Are you ready to transform your aspirations into remarkable achievements? If so, you’re in the right place. Welcome to our exploration of the Law of Remarkability, a guiding principle that can turn great missions into even greater successes. Picture this: an idea so captivating that it sparks conversations, ignites curiosity, and propels your career or project to new heights. That’s the essence of the Law of Remarkability as described in Cal Newport’s seminal work So Good They Can’t Ignore You.
Imagine finding projects that inspire people to talk about them and are launched in venues where such conversations flow effortlessly. It’s about more than just having a good idea; it’s about strategically unleashing it in a space primed for discussion and dissemination.
From Giles Bowkett’s innovative projects to Pardis Sabeti’s groundbreaking research, we’ll delve into specific examples and actionable techniques that illustrate how to satisfy the Law of Remarkability.
Ready to embark on this journey of transformative insights? Let’s dive right in.
The Remarkable Life of Giles Bowkett
Giles Bowkett‘s life is a tapestry woven with threads of passion, resilience, and relentless pursuit of fulfillment. From humble beginnings to soaring heights of recognition, his journey is a testament to the power of determination and innovation in shaping one’s destiny.
From Struggle to Stardom
Giles Bowkett’s odyssey is not one of overnight success but rather a saga of perseverance in the face of adversity. There were moments of financial hardship and professional disillusionment, where the road ahead seemed bleak. However, in these challenging times, Giles discovered the resilience within himself to persevere.
In 2008, the tides began to turn as Giles emerged as a luminary in the Ruby programming community. His expertise and contributions propelled him into the spotlight, earning him widespread recognition and admiration. This pivotal moment marked the dawn of a new chapter in Giles’s life, defined by boundless opportunities and uncharted territories.
Seizing Opportunities
With newfound fame came a myriad of opportunities beckoning Giles towards unexplored horizons. Rather than succumbing to complacency or settling for mediocrity, Giles seized these opportunities with unwavering enthusiasm and determination.
Transitioning from conventional employment to entrepreneurial endeavors, Giles embarked on a journey fueled by passion and purpose. He ventured into uncharted waters, leveraging his expertise to carve out a niche in the ever-evolving landscape of technology and creativity.
A Multifaceted Journey
Giles’s journey is as multifaceted as it is remarkable. From pioneering web applications to delving into filmmaking, his eclectic pursuits reflect a voracious appetite for exploration and experimentation.
His tenure with hitRECord, a collaborative media platform founded by actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt, provided a glimpse into the intersection of art and technology. This intersection has been the cornerstone of Giles’s professional endeavors.
A Personality-Driven Career
His distinct personality is at the heart of Giles’s success—a fusion of creativity, intellect, and boundless energy. His rapid-fire presentation style and eclectic interests testify to a career crafted in his image.
Giles’s ability to infuse his professional pursuits with his unique persona has been instrumental in cultivating a sense of authenticity and resonance with his audience. Whether delving into complex coding algorithms or engaging in spirited conversations with industry luminaries, Giles’s infectious enthusiasm leaves an indelible mark on all who encounter him.
Mission as a Guiding Light
Central to Giles’s narrative is his unwavering commitment to a mission—to bridge art and technology in innovative and impactful ways. His brainchild, Archaeopteryx, is a testament to this vision—a groundbreaking project that melds artificial intelligence with musical creativity in unprecedented ways.
Navigating from the nebulous realm of conceptualization to the tangible realm of achievement, Giles exemplifies the transformative power of a clear and compelling mission. His journey underscores the importance of purpose-driven pursuits in unlocking untapped potential and driving meaningful change.
Giles Bowkett’s remarkable life inspires aspiring innovators and visionaries alike. His story is a testament to the limitless possibilities that await those who dare to dream, persevere, and embrace the journey of self-discovery.
Purple Cows and Open-Source Rock Stars
Giles Bowkett’s journey into the world of technology was not conventional. After just a year at Santa Fe College, he embarked on a quest to find his calling. Initially drawn to creative pursuits like screenwriting and music composition, Bowkett soon realized that these endeavors did not provide the financial stability he sought.
However, his exposure to graphic designers using HTML intrigued him, sparking his interest in web design and programming. In 1994, he built his first web page, marking the inception of his journey into the digital realm. By 1996, he found himself in San Francisco, at the epicenter of the dot-com boom, where his skills in programming languages like Java and Perl became increasingly valuable.
Trials and Transformations
Despite the promising start in San Francisco, Bowkett soon became disillusioned with the corporate grind. The monotony of his programming job left him feeling unfulfilled, prompting him to seek more engaging opportunities.
