Herbert Lui – Blog on creativity, marketing, and the human condition.

Creative focus

This year is Apple’s 50th year in business. Decades ago, it lost creative focus, and spread itself too thin. Tim Cook describes how Apple does things, “We believe in saying no to thousands of projects so that we can really focus on the few that are truly important and meaningful to us.” Each of these…

Herbert Lui

July 8, 2026

Creativity, Creator Confidential, Turning Stories

Making in bets

The Consistency Journal is an experiment. There are signs of early momentum, but I don’t know how it’s going to go. It started off as a pet, and now it’s more like livestock. Creative Doing was an experiment. I started interesting conversations with it. While I continue to promote it, it’s transitioned into being a…

Herbert Lui

July 7, 2026

Creativity, Creator Confidential

Public transit as a destination

In her memoir Airplane Mode, author Shahnaz Habib shares her travels around the world. One of my favorite passages, though, was about her taking her local Brooklyn bus as a new parent, “Where I wanted to be was on the bus… The bus itself became my destination. A place to sit, a window to look…

Herbert Lui

July 6, 2026

Around the World, Creativity, Turning Stories

Buy things you need, with money you have, to impress people you like

“We buy things we don’t need, with money we don’t have, to impress people we don’t like.” I forget when I came across this quote, but I remember being young. It resonated with me deeply. Inverting this is useful: only buy things you need, with money you have, to impress people you like. Remember, anything…

Herbert Lui

July 5, 2026

Life, Turning Stories

Self approval

Peer pressure takes place when the people around you are doing something that goes against something you believe in. It could be a goal, your values, or a desire. It can be brief, like being the only person not drinking at a party because you want to wake up without a hangover. When your friends all…

Herbert Lui

July 4, 2026

Expectations, Life, Turning Stories

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