Category: Creativity
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Good prose
The lyrics from a good song will put your feelings into words better than you could have. That’s really the songwriter’s only job. Similarly, the prose from a blog post, article, or book should put your feelings into words better than you could have as well. A good piece of prose should energize you and…
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Good Enough
There are enough people who don’t like how software has evolved, don’t need all of the bells and whistles (and don’t want to pay for it), and remember how much simpler software used to be. It’s how I feel about the music app, Doppler. I don’t know the team at Good Enough, but it seems…
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Teenage years, interfaces, and classic technology
When I was a teenager, I spent hours trying to improve my computer’s interface. I can’t tell you how many times I changed my Windows XP interface to try to look like a Mac. When Windows Longhorn was out in beta, I spent many afternoons trying to get it to work too—even partitioning my hard…
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What do you need?
This is worth being curious about. But for starters, you need to be mindful and not distracted—sometimes, bored—in order to remember to ask yourself this question. “Our changing moods and energy levels, and how inspired we’re feeling on any given day, are part of the hard reality we must accept in order to take effective…
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You vs. the package of you
Personas are packages for people. But of course, they’re not actually people. When you see someone with a crafted persona, you don’t actually know who that person actually is. Sure—you know that they’re ambitious, chasing status, wealth, and power. You could say that they are “moving up in the world.” But without living up to…
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A path to consistency
An earlier blog post I wrote has been bouncing around my mind lately: consistency starts with inconsistency. If the fear of commitment—or the avoidance of hard, consistent work—prevents you from getting started on something, the best solution is to find another way to see it. What could make the work easy? Do you need to…
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The right to make a classic
An architecture student asks her professor for advice. As they review her work together, he challenges her, “Is your design as good as the Chartres Cathedral?” The student grimaces in confusion, looks out the window, and responds earnestly, “Of course not, I could never do that.” A few seconds pass, and she glances at the…