Category: Creativity
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Openness
When I was a senior in high school, my English teacher shared an op-ed she clipped from a newspaper entitled, “Please offend me, and allow me to offend you.” The spirit of the class discussion focused on how important it was for you, me, and everybody else, to be able to say what was on…
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How do you decide what’s worth reading?
Travel brings about a great opportunity: to visit local bookstores. On a trip to Hong Kong, Tokyo, and Shanghai, my family and I had the privilege of visiting these bookstores: Daikanyama T-Site (my favorite in the world and default recommendation to anyone visiting Tokyo), Ginza Tsutaya, Foreign Language Bookstore in Shanghai, Duoyun Bookstore, Shanghai Book…
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Define it
Ambiguity makes language wonderful. The same sentence, or even word, could mean something entirely different to another person. A writer may have a specific intention for their words, and yet there could be as many different interpretations as there are readers. This also means that it takes time for people to come together and agree…
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Creative unattachment
It’s best to attach the value of your work based on something that’s within your control. This could mean a way of doing things, a philosophy, or a set of values—or all three. Championship NFL coach Bill Walsh would call this a Standard of Performance. Here are some things you don’t control: How other people…
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My 2015 interview with MC Jin
In 2002, Jin Auyeung took over hip-hop by winning a weekly freestyle competition for seven consecutive weeks on 106 & Park. His debut song, “Learn Chinese,” was on regular rotation in my elementary school, and my friends would holler out the Cantonese ad-libs. It was a moment that felt similar to Linsanity, Jeremy Lin’s two-week…
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Turner’s practice
When you look at one of Joseph Mallord William Turner’s paintings, you might notice his work with color. Yes—while it is a landscape painting, and landscapes were seen as a relatively low form of art at the time, that Turner took on any way for better commercial prospects—it’s also much more than what even a…
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On lateness and imperfection
At my first job, I realized that I’d missed a meeting invite and my team had started without me. I was early in my career, and hesitant to join the meeting late in-person. I felt embarrassed and, without knowing it, I started beating myself up. How could I be so inept? If I could make…
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Greatness means avoiding stupid mistakes consistently
Shane Parrish writes at Brain Food, “Moments don’t make legends. Consistency does. And the hardest consistency isn’t in doing brilliant things but avoiding stupid ones. Every mistake puts you in hard mode, forcing you to make up lost ground.” In some lines of work, a person must go through an apprenticeship that takes years—even a…