Steve Gillman - Born in 1964

 

Writer - Entrepreneur - Thinker

 

This is where you can find out what book I'm working on, my opinions on current events, ramblings on a variety of topics, and announcements of all of my latest websites, e-books, videos, newsletters and other works.

How I Make a Living Writing

January 25th, 2012 by Steve Gillman No comments »

If you want to make a living writing, you have to get busy writing. Ideas are just a start; getting them down on paper or into a computer file is what you need to do. And sometimes you even have to write on subjects which are less than inspiring, if that’s what it takes to get the income flowing.

For example, this morning I wrote a new page for my website on how to remove carpet stains. You can see it here if you care about the ongoing debate between carpet lovers and those who prefer wood floors: Carpet Versus Hardwood Flooring. No, I am not thrilled about writing on the subject of carpet, but that little website pays all the household bills, so I figure I should devote thirty or forty minutes to it every week or two.

Fortunately it is easier than ever to write about anything now. This is, of course, due to » Read more: How I Make a Living Writing

The Thousand Mile Hole

January 17th, 2012 by Steve Gillman No comments »

That’s the name of my newest book. Subtitled, “A Guide to Deep Thought,” it starts with a fall into a hole that is (you guessed it) a thousand miles deep. There is something different about a hole like that, when compared to other holes. Normally, if you fall off a cliff or into a deep hole, you die very quickly. Perhaps you have the proverbial “life flashing before your eyes,” but it has to flash quickly since you will hit bottom in mere seconds. But with a hole of a thousand miles, and the with humans reaching terminal velocity at around 125 miles per hour, you would fall for eight hours before certain death.

Or is death certain? That’s one of the many things I explore as I fall to my death all day long in Chapter One. This is an extended version of the classic “thought experiment” used by Albert Einstein and others. In Einstein’s case, he imagined things like running alongside a beam of light, or a man falling from a building. He used these exercises in imagination to change the face of modern physics.

In other chapters I look at many ways to think deeply and creatively about almost anything.

The book was really finished more than a year ago, but I got busy with many other projects. In order to get this one out there I finally decided to skip the paper version for now. The book  has been published only on Amazon Kindle. You can get a copy here:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006U1OQ2Q

Fortunately, if you do not have a Kindle reader, it costs nothing to » Read more: The Thousand Mile Hole

Three Tips for Writers

December 28th, 2011 by Steve Gillman No comments »

Just to get a post up (it’s been a while), I’ll give a little bit of “insider information” for writers who have a book being published, or those who hope to soon. Three items come to mind as I think through the process of getting my book “101 Weird Ways to Make Money” published.

1. Negotiate

It may seem that as a first time author you should just take the deal given to you, and in general that may be true. But there is always room for negotiation. When the contract was sent to me by Wiley and Sons, I had problems with four or five relatively minor parts of it. They  agreed to changes in all of them. The details are unimportant here, since they will be different in your case, but I didn’t ask for  more of an advance or higher royalties. I suspect that first-time authors would not often be able to negotiate higher royalties or advances unless they are famous or in the news.

2. Buy Your Books Online

Should you buy your own copies of your book from the publisher? Maybe; but check the price that you pay and if it only pennies more to buy online, get your copies there. Many publisher/author contracts will require that » Read more: Three Tips for Writers

Debt and Analogy

December 19th, 2011 by Steve Gillman No comments »

I was forwarded the following email, and I liked it. It shows how a good analogy can make something very clear. It also can be used as an example of why making things clear is not always the same as understanding them more deeply. I’ll explain in a moment, but let’s look at the email first:

Reasons for the US government debt downgrade:

• Tax revenue: $2,170,000,000,000
• Budget: $3,820,000,000,000
• New debt: $ 1,650,000,000,000
• Debt: $14,271,000,000,000
• Recent budget cuts: $ 38,500,000,000

Remove eight zeros and pretend » Read more: Debt and Analogy

Free Chapter

December 5th, 2011 by Steve Gillman No comments »

Here is a free chapter from 101 Weird Ways to Make Money (you can order the book through the link to the right).

Chapter 8

The Business of Chasing Criminals

Bounty Hunting Careers

I was a skip tracer many years ago. Sometimes confused with bounty hunting, skip tracing is simply finding people. I did this primarily by phone when working for a collection agency, and I had to actually physically locate the person being sued when I was a process server. Bounty hunters, also called “bail enforcement agents,” use skip tracing techniques, but their job is more interesting and dangerous than simply locating someone.

They are primarily hired by bail bond agencies. Suppose a court sets bail at $50,000 for someone charged with theft. A bail bond agency might charge the accused $5,000 (and sometimes require collateral), and then give or guarantee the court the $50,000, which is forfeited if the defendant doesn’t make it to trial on time. In this case, rather than lose the $50,000, the bondsman » Read more: Free Chapter

A Radical Book or Two

November 28th, 2011 by Steve Gillman No comments »

Yes, I have some different ideas about things, and the time has come to publish a radical book or two. Actually I have four in the works, with the first one completely done and the other three just in need of editing. I have even paid to have book covers designed for them. They will be only available as e-books on Amazon’s Kindle and the Barnes and Noble Nook. I should have them published by January.

