Bio and
Philosophy at Stanford. How did you go from that to being a tech entrepreneur?

~~~
jasonshen
One of the book bonuses is a 30 min interview about exactly that - career
path. Short answer is being friendly and doing a lot of extracurriculars -
started a nonprofit with some friends including a guy named Kalvin, who was a
CS major, eventually became my roommate and cofounder at Ridejoy.

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oh_sigh
I'd like to know who these people are that wrote the blurbs about the book. If
you just read the blurbs, you would expect the book to contain the answers to
the great questions of life.

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chollida1
The selected articles section design leads me to believe you can click a link
to read them but I can't see any links to click.

What is the purpose of including these 3-5 word blurbs if you can't actually
read them?

When selling a non fiction book sample chapters and a table of contents are
almost a must.

 __EDIT __odd it seems like "look insde" is now working for this book. It
wasn't the first time I clicked.

Book ordered!!

~~~
jasonshen
Sorry about that - it was more of a "here's the kind of content in the book"
rather than "this is a sample of an article".

Yes, I'm thrilled the "Look Inside" section is now working. Amazon works in
mysterious ways.

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bfe
Just bought it. Thanks, Jason.

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AtTheLast
I think it's pretty awesome that you wrote a book and are willing to share
your stories and insights with everyone. I'm curious if you are a natural
writer or if writing is something you really have to work at. What was the
process like of taking ideas from blog posts and turning them into a book?

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cracell
You have a spelling error in the first chapter on the Kindle preview. "Then a
kind from Oregon named Dick Fosbury came along..."

Shouldn't this be "Then a kid from Oregon named Dick Fosbury came along..."

~~~
auctiontheory
On a similar note, you generally shouldn't use ampersands (&) in the body of
text. I know your book isn't claiming to be literature, but when I'm quickly
evaluating whether to buy a little-known book, the use of ampersands is a red
flag of an amateur, un-edited, production. Other common ones are using "loose"
to mean "lose" and "lead" to mean "led."

Hope this is helpful. I have written a book myself, so I know how much effort
it takes.

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JackFr
HN porn.

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doorty
Would definitely buy this as an audio book, but I doubt I'll set aside the
time to read it as a book :/

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Glyptodon
Sounds like a new Malcom Gladwell. :-)

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contextual
Bought and loaded up in my Kindle app. I've learned a lot from you over the
years Jason, and I look forward to reading the book.

Congratulations on getting the book out!

