Herbert Lui

Blog on creativity, marketing, and the human condition.

  • About
  • Creative Doing
  • The Consistency Journal
  • Newsletter
  • Speaking
  • Creative stupidity

    My latest column for 3 Quarks Daily is live, entitled, “Five Ways Bad Ideas Lead to Good Ones.” It was a fun revisiting of Creative Doing, as well as ideas I wrote in some blog posts.  In writing this one, I came up with the phrase “creative stupidity,” which was a riff on “productively stupid,”…

    Herbert Lui

    July 3, 2026
    Creativity, Creator Confidential, Expectations, Turning Stories
  • Proud to save, ashamed to spend

    You can influence how you feel. As Derek Sivers writes, “You choose your reaction. Not the first one, but the next.” When you learn to pause, even just for a few seconds, you can influence how you behave after your first reaction. Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional. Your thoughts lead to feelings, and your…

    Herbert Lui

    July 2, 2026
    Expectations, Turning Stories
  • The Love Metric

    If you’re publishing content, one useful way to measure success is to read what people are writing about it online. Margarita Noriega, who’s the current managing editor of Morning Brew, calls this the Love Metric. When she sees someone saying something nice about her work online, she shares it with her team. I did something…

    Herbert Lui

    July 1, 2026
    Creator Confidential, Figma, Promotion
  • Your first try is a proof of concept

    A proof of concept is a test project. The point is to make sure an idea can actually be created in the physical world. Perhaps it’s a prototype, or simply a finalized version of a draft, demo, or sketch. If it’s your first time making something new, treat it like a proof of concept. Make…

    Herbert Lui

    June 30, 2026
    Creativity, Creator Confidential, Expectations, Turning Stories
  • Making new material with the old

    A piece of advice I’ve found very useful is work with what’s in front of you. I’ve found myself applying this in single, short, writing sessions as well.  For example, writing a blog post or outline without opening a new tab, using only my lived experiences as research. Writing a social media or newsletter by…

    Herbert Lui

    June 29, 2026
    Creativity, Creator Confidential, Turning Stories
  • Make your work pay off

    In the past couple of weeks, my wife and I started watching a few different movies at home. We paused them all and stepped away, because we just weren’t enjoying them. We may give a couple of them another shot. Attention is more precious than ever. Promoting your work to other people is only part…

    Herbert Lui

    June 28, 2026
    Creativity, Creator Confidential
  • Happiness, desires, values, and environments

    “Desire is a contract that you make with yourself to be unhappy until you get what you want,” Naval Ravikant wrote. Sheryl Crow famously sang, “It’s not having what you want/It’s wanting what you’ve got.” Being happy with what you have is a reliable way to find happiness. The problem is it’s not so easy…

    Herbert Lui

    June 27, 2026
    Expectations, Life
  • Creating the conditions for organic content growth 

    A month after I first started at Figma, I traveled from NYC to SF for its annual conference named Config. It was the first in-person one after the pandemic. My co-worker Jenny and I wrote a liveblog for it, and I also got to see a copy of Creative Doing on the bookshelf at Figma…

    Herbert Lui

    June 26, 2026
    Contentions, Creator Confidential, Figma, Promotion, Turning Stories
  • A market fueled by purpose

    There are a lot of dedicated entrepreneurs who have set up their own dog rescue agencies in South Korea. Each one has, effectively, created their own market. They rescue dogs in troubled circumstances, and match them up with people who want to have a dog in their life. It sounds simple enough, but logistics can…

    Herbert Lui

    June 25, 2026
    Around the World, Expectations, Turning Stories
  • Don’t check your blog metrics yet

    Here’s the latest edition of my newsletter for early-stage growth leaders, Leading Thinker, which I also shared at LinkedIn: TL;DR: When you start a new blog or publication, your metrics will disappoint you. That disappointment leads to doubt, and often kills a content practice before it has a proper chance to make an impact. A…

    Herbert Lui

    June 24, 2026
    Contentions, Creator Confidential, Figma, Promotion
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