Writer, musician, and professional musicologist (CWU). I study the influence of marketing on the history of music. co-founder Glisten IQ
Joined June 2009
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Growth is earned when you invest in loss.
It was humbling. Sometimes humiliating.
In The Art of Learning, Joshua Waitzkin tells the story of his early days training in Push Hands, a Tai Chi practice.
He had a classmate named Evan, and every time they stepped onto the mat, Evan smashed him around. Not once or twice—every session, for months.
But Waitzkin kept coming back. Because he knew that the fastest way to grow wasn’t to avoid these beatings, it was to seek them out.
He calls it “investment in loss”—the practice of deliberately putting yourself in situations where you are overmatched.
Not to prove anything. Not to protect your ego. But to find out, as quickly as possible, where your weaknesses are.
Each time Evan put him on the ground, Waitzkin treated it like a diagnostic tool. Where did his stance collapse? Where was his timing off? Where did he lose balance?
Over time, he stopped fearing being hit. He relaxed under pressure. The chaos slowed down. Evan’s movements became easier to read, his attacks easier to anticipate.
And then, one day, Waitzkin threw Evan to the ground. Months of losses had quietly built the foundation for that single moment.
Most people avoid these kinds of situations. They stay in their comfort zones, working only with peers they can keep up with, rehearsing for audiences who will clap no matter what.
But comfort is a trap. It feels safe, but it slows growth to a crawl. The real acceleration happens at the edge of your ability, where mistakes are frequent and survival depends on adaptation.
This is true whether you are sparring in martial arts, learning an instrument, building a business, or writing your next book.
If you can resist the urge to protect your ego, if you can see each defeat as tuition paid toward your future skill, you’ll improve faster than you thought possible. The losses are not setbacks. They are investments.
So this week, find your “Evan.” Step into a room where you’re not the best. Let yourself get thrown around. Learn what the losses have to teach you.
When the game slows down later, you’ll know exactly why.
I wrote and produced music for RealTruck's ad campaign last summer. We did a version with just percussion. Every sound you hear in this ad was made by banging, scraping, or otherwise using a truck as a percussion instrument. Love how this turned out.
"Running Up That Hill" made $2.3M in streaming mere weeks after Stranger Things.
But did Kate Bush see any of that money?
The answer is maybe not what you think.
Kate Bush’s story will bring hope to Indie musicians everywhere.
Full music industry breakdown below. 👇👇👇
Most people never do their best creative work.
Because it’s not at the surface.
It’s at the bottom of the ocean.
I call it the Deep Sea Diving Framework.
A metaphor that will change how you work forever.
🌊 Subscribe to get it: mark-samples.com
Another cool tool from @GregKamradt
"We decided to actually track luck — treat it like a business metric."
That's what @ShaanVP and @benmlevy said.
I thought it was a good idea so I made Surface Luck🍀
It logs goodwill actions and contacts so you can increase your luck "surface area."
surfaceluck.replit.app
New Vulfmon x Evangeline drop is always welcome. @evangelinewho @vulfpeck
youtube.com/watch?v=lH0xoVUQ…
Chopin Prelude in E minor — it’s a good one to learn. It’s the one that Benjamin Zander plays in his famous Ted Talk. youtu.be/r9LCwI5iErE at 12:30 or so.
