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Here is another interview I’ve done for Authority Magazine, an e-magazine that I like for the effort the editor puts in to covering many topics.
I don’t think Authority Magazine gets much readership because its topics range so broadly, and they don’t spend money to market it. Also, it’s on the platform Medium, whose name reflects the platform’s quality. But it’s free for me as a contributor, so I take the effort seriously.
Kristin Marquet Interviews Lincoln Stoller
Some writers and authors have a knack for using language that can really move people. Some writers and authors have been able to influence millions with their words alone. What does it take to become an effective and successful author or writer? In this interview series, called “5 Things You Need To Be A Successful Author or Writer” we are talking to successful authors and writers who can share lessons from their experiences. As part of this series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Lincoln Stoller.
Lincoln began writing in 2017 with the completion of his book The Learning Project, motivated by his strong beliefs in education. Since then, he has extended his work in psychotherapy and neuropsychology and come to broader conclusions in physics and extreme sports. For Lincoln, writing is not about profit, recognition, or agreement. It’s about saying important things.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?
Writing has been the maturation of my opinions. Before I felt certain of myself, I wrote research and technical papers. Those are not works of writing, and they do little to enhance one’s writing ability. The consolidation of my beliefs fuels my writing. This motivates me, but it also undermines me since I must repeat myself.
Can you share the most interesting story that occurred to you in the course of your career?
I don’t consider myself a writer. I feel more of a journalist describing what I do. I combine my effort to have an effect, with my desire to find those who will work with me. I write to enlighten people, not entertain them.
My most interesting stories concern my most interesting work. Of this, the work most easily communicated relates to people, unusual people in particular. As a therapist, everything I say is crafted as a story of some kind. As a researcher, the story is about exploration.
The Learning Project: Rites of Passage remains my most inspired book because it consists of interviews with people who inspired me. The range is so broad, cutting across ages, cultures, and interests, that I must refer you to it for more explanation. A free, hypertext version is online here: https://www.mindstrengthbalance.com/learn/
A reader only understands what they’re familiar with. We translate everything into our own language. I can tell more interesting stories to more informed audiences. I’d like to tell you interesting stories about physics, but you wouldn’t understand. This is a case in point, because what’s most interesting in physics is what makes the least sense. For the most part, writing is supposed to make sense. To read interesting physics, you need a rational mind that appreciates confusion. Few readers qualify.
I have found an audience among people who engage in extreme sports, and I’m looking for audiences among empathetic and creative people, as that is my temperament. What I have to say is important but not normal.
It amuses me how journalists who are interested in these topics blow me off. They don’t understand because they have no skin in the game. Their role is preparing an audience, and they fail. Most of my audience remains unprepared.
What was the biggest challenge you faced in your journey to becoming a writer? How did you overcome it? Can you share a story about that that other aspiring writers can learn from?
I can’t answer this because I’m not a writer, and I have little interest in writing, and no interest in writers. If you are a physicist, neuropsychologist, psychonaut, explorer, genius, or an idiot, and you want to write about these things, then I’m interested. I’m interested in what you know; writing is just a means of delivery.
If you want to be a writer, my advice is don’t waste your time. Instead inspire, reveal, explore, advance, or contribute. The writing is secondary to the message.
If you feel called to speak, then speak so that your audience pays no attention to “the man behind the curtain.” You are the man behind the curtain, but it is the booming, fiery head that speaks. In the fantasy world of The Wizard of Oz, the man behind the curtain was the voice of truth, but in the real world it is the burning bush that’s worth listening to. If you’re not channeling insight, don’t waste my time.
It has been said that our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
The greatest learning mistakes aren’t funny. I don’t think they can be. Funny means light hearted rearrangement. You don’t gain knowledge by providing the right answers. You won’t find happiness in comfort.
My greatest learning mistakes have involved big bets that resulted in big suffering. If the burned hand learns best, then the nearly killed student learns the most. Also, big learning mistakes are gifts that keep on giving. You don’t need to make many to reshape your life.
I learned and am still learning from my two failed marriages, the last of which boosted me into the world of psychopathology. My most educational mountaineering expeditions were the ones that failed. I enjoyed flying airplanes, but crashing them taught me far more than any pleasant afternoon. I also remember some close calls in the sky and in the mountains. I didn’t think they were funny then or now, and it would be difficult to explain them to you.
I’ve read books on getting literary agents and publishers, and I attempted to speak to many of them. From this I learned that neither offer anything of value other than money. You must ignore and avoid them as much as possible. What artist of merit would shape his or her craft according the preferences of a gallery or merchandising agent?
