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Harter Research and Writing

Are you measuring against the best people on the planet? 🌎

Published about 4 years ago • 4 min read

To become a top performer, at least know what you do

Ever know you read something somewhere but can't remember where? I've had that feeling lately.

I was listening to something—an audiobook, I think—that had a random nugget in it that caused me to stop walking right in the middle of the sidewalk.

"Are you measuring yourself against the best people on the planet?"

I remember right where I was standing when I heard this, about a half mile from my house.

"I don't guess I know who the best people in the industry are," I thought.

So I started walking again and thought some more, pausing the audiobook in my ears. "Heck, do I even know what it is I do?"

This has been on my mind for the two weeks and I still don't have an answer to what I do. Before I can even guess who the best people are, I have to know what I'm doing first. At best I've scratched at a few notions:

  • A brand journalist (an afront to real journalism)
  • A copywriter (too broad)
  • A content marketer (gross)
  • Some guy that helps make websites better (lame)
  • A consultant (too broad)
  • Working at the intersection of web writing and craft (too complicated)
  • A writer (too broad)

I'm still working on it. "Website copywriter" is about the best I've got so far.

But in the meantime I wanted to pose this question to you. Do you know exactly what it is you do?

And do you know who the best people on the planet are that do what you do? And how do you compare yourself against those talented people? It's also probably worth asking if you even want to be a top performer in your work.

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Current projects underway

  • A new, aggressively in-depth copywriting for the web course.
  • New summer goal: ride the full Nickel Plate Trail (not to be confused with the new one of the same name being built in Hamilton County).
  • Increased my daily exercise goal from 30 to 60 minutes.
  • What is the history of Mexican Train Dominoes, and is that game's name a little racist? (Sorta, but not terribly racist it seems).
  • New student orientation materials and new copy on research endeavors for IU Bloomington.
  • New landing page text for a local engineering firm.
Have an idea you want me to research or suggest I look into? Submit it here. Or, reply back. Know somoene or someplace that could use some fancy new words for their website? Reply back or contact me.

Read a preview of an upcoming piece

I set a lotfy goal to get published in The New Yorker and Atlantic. I figure I bet start smaller and work on editors close to home.

A piece I'm working on for the Indiana Historical Society is tentatively titled, "Untrusting of surveyors, many Indiana cities and counties formed around the September sun". It's 2,500 words, but you can read a preview below. You're the first people to see this.

For context: Pres. James Madison has tasked Indiana territorial Governor William Henry Harrison with negotiating a treaty at Fort Wayne to acquire 3 million new acres of land from about 900 Native Americans. The area today is a space that covers a line from about Terre Haute to Brownstown, Ind. And for any readers familiar with Fort Wayne today and wondered where the name Wells Street came from...

Everyone was running low on patience. Negotiations had stretched through the week. Harrison, tired of waiting, announced he would submit a Treaty for ratification the following day on Saturday, September 30.
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The Potawatomi Chief began to speak in favor of ratification. But the Miamies, led by Little Turtle, abruptly got up and left the Council House.
Determined not to let the negotiations fail and to find out what the hesitancy was once again, Harrison and a single interpreter set out to meet the Miamies at their camp at sunrise on September 30.
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In the ensuing talks, Harrison learned the principal War Chief of the Miamies distrusted a single white man.
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At issue was a Mr. Audrain, whose first name is never mentioned in the Proceedings. Mr. Audrain had allegedly cheated the Miami War Chief out of $70, presumably in some sale of goods for which he was never paid.
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For better or worse, Mr. Audrain was a connection of Mr. William Wells, one of Indiana's best-known frontiersmen and one of the two Indian agents accompanying Harrison from Vincennes. The Eel River Miami had captured Wells in 1784 as a young boy. Wells would later become a Miami warrior and be a controversial "Indian agent" at Fort Wayne for much of his life with conflicting allegiances between tribes, the British, French, and American settlers.
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The Miami War Chief asked Mr. Wells in vain "for redress" on the $70 matter but with no success.
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The Governor, writes his secretary, "...had no alternative but to promise immediate satisfaction for these claims and to assure them that he also perfectly understood and admitted that they [The Mississinway Chiefs] were the real representatives of the Miami Nation." There is no record of who paid the $70 debt.

Recent posts and completed work

Lastly:

I quietly launched a membership option with a $9 Supporter and $14 Super Nice Supporter tier. It's like buying me a cheap lunch every month! Cancel anytime.

Why this and why now? Because I want to work on a book, and it'd be neat if I could have help covering my time.

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Harter Research and Writing

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