His attempt to transition to a dynamic startup environment was met with the harsh reality of the dot-com crash, leaving him without a job. Undeterred, Bowkett returned to Santa Fe, where he embarked on a period of self-discovery.
Living in a camper on his parents’ land, he immersed himself in various artistic pursuits, including painting, music, and studio engineering. During this time, he realized the importance of having a clear mission to guide his career trajectory.
The Purple Cow Paradigm
Seth Godin‘s “Purple Cow” concept resonated deeply with Bowkett. The idea that remarkable projects are essential for capturing attention in a crowded marketplace struck a chord with his aspirations. He understood that to stand out in the tech industry, he needed to create something truly unique and captivating. Additionally, Chad Fowler‘s insight into leveraging the open-source movement as a platform for professional advancement provided Bowkett with a strategic framework to transform his ideas into reality.
Architecting Innovation: Archaeopteryx
With a newfound clarity of purpose, Bowkett set out to create something extraordinary. Inspired by his passion for programming and music, he conceived Archaeopteryx—an AI-powered music generator unlike anything else.
By combining his expertise in Ruby programming with his love for dance music, Bowkett created a groundbreaking project that showcased his creativity and technical prowess. Archaeopteryx became the embodiment of the Purple Cow—a truly remarkable project that captured the tech world’s imagination.
The Open-Source Odyssey
Bowkett understood that to succeed in the tech industry, he needed more than just a great idea—to share it with the world. Leveraging the collaborative spirit of the open-source community, he released Archaeopteryx to the public and embarked on a mission to spread the word.
Through speaking engagements and conference appearances, he showcased his creation, attracting attention from industry insiders and earning accolades for his innovative approach. This strategic blend of creativity, entrepreneurship, and community engagement propelled Bowkett to success, validating his belief in the power of remarkable projects and open collaboration.
Giles Bowkett’s journey from artistic experimentation to tech stardom exemplifies the transformative power of perseverance, innovation, and strategic thinking. His story serves as a testament to the importance of having a clear mission, embracing unconventional ideas, and leveraging community support to achieve one’s goals in the ever-evolving landscape of technology and creativity.
The Law of Remarkability
Reflecting on Giles’s story, Cal Newport kept returning to the adjective “remarkable.” What Giles discovered, I decided, is that a good mission-driven project must be remarkable in two different ways.
Compelling People to Remark
First, it should be remarkable in the literal sense of compelling people to remark about it. To understand this trait, let’s first look at something lacking. Before releasing Archaeopteryx, Giles had worked on another open-source project.
He collected popular command-line tools for Ruby and combined them into one package with consistent documentation. If you asked a Ruby programmer about this project, he would tell you that this is solid, quality, useful work. But it’s not the type of achievement that would compel this same Ruby programmer to write his friends and tell them, “You have to see this!”
In Seth Godin’s words, this early project was a “brown cow.” By contrast, teaching your computer to write its complex music is a purple cow; it inspires people to take notice and spread the word.
What’s nice about this first notion of remarkability is that it can be applied to any field. Take book writing: If I published a book of solid advice for helping recent graduates transition to the job market, you might find this a useful contribution but probably wouldn’t find yourself whipping out your iPhone and Tweeting its praises.
On the other hand, if I publish a book that says “follow your passion” is bad advice, (hopefully) this would compel you to spread the word. The book you’re holding was conceived from the very early stages with the hope of being seen as “remarkable.”
Launching in a Supportive Venue
However, there’s also a second type of remarkability at play. Giles didn’t just find a project that compels remarks; he also spread the word about the project in a venue that supports these remarks. In his case, this venue was the open-source software community.
As he learned from Chad Fowler, this community has an established infrastructure for noticing and spreading the word about interesting projects. Without this conduciveness to chatter, a purple cow, though striking, may never be seen.
To be more concrete, if Giles had instead released Archaeopteryx as a closed-source piece of commercial software, perhaps trying to sell it from a slick website or at music conventions, it probably wouldn’t have caught fire as it did.
Once again, this notion of remarkability applies beyond just Giles’s world of Ruby programming. If we return to my example of writing career advice books, I realized early on in my process that blogging was a remarkable venue for introducing my ideas.
Blogs are visible and the infrastructure is in place for good ideas to quickly spread, through, for example, linking, Tweets, and Facebook. Because of this conduciveness to remarking, by the time I pitched this book to publishers, Newport not only had a large audience who appreciated my views on passion and skill, but the meme had spread: Newspapers and major websites around the world had begun to quote my thoughts on the topic.
