Justin Jackson: Seinfeld vs Louis C.K., Product Creation and Professional Procrastination

Justin is a product-maker, interview and host of his own podcast, Product People (url) and one of the best thinkers about what makes products work and how to get inside the minds of your audience.

We talked about one of my favorite topics, Seinfeld, and how comedy relates to our work as content producers. We also dove into, music, film, Steve Jobs and whether genius is innate or if it can be learned.

Here are some of my favorite bits from the show:

The Secret to Being a Great Writer

“I don’t think people really like my writing, but they just like the idea of what I right about.”

“I think that’s what I’m actually good at, is kind of identifying something deep inside people’s guts that they’ve felt, but never been able to verbalize.”

One Product Making and Psychology

“Time and attention is a form of currency and if you can figure out how to get people to spend their time and attention on something that you’ve created, there is a transaction that goes on there.”

“One of the problems I see people having is that they jump straight from doing nothing to trying to make something they could sell.”

“Making something for money is a lot harder than selling something for people’s time and attention.”

“If you haven’t learned the skills in terms of what it takes to give their time and attention, how are you actually going to convince them to take out their wallets.”

“It’s hard to convince people to do anything. It’s all about psychology. So if you haven’t practiced, you’re going to fail.”

“None of this is new. The problem is we’re not practiced … in knowing what people really care about”

On vulnerability in writing

“You expose that thing that no one ever expresses and other people feel relieved.”

“I think people know what they want when they see it, but they can’t articulate it.”

On others-centeredness and altruism

“Others-centeredness doesn’t always have to be altruistic. Sometimes it can just be, ‘I’m doing this for myself”, but acknowledging that it’s for other people. I’m doing this because it matches up with what other people desire.”

As always, I had a great time talking to Justin. Enjoy the show!

Show Notes

Min 7: Seinfeld vs Louis C.K.

Min 23: Why Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is my favorite film.

Min 28: How comedy relates to what we do as product makers and content producers.

Min 33: How to keep putting out great content.

Min 36: Why so many product maker’s fail.

Min 43: What people really care about.

Min 61: The key to the “why”.

Min 68: What I see everyone missing.

Bits & Bytes Mentioned in the Show

Jerry Seinfeld

Louis C.K.

Chris Rock

Marc Maron

Jim Gaffigan

Kevin James

Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee

Mitch Hedberg

Talking Funny