Do you want to innovate or profit? You can’t aim for both because they’re unrelated. You can profit by satisfying demand, but there is little demand for novelty.
I remember talking with Roy Neuberger, whose art collection is now housed in the Neuberger Museum on the campus of the State University of New York. He said he bought his masterpieces for pennies on the streets of Paris. Van Gogh never sold anything in his lifetime. Do you want to be van Gogh or Neuberger?
In your opinion, were you a “natural born writer” or did you develop that aptitude later on? Can you explain what you mean?
I learned to write after college when I was denied entrance to the University of California because I failed to pass their entering undergraduate writing test. That was my first indication that I learned little in college. The Learning Project improved my writing, but it mostly involved transcription. I still don’t pay much attention to writing, and I don’t care. I focus on communicating.
As I reread my latest book, Operating Manual for Enlightenment, I’m amused at how well I fail to communicate. The book is full of imperatives and unexplained directives. It follows my paradigm of throwing readers into the deep end of the pool. That’s basically how I’ve learned anything.
I despise those who think they’re teachers. You learn how to do anything by being called to do it. All you need to do is persist and survive.
What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now?
Finding a successful life partner is an exciting project. Making a million dollars and building myself a house is another. As I tell my clients, “you must not only expect to fail, you must want to.” Failure is an indication that you’re exploring new territory. New territory is where you’ll find new answers.
Every one of my psychotherapy clients is an adventure. I say to them, “I’m not your friend, and I don’t care what you think of me. I just want to understand you, and learn how you can be effective in the world.”
I think I know enough about people that I will not fail in partnership again, but then I also may not get enmeshed again. I’m not sure about the million dollars, but I’m okay with failing in that project if I get a home another way.
I’m working on exciting projects in physics and neuropsychology. In physics, I want to demonstrate that we do not live in a 3-dimensional world. All around us exist objects of other dimensions that we, as humans, cannot recognize. The electron is such an object.
In neuropsychology, I will show that consciousness is an ecology of interactions between past and future. It’s a mathematical collage of past experience that generates future decisions. The larger problem is how to measure this.
Here is the main question of our interview. Based on your experience, what are the “5 Things You Need To Be A Successful Author or Writer”? Please share a story or example for each.
- Have something to say.
- Have an essential reason for saying it, a reason that is meaningful to you.
- Decide what you want to succeed at. Is your standard commercial, financial, aesthetic, or artistic? Are you trying to redeem yourself, degrade yourself, or get laid? The sooner you dispense with your expectations, the faster you’ll find purpose.
- Don’t set goals, just produce work continuously. This doesn’t mean creating a constant stream of deliverables, it means always having your purpose in mind and pursuing it incessantly. When you produce garbage, consider your failures to be vacations.
- Write, speak, or experience a lot. Travel in space, or time, or culture. Explore altered states of mind. Emptiness is more valuable than filler.
- Avoid negativity. Do not tolerate exploitative people. Don’t fraternize or work with them. If you don’t like your job, quit.
- Avoid addictions. If you’re a drinker, smoker, abuser, materialist, or habitual drug user, then you’re not taking yourself seriously. You’re wasting your life and everyone else’s, too. The best you can hope for is a share in the profit of your exploitation.
What is the one habit you believe contributed the most to you becoming a great writer? (i.e. perseverance, discipline, play, craft study). Can you share a story or example?
I might become a great writer if I focused on writing, rather than the ideas I convey. If I made the story its own purpose, then I might create great stories. Even in this case, however, greatness would be my own decision with no concern for what others think.
Good nonfiction always involves the dual objectives of conveying a deep understanding, and conveying it artistically. I don’t write fiction, but I suspect it similarly involves a deeply meaningful story well told. These two objectives can be considered and refined independently. In the best writing these two objectives come together. The presentation becomes the message that’s remembered.
Which literature do you draw inspiration from? Why?
None, really. Bad technical writing annoys me tremendously, and that’s an inspiration of sorts. Few researchers in technical fields respect their readers, and they can’t write well.
I’ve read some beautiful children’s books. I suspect it’s the ideas that move me more than the writing, as that’s what I look for. Books like The Giver quartet, by Lois Lowry, and The Magic Thief series by Sarah Prineas.
You are a person of enormous influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)
My work to open people’s minds, as presented on my websites.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
Creativity and mental health: https://www.mindstrengthbalance.com
My books: https://www.mindstrengthbooks.com/com
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