Background Story

I will talk about a certain blog post that inspired me so much that I had to share on various platforms. But let me tell you some background first.

A while ago, I read an inspiring post by Corbett Barr of Think Traffic. His post “Write Epic Shit” argues that when it comes to building a popular website, writing/creating epic shit is the most important factor, which makes up 80% of the overall impact while promotional tactics only make up 20% of it.

Corbett’s post is about building a popular website, but this idea of creating epic shit is relevant to life in general, especially when you consider your life as your art and intend to create the best art you can create. So, if you are not interested in web site building, what I want to talk about is relevant to you as well.

I have been thinking about this idea for a while, and I aim to write epic shit for readers and visitors of this blog. Content that changes the way you think. That’s what I want to provide to you.

A Blog Post That Inspired Me Like No Other Posts

Corbett recently wrote a post titled “The Quest to Be F*cking Awesome” on his personal blog and his post introduced me to a massively inspiring post written by Julien Smith.

It’s called “The Short and Sweet Guide to Being Fucking Awesome“. Given that you’ve read this far despite the term epic shit, I bet you aren’t the type who gets offended by the word ‘fucking’, I’ll let you know that you’ll see a lot of ‘fucking’ in that post. Do read it for its content, though.

As far as blog posts are concerned, Julien’s post was one of the most inspiring ones I’ve read in a while. I tweeted about it. I shared it on Facebook. I told about it to my friend. I wrote about it on a forum. Now I’m writing a blog post in relation to it. I may do these things for other posts or things I found online, but this time, I really wanted others to read this post. I had to share it with others. In other words, this post was epic shit.

Here’s some of the reasons why I think Julien’s post is epic shit (before reading further, make sure to read his post first).

It challenges your assumptions.

In the very beginning, he claims that most of yardsticks we use to measure progress is worthless. He does this assumption breaking in other parts of the post as well. He doesn’t provide arguments against these assumptions, but he does make you aware of these assumptions you may have. Once you are aware of your potential assumptions, you can rethink and reassess them.

The message is crystal clear.

This whole post is about being fucking awesome. Right from the beginning to the end. The way Julien writes this post is honest and raw, and it helps his message stronger. By the way, using the word ‘fucking’ doesn’t necessarily make something honest and raw, but I bet Julien is one of the people who can make use of the word effectively.

It gives you a new perspective.

I’m pretty sure you’ve come across a version of this message elsewhere before. Even “be yourself” could be in the same line. But then, it’s not the message itself that’s new, but his perspective on the old message that’s fresh and new. I especially like how he relates this message to the size of your world, which I never explicitly thought about.

It makes you think.

I believe the real value of the post, if I’m to nominate one, is that it makes you think. This reason is similar to the reason of challenging assumptions, but let me clarify a bit – what I mean is that this post doesn’t give you answers, but it leads you to asking questions about what it means for you to be fucking awesome… not just awesome, but fucking awesome.

It is about you.

Julien mentions what makes him think his life is awesome, but he does it to give some examples and not to brag about his achievements. This post is not about why Julien Smith is fucking awesome, but the focus of the post is you. If it’s relevant to you, you will be interested in what it says.

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What do you think about Julien’s post? Are there any works that you consider as epic shit? If there are, why do you think they are epic?

By the way, if you are curious about this topic of being awesome, check out this post as well.

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Photo: anjamation