do fewer things better

i was drunk on gin martinis in a hollywood movie theater

writing furiously in my paul frank notebook

when i came to a break and wrote this down

do fewer things—better

someone named natalie read these words over my arm and she took my pen and added quote marks to it

that was in 2009

since then i have tried to do fewer things better

it was hard for me since im interested in lots of things—in each i can see the potential to go deep and its hard to let go of the potential in those things

that was around the time i got my tattoo (vincit qui se vincit) which means (she conquers who conquers herself)

i was trying to stop drinking

i was trying to make my software company go somewhere

i was trying to write my second novel

and to do any of those things i had to do fewer things better

i had to quit my job—move to tucson—go to 5 aa meetings a day (eventually stopped drinking) eventually wrote that second book

sometimes you have to do a lot of things—sometimes you have to do fewer things better

i think natalie recognized that—she said youve got something in that phrase (i hope she is doing fewer things better right now)

for me—today—this takes its form in my arranging the app icons on my phone

the bottom bar (the most important place) has room for four items—im using only three in the spirit of doing fewer things

the icons are

• my camera
• my darkroom
• my blog writing tool

those are the things i create

those are the few things

that i want to do better