They are collections of essays, some of which I wrote years ago, and many more recent ones. People think I am outspoken about issues, but the truth is they don’t know the half of it. If I’m not asked I rarely offer my opinion on a matter when talking to others. I do not want to offend people just to show off my own beliefs.

On the other hand » Read more: A Radical Book or Two

Who is the Puppet Master?

November 12th, 2011 by Steve Gillman No comments »

The mind is the puppet master… Some of you have not read my book, Beyond Mental Slavery, so to encourage you to do so I am posting the following excerpt. It is from Chapter Two: Who Is the Master? The book is available as a paperback, as well as on Amazon’s Kindle and Barnes and Noble’s Nook e-book readers. The excerpt:

Most of us automatically assume that we know who we are and that we control our lives purposefully and consciously, at least most of the time. Chances are you suffer from this illusion to some degree, along with the rest of us. The following short story might help with your disillusionment. That word usually has negative connotations for people, but it is typically defined as “a freeing or a being freed from illusion.” Isn’t that kind of freedom something exciting and desirable?

 

Bob turned on his computer one morning and it told him, “You have too much to do today, so you’d better start rushing.”

 

“Yes, I’d better hurry,” Bob agreed, moving faster as his blood pressure went up a little bit, and he thought about what he needed to do.

 

“You’ll feel better if you make a list,” the computer told him, so he did that, even adding » Read more: Who is the Puppet Master?

Latest News

October 26th, 2011 by Steve Gillman 410 comments »

Today’s post is just a collection of the latest news and updates on what I’m doing…

First, I have to say that I will soon be disabling the comment son this blog. Those of you who have active blogs probably already understand why. Most of what I get is spam, and I have to go through regularly to delete almost all of the comments. This is despite a spam blocker (no idea how much garbage there would be without that). There are now programs which post comments on blogs, and they sometimes they leave their programming notes by accident. The whole checking of comments for the one-in-a-hundred that is real takes too much time. You can still contact me by email (poke around the blog or any of my sites for contact pages and you’ll find the email (I don’t want to put it here).

In other news, I am working on a couple books which will be published on Amazon Kindle and Barnes and Noble Nook readers. They will be some of my more radical essays, and though I may lose visitors because of them, I feel like being not only honest, but open. You will see what I mean when I announce their release here in a few weeks (the first book in the series is titled “Gay Jesus”).

I am still adding videos to my YouTube channel, which you can view and subscribe to here: http://www.youtube.com/user/SSGillman

My wife and I have also launched a fun channel with an interesting character named “Ralph” (Host of “How to Make Money With Anything”) and a few others to come. You better have a sense of humor for this one: http://www.youtube.com/user/PsychoPepperFilms

I am working on a backpacking show (for another channel) as well, which will probably not be ready until late winter.

Those are a few of the projects I am currently working on.

100 Years of Changes

October 21st, 2011 by Steve Gillman 438 comments »

I recently received an email with some statistics for the Year 1910. I am not sure about their accuracy, but after checking on a few of them it seems to me that they are not entirely invented. Here are some of the ones that especially caught my attention, along with my comments on the significance of each.

In 1910 the average life expectancy for men was 47 years.

What an amazing thing to see such an incredible increase in life expectancy while at the same time so many people are worried that we are all being poisoned and facing huge threats to our lives. There really are huge problems that we face, but it is worth remembering that the technologies we worry about are in many cases the same ones which have directly or indirectly lifted our standards of life and health so high. Any technology that has seriously boosted economic output, for example, allows for more » Read more: 100 Years of Changes

Everyone Is Wrong (Even When They Are Right)

October 17th, 2011 by Steve Gillman 63 comments »

The truth lies in the middle–but that is just a metaphor that works in a limited way. Perhaps it is better to say that the truth is pointed to in many ways, or that various aspects of the truth are pointed to with various ideas.

Here is a story as an example:

At some point, Frank started to run out of time to do all the things he wanted to do. He decided it was time to pay for people to clean his house. It makes sense to pay $15 per hour to a house cleaner since he could generate $30 per hour doing something else, right?

This is what he told his friend. In fact, he extrapolated the principle here and decided that anything which saved his time was worth up to $15 per hour saved (he set the amount lower than the $30 per hour he makes, to allow for a margin of error, as well as taxes). He decided that he should pay for any such product or service if he could.

His friend said this is nonsense. He suggested that Frank was living a very narrow life if he specialized so exclusively on his work and paid for every dish to be washed, all yard care, and so on. He should do all the things most people have to do, in order to » Read more: Everyone Is Wrong (Even When They Are Right)