Brutal Honesty, a Book Launch Plan, and 99 Bits of Unsolicited Advice
Unless It’s Kicks by Okkervil River. This song has been stuck in my head all week. Let’s get it stuck in yours. Hit play and dance with me. The beat kicks in at 0:47.
Enjoy your Friday, friends!
Book Update: First Feedback
It felt good to take a step forward this week. I’ve been in a holding pattern, waiting for feedback and the editing plan. Well, it’s in! And it’s not awful! Here’s an excerpt:
Your penchant for "telling it like it is" and not sugarcoating anything serves you well. Your "brutal honesty" makes for a much more interesting story!
Overall, the editing plan is exactly what I was hoping to see. I can't wait to kick this over the finish line. Deadline: June 22.
Now Hiring!
Since Marketing & PR are in my wheelhouse, I’ve decided to save a few bucks and manage a lot of the book launch myself. Well…hopefully not all by myself🤞
I’m currently looking for a curious, creative, self-motivated person who loves books, understands the media, and is interested in learning how to execute a marketing and publicity campaign. We’ll be using Notion, obvs👇
Check out the internship details here — and feel free to pass it along!
Good Media
The Power User Trap (from Reforge): Most companies have an overly simplistic view of their Power Users. Teams either over-optimize for them or neglect them, ultimately killing their products: this is The Power User Trap.
99 Additional Bits of Unsolicited Advice. This list from Kevin Kelly, one of the Founding Editors of Wired Magazine, is a fun read. I’d like to add one bit of my own advice to this list: Keep your enemies close; and your exes closer. Thanks for the intro this week, Christian Antkowiak! 🤣 ⚖️
Premium Rush on Hulu. I could watch Joseph Gordon-Levitt ride a fixie around NYC all day 🥰. This 2012 action flick is a breakneck chase movie on bikes! It was exactly the escape I needed.
Speaking of a guy with three names biking around NYC…
Meet Paul Steely White (and Superpedestrian)
You can’t see him, but he’s there. He had the honor of driving the last private car allowed in Central Park — while wearing a bike helmet 😆. Pretty cool, huh?
This week, I caught up with Paul Steely White. If you don’t follow the mobility space, Paul was featured in a recent New Yorker article called The E-Scooters Loved by Silicon Valley Roll into New York. If you’re not familiar with the insanity of the e-scooter revolution, this is a must-read.
Paul Steely White was the Executive Director of Transportation Alternatives in New York City for 14 years. During his time in that role, he:
Helped launch the city’s Citi Bike bike-sharing program.
Successfully advocated for the installation of miles and miles and miles of protected bike lanes.
Got cars banned from Central Park AND Prospect Park in Brooklyn.
Won the Rockefeller Foundation’s Jane Jacobs Medal, an annual honor for “new ideas and activism.”
And my fave fun fact, Anthony Weiner called him a "policy jihadist.”
Paul is currently on the Board of Directors for the Institute for Transportation & Development Policy. He’s also the Director of Development & Public Affairs at Superpedestrian, a transportation robotics company in Cambridge, MA.
Superpedestrian makes the Link scooter👇. They also operate an e-scooter sharing system that helps people zip around cities like Austin, Columbus, Oakland, and (most recently) Asbury Park.
My favorite Link feature (outside of the fact that they design and manufacture their scooters from the ground-up, in-house): Instant Geofencing that enforces no-ride, slow-ride, and no parking zones in under 0.7 seconds. Get off the sidewalk, yinz!
If you’re not familiar with Superpedestrian, check them out. They’re doing cool stuff.
That’s all for now!
Until next time,
✌️Lynsie