At the same time, the articles had been cited online and Tweeted thousands of times. If Newport had instead decided to confine my ideas to paid speaking gigs, for example, my mission to change how we think about careers would likely stagnate—the venue would not have been sufficiently remarkable.
The Law of Remarkability states that for a mission-driven project to succeed, it should be remarkable in two ways. First, it must compel people who encounter it to remark about it to others. Second, it must be launched in a venue that supports such remarking.
Once Newport articulated this law, he noticed it in the examples I had previously found of missions leading to a compelling career. To help cement this marketing-centric approach to mission, it’s worth returning to these examples and highlighting the law in action.
The Law in Action
In career trajectories and professional endeavors, the Law of Remarkability emerges as a guiding principle, exemplified by the journeys of individuals like Pardis Sabeti and Kirk French. By dissecting their experiences, we unravel the intricate interplay between overarching missions, groundbreaking projects, and the venues that propel them into the public eye. Through their stories, we glean insights into how remarkable ideas, strategically launched in conducive environments, can lead to transformative career trajectories.
Pardis Sabeti: Unveiling Genetic Footprints
Pardis Sabeti’s narrative unfolds against the backdrop of a profound mission: leveraging genetic insights to combat infectious diseases ravaging African communities. While noble, such a mission alone doesn’t guarantee career fulfillment or noteworthy impact. Pardis recognized this and embarked on a quest to transform her mission into a remarkable endeavor.
Pardis conceived a groundbreaking project in her pursuit: harnessing computational prowess to delve into humanity’s genetic past, unearthing tales of resilience against ancient pathogens. This innovative approach not only aligned with her mission but also captured the imagination of the scientific community and the public at large.
The hallmark of a remarkable project lies in its ability to compel people to remark about it—to spark conversations, ignite curiosity, and inspire action. Pardis achieved precisely this feat, as evidenced by the myriad articles and headlines celebrating the groundbreaking work emanating from the Sabeti Lab. Each catchy headline was a testament to the project’s ability to captivate minds and ignite discourse, transforming it into a veritable “purple cow” in scientific research.
Yet, a remarkable project alone is insufficient for success; it must be launched in a venue conducive to amplifying its impact. Pardis recognized that the scientific publication ecosystem provided the perfect conduit for spreading her ideas far and wide.
Her research found a global audience through peer-reviewed journals like Nature, sparking discussions, garnering citations, and shaping the discourse within her field. Thus, by strategically aligning her remarkable project with a venue primed for dissemination, Pardis epitomized the Law of Remarkability in action.
Kirk French: Unearthing Archaeological Narratives
In a parallel narrative, Kirk French embarked on his mission to popularize modern archaeology—a goal that resonated deeply with his passion for uncovering historical narratives. Yet, Kirk understood that conventional approaches to this mission would yield lackluster results. To make a meaningful impact, he needed a project to capture the public’s imagination and propel his career to new heights.
Kirk conceptualized a unique project in a stroke of brilliance: using archaeological techniques to unveil the hidden stories behind family heirlooms and artifacts. This unconventional approach breathed new life into his mission and generated widespread acclaim and recognition.
The success of Kirk’s project lies in its ability to captivate audiences and spark conversations. The many speaking invitations and keynote addresses that followed underscored the project’s remarkable nature and resonance with diverse audiences. By choosing a project that transcended traditional boundaries and piqued public interest, Kirk embodied the essence of the Law of Remarkability.
However, a remarkable project is only half the equation; it must find expression in a venue conducive to amplifying its impact. For Kirk, television emerged as the perfect medium—a platform that leveraged society’s fascination with captivating narratives and compelling storytelling. Through television appearances and documentaries, Kirk’s project reached millions, cementing his status as a pioneer in popular archaeology.
In essence, Kirk’s journey exemplifies how a remarkable project, launched in a suitable venue, can transform a career and leave an indelible mark on society. His story serves as a testament to the power of the Law of Remarkability in shaping career trajectories and driving meaningful change.
Conclusion: Missions Require Marketing
Embrace the power of the Law of Remarkability to propel your dreams to new heights. It’s not just about having a good idea; it’s about creating something so extraordinary that it leaves a lasting impression on everyone it touches. You can find projects that inspire conversation and launch them in venues where their impact can truly be felt.
We understand the challenges you face, but we also see the incredible potential within you. By applying the principles of the Law of Remarkability, you can overcome obstacles and achieve remarkable success. So, take that first step, believe in your vision, and watch as your missions transform into extraordinary triumphs.
Ready to Make Your Mark? Start now. Find your remarkable project, launch it boldly, and let the world marvel at your brilliance. Your journey to greatness awaits—seize it with confidence and conviction.