The Epic of Gilgamesh. Exodus. The Odyssey. Lord of the Rings. Harry Potter. For as long as humans have been telling stories, those stories have taken a familiar shape: the quest. This hasn’t changed as we’ve moved into digital spaces. Hooking users into an ongoing narrative of pursuit built around your mission is one of the most powerful ways to develop your voice, workflow, calendar, content architecture and strategy.

1. w
THE ART OF THE
Quest

2. #contquest
@mthomps

3. There are only two or three human stories,
and they go on repeating themselves
as fiercely as if they had never happened before.
WILLA CATHER

4. M THE
Monomyth

5. Public Domain image

6. Public Domain image

11. The Quest moves online.

13. i
Why Quests?

22. 344 chapters. 4,223 pages.
(cc) Jemimus / Flickr

23. The Dark Is Rising
Beowulf
The Epic of Gilgamesh
The Faerie Queene
The Odyssey & Iliad
The Lord of the Rings
The Chronicles of Narnia
Star Wars
Harry Potter
A Song of Ice & Fire
The Dark Tower
Quests can sprawl.

24. They thrive on transparency.

25. They invite participation.

26. They have a template.

27. K THE
Quest Object

28. This is Josh Reich.

30. Call
TO
Adventure

32. QUEST:
Build a better bank.

34. SELL THE QUESTION,
not the answer.

35. SELL THE MISSION,
not the product.

36. One of the more surprising things I've noticed while
working on Y Combinator is how frightening the most
ambitious startup ideas are. In this essay I'm going to
demonstrate this phenomenon by describing some. Any one
of them could make you a billionaire. That might sound
like an attractive prospect, and yet when I describe these
ideas you may notice you find yourself shrinking away
from them.
Don't worry, it's not a sign of weakness. Arguably it's a sign
of sanity. The biggest startup ideas are terrifying. And not
just because they'd be a lot of work. The biggest ideas seem
to threaten your identity: you wonder if you'd have enough
ambition to carry them through.
PAUL GRAHAM

37. One of the more surprising things I've noticed while
working on Y Combinator is how frightening the most
ambitious startup ideas are. In this essay I'm going to
demonstrate this phenomenon by describing some. Any one
of them could make you a billionaire. That might sound
like an attractive prospect, and yet when I describe these
ideas you may notice you find yourself shrinking away
Refusal
from them. OF THE
Call
Don't worry, it's not a sign of weakness. Arguably it's a sign
of sanity. The biggest startup ideas are terrifying. And not
just because they'd be a lot of work. The biggest ideas seem
to threaten your identity: you wonder if you'd have enough
ambition to carry them through.
PAUL GRAHAM

38. I think the way to use these big ideas is not to try to
identify a precise point in the future and then ask yourself
how to get from here to there, like the popular image of a
visionary. You'll be better off if you operate like Columbus
and just head in a general westerly direction. Don't try to
construct the future like a building, because your current
blueprint is almost certainly mistaken.
Start with something you know works, and when
you expand, expand westward.
PAUL GRAHAM

39. p THE
Protagonists

40. Journalist as protagonist

41. Company as protagonist

42. Company as protagonist

43. Company as protagonist

44. Supernatural
Aid
Company as protagonist

45. User as protagonist

46. The most important trait ...

48. Empathy.

49. Show us your struggles.

50. Tell us what you don’t know.

51. U
Planning
THE QUEST

52. World Domination Plan

53. Personas

54. Themes

55. Questions

56. Persona
Educator
Theme
Curricula
Question
How are curricula changing?

57. QUEST:
Write the ultimate guide.

58. Guide outline I

59. Guide outline II:
More authority.

60. First post in the series.

61. T
Winning
THE QUEST

62. My favorite questing engine.

63. My favorite questing engine.

64. My favorite questing engine.

65. July 2009.

69. PUBLISHING IS A
beginning,
NOT AN ENDING.

70. APOTENTIAL
Pitfalls

71. Not everything
merits a quest.

73. Fan capture.

74. Fans
Friends
Foreigners

75. Fans
Friends
Foreigners

76. Fans
Friends
Foreigners

77. Solipsism &
filter failure.

78. MediaSite™ !"#$%&'($)"#*$+,'$%-*-$.(&'$/*-0)1$
Your local news source.
NEWS ARTSPLASH SPORTZBUZZ YOURVOICES HOMESLICE GO!
Real-Time News
Memorial Garden dedicated
ArtSplash
YourVoices
SportzBuzz

79. #brandcastle

80. #brandcastle
n. A media experience purporting
to offer content and
storytelling, but in reality
obsessed primarily with how a
media entity thinks of itself.

81. What I didn’t talk about ...

82. We have not even to risk the adventure alone,
for the heroes of all time have gone before us —
the labyrinth is thoroughly known.
JOSEPH CAMPBELL

83. Thank you.
#contquest
@mthomps