I just read Evil Plans: Having Fun on the Road to World Domination, by Hugh MacLeod. It’s 80% book, 20% comic kind of book, with a comedic voice. A classic in a way, with first print being 2011 in a time when blogging was still considered ‘in’. So some of the tips feels kind of dated, but the deeper mindsets, metaphors and values still apply today. At least for myself. But most importantly, the title caught my eye. Of course I want to have a evil plan. These days everybody wants to change the world for better. I’d rather have an evil plan for world domination and have fun along the way. He also endorses and embraces the bootstrapped, stay-small, #smalltech/microstartup/micro-SaaS ethos of running a business, made famous by the folks at Basecamp, and also the book Company of One.   

Sharing them here as reference for myself, and for anyone who might find it useful. This is not a book review, just raw notes lifted directly from the book, with some minor edits, interpretations and categorisations of my own.

-———

Evil Plans: Having Fun on the Road to World Domination

by Hugh MacLeod

What’s an Evil Plan?

“Everybody pushing the same goddamn rock up the hill - and they don’t even own the rock.”

Everybody needs an Evil Plan, that crazy, out-there idea that allows them to actually start doing something they love, doing something that matters.

“Change is not death. Fear of change is death.”

Everyone lives in their own little world. The planet is just too damn big for one person to take it all in. So every human being seeks out their own little microcosm. It’s not strictly to “dominate”, but more to live in harmony with it. You like it, it likes you back. Things just work.

Why haters hate

It’s not that people don’t want you to be successful–they just don’t want you to be successful in what they aspire to be but cannot be themselves. That is just human nature, sad but true. To hell with it.

The Hunger

The Hunger to do something creative.

…to do something amazing.

…to enjoy one’s work.

…to dream the good dreams.

…to experience beauty.

…to have good stories to tell.

…to know and express Joy.

…to channel the Divine.

…to actually feel alive.

What’s the Hunger to myself?

Market for beliefs

We are here to find meaning. We are here to help other people do the same. Everything else is secondary. The market for something to believe in is infinite. You can’t wear more than one pair of shoes at a time. Belief. Belonging. Tribes. We have an unlimited need for this.

Create your own global microbrand

A small, tiny brand that “sells” al over the world. With it you are not beholden to one boss, one company, one customer, one local economy, or even one industry. Your brand develops relationships in enough different places to the extent that your permanent address becomes almost irrelevant. Keep it simple - a business model as simple, elegant, profitable and low-key as a tiny little hole-in-the-wall grocery store in Texas which sells 3.5tons of world-class sausages per week.

Who you really are

You have three selves: the person you think you are, the person other people think you are, and the person God thinks you are. When life gets really tough, just remember who you really are. Just remember the person that only God can see.

Treat it like an adventure–an adventure worth sharing

All truly great ideas started life out as an act of futility. We like telling stories that defy the odds–and that is what gives us hope. People aren’t merely buying your product, your Evil Plan; they are buying the story you are telling…a story that’s not just about you, but about them, and what they could be.

Evil Plans are like snowballs, they require “Random Acts of Traction”

Rolling snowballs down hills–some don’t go very far. But some get pretty big once they start rolling. Virality. It only works if you can make your “snowballs” quickly and inexpensively enough. If you spend too much time worrying about it, you lose. If you try to control where the snowballs go after you’ve released them down the hill, you lose. Without understanding that a lot of random traction is baked in to the equation, Evil Plans wouldn’t be allowed to happen.

Embrace crofting

Crofters hand-weave tweed from sheep they keep, and sell it to fashion industry. It’s a traditional cottage industry, but they do other jobs as well. They keep busy. Master generalists. Crofting mentality is not liking waking up in the morning and doing the same thing every day, but liking having different balls in the air.

“Create is the new consume.”

The Tao of Undersupply

We live in oversupplied markets. Undersupplying requires you to stop making the same stuff as other people. This requires originality and invention. And courage to make 90 widgets when 100 want it.

Entrepreneurs & artists

In their own way, all artists are entrepreneurs and all entrepreneurs are artists. Though their tools and products may differ, both are in the same game—the making and selling of work that is personally and emotionally important to them. What’s far more interesting is not what we create, but how we create it, why we create it.

“The trouble with New York is everyone is using the same source code.”

Get other people to hate you

The bad news is, the better your Evil Plan, the more people are going to hate it. The good news is, the more people are going to love it too. Some people will hate your Evil Plan, for no real reason. Your example is not giving them hope, your example is just making them more aware of their own issues and inadequacies. Trolls do serve a purpose though - if you were just schlepping along like they were, they wouldn’t bother going after you. Haters are a sign that you’re doing something right, that you are really successful at doing something you love.

From intellectual/emotional capital to expressive capital

- Intellectual capital: Our widgets are better than yours because our engineers are smarter.

- Emotional capital: People love our product more than they love our competitor’s product.

- Expressive capital: Our products make it easier for the end user to find and/or express meanings, narrative, purpose in his own life than our competitor’s products.

Most products are commodities. The trouble with commodities is that everyone’s got one.

Be a waker, not wanker

A waker is someone who is very good at waking other people up from their metaphorical slumber, temporary or otherwise. Being around them just makes you feel more alive, inspired, motivated, awake. The best wakers make you do crazy-ass things like quit your boring job, or finally tell that girl you love her. They remind you constantly just how alive you really are, just how much human potential you really have inside of you. They make you utterly unable to go back to sleep. Be a waker, and/or surround yourself with them.