Bob Mankoff - Work in batches of 10

                                       

Bob Mankoff, Cartoonist and Author talks about why you should "Work in batches of 10", why "Talent is the ticket but that's all " and the why you should "Appreciate when 'good' is 'good enough'". Hosted by Duff Watkins.

About Bob Mankoff

For over 40 years, Bob Mankoff has been the driving force of comedy and satire at some of the most honored publications in America, including The New Yorker and Esquire. He has devoted his life to discovering just what makes us laugh and seeks every outlet to do so, from developing The New Yorker’s web presence to integrating it with algorithms and A.I. Mankoff is currently the cartoon editor at the weekly online newsletter Air Mail.

A student of humor and creativity, Mankoff’s presentations largely focus on the creative process, from writing a successful New Yorker cartoon to inspiring creativity in others and enhancing ideas with A.I and big data. With his storied career of editing literally thousands of cartoons, Mankoff brings a hugely entertaining night of laughs, tips to bring humor to the workplace, and the option of participating in a cartoon caption contest.

In 2018, Mankoff founded and launched Cartoon Collections, parent company to CartoonStock.com, a new spin on the Cartoon Bank, the world’s most successful cartoon licensing platform that he founded in 1992. At CartoonStock.com, Bob has brought together cartoons from the New Yorker and previously unavailable cartoons from National Lampoon, Esquire, Playboy, and Barron’s to create the largest cartoon licensing source on the planet.

With comedy writer and developer Jamie Brew, Mankoff runs Botnik Studios, a network of writers, artists, and programmers who create software that augments human creativity with big data analytics.

During his recent stint at Esquire, Mankoff revived the magazine’s legacy of satire and humor, editing humor pieces, providing story ideas, and drafting his own cartoons.

For twenty years as Cartoon Editor for The New Yorker, Mankoff pored over thousands of submissions each week, analyzing, critiquing, and selecting each cartoon. He mentored cartoonists, new and old, toward the laughs readers expect. In 2005, he helped start the “New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest.” With 5,000 reader submissions a week and millions of entries to date, Mankoff partnered with Microsoft and Google Deep Mind to develop algorithms to help cull the funniest captions.

Bob is the author of numerous books, including his New York Times bestselling memoir, How About Never – Is Never Good For You?: My Life In Cartoons, of which the Washington Post wrote, “Mankoff's deep understanding of humor, both its power and its practice, is the live wire that crackles through his book.” His latest book, Have I Got a Cartoon for You!: The Moment Magazine Book of Jewish Cartoons, was released in October, 2019.

Mankoff’s career started, unexpectedly, by quitting a Ph.D program in experimental psychology at the City University of New York in 1974. Shortly after, he began submitting cartoons to the New Yorker. Three years and over 2,000 cartoons later, he finally made the magazine and has since published over 950 cartoons. His story and day-to-day at the magazine were the focus of the 2015 HBO documentary Very Semi-Serious.

Mankoff has taught classes at Swarthmore, Fordham, and led workshops on the creative process

 

Episode Notes

Lesson 1. Work in batches of 10 06:25
Lesson 2. Amateur’s love their own work, professionals don’t 11:14
Lesson 3. More problems are caused by respect than disrespect 14:44
Lesson 4. Talent is the ticket but that's all 17:39
Lesson 5. Don't rue and stew 24:40
Lesson 6. Originality is overrated 32:33
Lesson 7. Appreciate when 'good' is 'good enough'  36:39
Lesson 8. Find your sweet spot of fame 40:16
Lesson 9. Play the cards you're dealt but know the game you're in 47:32
Lesson 10. The office will always be there, your talent and opportunity won't 55:38