Matt Zeigler explores how artificial intelligence is changing creativity, writing, attention, and the meaning of earning your work.

Using a middle school guitar story, Steven Pressfield's "Nobody Wants to Read Your Sh*t," and an unexpected AI-assisted response from the real Tommy, he argues that ChatGPT and other AI tools can accelerate output but cannot replace the effort, identity, and personal attention behind meaningful creative work.

Read the essay, "Nobody Wants to Earn Their S***," on Panoptica:

https://www.panoptica.com/nobody-wants-to-earn-their-s/

Main topics covered

• How generative AI is changing writing, creativity, and online culture

• Why AI-generated content can feel polished but still lack something essential

• Steven Pressfield's "Nobody Wants to Read Your Shit" rule for creators

• The difference between borrowing an opinion and earning one

• What a middle school debate about Slash and Stevie Ray Vaughan reveals about confidence

• Why tools cannot replace knowledge, taste, or personal experience

• How to use ChatGPT without surrendering your creative identity

• Why attention is the foundation of authentic creative work

• The internal standards creators set for themselves

• The external challenge of finding an audience that shares your taste

• Tommy's AI-written response to the essay about him

• Why effort, curiosity, and genuine care still matter in the age of AI

Timestamps

00:00 Nobody Wants to Earn Their Shit and the AI creativity problem

04:15 A middle school guitar class and the origin of the Tommy story

08:20 Stevie Ray Vaughan, Slash, and the confidence of an unearned opinion

12:00 How ChatGPT creates passable work without earned knowledge

16:00 Attention, personal standards, and using AI without losing yourself

20:00 The internal bar versus the external bar for creative work

24:00 Tommy responds with an AI-written message

28:00 Why the world still needs art, effort, and authentic creation

In this episode of Just Press Record, Matt Zeigler introduces historian and author Joseph Moore to filmmaker and producer Simon Egan for a conversation about creativity, failure, storytelling, and what happens after a big project finally reaches the world.

They discuss Joseph’s national bestselling book How to Get Rich in American History, Simon’s journey with The King’s Speech, the emotional cost of creative work, and why failure can become the feedback that leads to meaningful work.

Main topics covered

• Joseph Moore’s unexpected path from historian to personal finance author

• Simon Egan’s story of discovering and championing The King’s Speech

• Why some stories feel like they have to be told

• The role of rejection, risk, and persistence in creative work

• How failure becomes feedback for writers, filmmakers, and creators

• The emotional crash that can follow finishing a major creative project

• Why success can create pressure instead of satisfaction

• The tension between creativity, business, family, and focus

• How creators manage distractions, deep work, and multiple projects

• Why great storytelling often comes from personal pain, curiosity, and lived experience

• The importance of being a fan before becoming a creator

• Storytelling, story editing, and story selling as the heart of creative work

Timestamps

00:00 Why Joseph Moore needed to meet Simon Egan

03:02 The Just Press Record blind introduction format

05:41 Joseph Moore on How to Get Rich in American History

07:49 Why taking creative risks matters

09:31 Simon Egan’s path from finance to filmmaking

12:18 Discovering The King’s Speech

15:00 Fighting to get The King’s Speech made

18:54 The moment you decide not to quit on a story

20:22 Choosing the project over the original dream

22:00 How Geoffrey Rush became part of The King’s Speech journey

25:08 Joseph Moore’s parallel book journey

26:00 The 2008 financial crisis and the origin of Joseph’s book

28:15 Rejection from publishers and literary agents

30:31 The agent who finally saw the book’s potential

32:00 Writing a book in five months

35:04 The joy of immersive creative work

36:05 Why creation can make time stop

39:49 Balancing creative ambition with the reality of collaboration

41:19 Simon on addiction to the creative process

43:35 What happens after reaching the top of the mountain

44:39 The emotional crash after The King’s Speech success

46:07 Joseph on wanting the next creative challenge

48:25 The danger of trying to reverse engineer success

52:33 The sugar rush and crash of deep creative focus

55:00 Joseph’s post-manuscript crash

58:06 Is the creative crash part of the process?

59:38 Anxiety after handing work over to the world

01:01:17 Advice Simon would give to a younger creator

01:04:18 Joseph on failure as feedback

01:06:06 Why nothing works out the way you expect

01:08:03 How success changes the pressure to keep going

01:11:00 The difference between creative work and business work

01:18:00 Learning to be more pragmatic with creative projects

01:21:15 Managing distractions, notifications, and family life

01:24:49 How Simon structures creative work

01:26:14 Why deep creative work does not fit into short blocks

01:28:00 Designing space for creative failure

01:29:48 Why creators need to be fans first

01:32:32 Finding unexpected connections through reading and research

01:33:25 How personal experience shapes the stories we tell

01:38:15 Joseph on the stories he still wants to write

01:41:06 Guessing why Matt made the introduction

01:42:28 Storytelling, story editing, and story selling

01:42:48 Where to find Simon Egan and Joseph Moore

01:44:17 Closing thoughts and disclaimer

Megan Lurtz joins Just Press Record to unpack what a conversation with Chuck Marohn and Aaron Hurst reveals about community, trust, social connection, and the psychology of change.

This episode explores why talking to strangers, third places, shared culture, liminal space, and group thinking matter in a world shaped by algorithms, loneliness, and constant transition.

Main topics covered

• Why talking to strangers often feels uncomfortable but leaves people more connected

• How introverts and extroverts both benefit from meaningful social interaction

• Why life transitions create openings for change, learning, and identity shifts

• The role of liminal space in travel, work, money, relationships, and personal growth

• How convivial infrastructure and third places help build stronger communities

• Why shared beliefs, shared songs, and shared rituals accelerate trust

• How algorithms fracture common culture and make connection harder

• Why self-help often fails when change is attempted alone

• The argumentative theory of reason and why humans think better together

• How feelings, knowledge, community, and environment shape real behavior change

• Why building community requires intentional structures, not just good intentions

Timestamps

00:00 Why Meg Lurtz needed to see this conversation

04:29 When a short clip turns into a full rabbit hole

06:10 Why talking to strangers builds connection

12:13 Liminal space and why transitions open people to change

17:14 Coffee, sour cream, and how travel changes perspective

20:36 Convivial infrastructure, third places, and everyday community

24:15 Trust, shared beliefs, and believing unbelievable things together

25:39 Sweet Caroline, shared culture, and the loss of a common language

30:31 Keynes beauty contest, algorithms, and group decision making

31:28 The argumentative theory of reason and why thinking is social

37:11 Building community instead of just talking about it

38:44 What Spain during COVID revealed about togetherness

41:02 Introverts, extroverts, ambiverts, and social energy

45:36 The transtheoretical model of change and why feelings come first

48:00 What people need to know and feel before they can change

52:12 Why internal change needs external community

55:26 Where to find Megan Lurtz