Category: Creativity
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One sitting vs. many sittings
When you commit to making something, and not stopping until you’re finished, you’re tapping into an incredibly powerful energy. This is the power of one sitting. It has the same energy as a sprint. For example, hackathons take this force to the extreme, stretching the time window out to a full day or two. If…
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From 0 to 3,000 book sales
I recently found out I’d sold over 3,000 copies of Creative Doing in under two years. My goal is to promote the book until I sell 10,000 copies, a number which represents the point where people are discussing it via word of mouth. I am well on my way towards it. I have been putting…
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Afterthought vs. forethought
Marvel has made a bunch of really great, cohesive, films that fit together well. You’d think that they had it all planned it out, and that’s not the case. Rather, the studio looks back at its previous body of work for material that could turn into solutions. C. Robert Cargill, screenwriter on the 2016 Doctor…
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Find a task that charges your battery
When you look at people who practice consistently, the task makes them feel more energized after they leave it—not more drained. It’s similar to completing a workout; you feel completely exhausted because you left it all in the gym, and yet in a strange way you feel stronger and charged up as well. When he…
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Stick around until you find the lightbulb moment
While Marques Brownlee is well-known for his influence in technology now, his first YouTube video wasn’t even about tech. It was a video of his golf swing, and a request for analysis. Marques eventually started filming tech tutorials though, and he saw a lightbulb moment a dozen videos in, when a video of him installing…
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Letting go
Unlearning is an incredibly important skill. It’s also often, in my experience, much more difficult than learning. Part of that is probably because we go through decades of learning to acquire facts, lessons, and insights, but there isn’t much of a curriculum on unlearning beliefs and scripts. I’ve had some experience applying and practicing in…
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Starting, developing, and finishing
A little over a year ago, my friend Michael asked me, “Are you a starter, a developer, or a finisher?” He explains the differences, which he learned from Kevin Kelley, in this issue of his newsletter: While I initially saw each of these elements in my work, it’s become much clearer to me that I…
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Polished packaging vs. punk packaging
Last night, Donald Glover announced Atavista, the finished version of an album he had previously released. He released the original version, entitled 3.15.20, with no announcement at the beginning of the pandemic. On the original version, songs had timestamps for titles (e.g., a song might be entitled, “24.19”), making it more difficult for people to…
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J. Cole’s hard decision for an easy life
In case you’ve missed it, two of hip-hop’s biggest superstars—Drake and Kendrick Lamar—have been in conflict for the past several weeks. (There’s a Wikipedia page!) The inciting incident for this particular one was Kendrick responding to Drake and J. Cole’s song, “First Person Shooter.” While J. Cole responded with a diss, he quickly withdrew it…
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Listen to yourself, and do more of what works
You would think that writing a second book would be easier than writing a first one. As I prepare to put my second book together, I haven’t found that to be the case. While there are lots of new things I learned, as I apply them this time around, it’s almost like they’re bumping out…