Category: Creativity

• Work works itself to work

  Kanjirō Kawai was a potter who lived in Kyoto. He and a collaborator, Hamada Shoji, conducted over 10,000 experiments with glazes in their first two years working together. (Talk about being prolific.) Here’s a poem he wrote, which I found in the Kyoto edition of D Design Travel magazine: Work works itself to work Work…

  Herbert Lui

  June 3, 2026

  Around the World, Creativity, Creator Confidential, Expectations, Turning Stories

• Good writing is like furniture

  Good writing sticks around in your mind. Perhaps it may be difficult to summarize; even if it’s long, it is probably as tight as it could be already.  Once you read it, even if you don’t fully consciously “get it,” you can’t go back; you start seeing what the writer is saying. I recently read…

  Herbert Lui

  June 2, 2026

  Creativity, Creator Confidential

• Choose to trust yourself

  Some businesses—not all, and not even most!—don’t trust you. They design their products and marketing to lock you in and make you feel reliant on them.  The incentive for them is to have lots of steady customers; if you can come and go at any point, then that business isn’t as steady as it could…

  Herbert Lui

  June 1, 2026

  Creativity, Creator Confidential, Expectations, Turning Stories

• Don’t mix up your products with your art

  A friend of mine is an accomplished restaurateur. His restaurant specializes in selling smash burgers. He is also a successful chef, cutting his teeth at one of the best restaurants in the city. A couple of times, I had his pasta for dinner. I made this realization the other day, though I haven’t asked him…

  Herbert Lui

  May 31, 2026

  Creativity, Creator Confidential, Expectations, Turning Stories

• You can’t bet on yourself if you don’t trust yourself

  What do you want to do?  If your life experiences have been anything like mine (e.g., growing up in collectivist culture, a formal education in business, working in professional services), they may have conditioned you to understand what other people wanted. Your own inclinations may appear less clearly to you because you haven’t paid attention…

  Herbert Lui

  May 30, 2026

  Creativity, Expectations, Turning Stories

• Are your creative projects livestock or pets?

  Livestock helps a person make a living. Cows need to make milk, chicken eggs, and sheep wool. These animals were part of a business decision. While a farmer may grow fond of their livestock, there will eventually come a day when the farmer needs to send them to the butcher. It’s business. A pet is…

  Herbert Lui

  May 26, 2026

  Creativity, Creator Confidential, Expectations, Turning Stories

• The power of a supportive environment

  Should you pursue something you enjoy, or something you’re good at? Which is more worthy? In Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop, a high school student asks this question to a character named Seungwoo who works as an employee at a big corporation and also writes a blog. Does this person enjoy work more, or writing…

  Herbert Lui

  May 25, 2026

  Creativity, Creator Confidential, Expectations, Turning Stories

• Whoever holds your dream gets to take it away

  If you’re a writer, maybe your dream is to write a book that hits the New York Times bestseller list. That’s a fine dream—and was mine, at one point!—though it comes with a caveat: whoever can put you on the list, or block you from it, is in control of your dream.  Let’s imagine that…

  Herbert Lui

  May 24, 2026

  Creativity, Creator Confidential, Turning Stories

• Waking up from the trance of avoidance

  A couple of years ago, when I was employed at Figma, I reflected on the years I worked independently. I wrote, “When you work independently—as an entrepreneur, freelancer, or creator—in the early days, you actually could become more dependent on the people you know.” I’ve since returned to working independently. While I remember this lesson…

  Herbert Lui

  May 23, 2026

  Creativity, Creator Confidential, Expectations, Turning Stories

• The intermediate hump

  When you’re young, you just do stuff. Because you don’t have much experience, you’re a beginner, and you have nothing to lose, it’s hard to overthink. As you gain experience and expertise, it’s easier to shoot down ideas quickly. When you’re in the intermediate hump, you experience being in the groove of shooting down ideas,…

  Herbert Lui

  May 22, 2026

  A Matter of Time, Creativity, Expectations