Category: Creativity
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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…
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The effort is the point
When I was working with an executive assistant, one of their tasks was scheduling meetings with my clients. I considered having them schedule meetings with my friends too, and that never felt right for me. Sometimes, scheduling is just about meeting to discuss business, which is where tools such as Calendly or SavvyCal or Vimcal…
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What AI won’t change in art
Google launched 25 years ago. While it has become one of the biggest, most powerful companies in the world, it hasn’t changed everything about us. For example, while we search a lot, we still ask each other questions. (Partially because Google search has deteriorated.) We still meet up at events, ask for coffees, and sign…
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A 20 year detour
When Ke Huy Quan was 12 years old, he made his film debut starring in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Millions of viewers would know his character, Short Round. Yet as he got older and decided he wanted to act for a living, he saw fewer opportunities to act. He couldn’t see a…
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Practicing vs. pushing
Practice is about getting better, and pushing is about exerting greater force. While sometimes people may want you to push yourself to practice harder—and while yes, sometimes, the need is there!—many times the two aren’t necessarily connected together. Pushing too hard, or too often, can actually ruin a practice, because it creates too much pressure…
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Find spaces to talk about your ideas
Promoting your work actually makes an impact. Anne Trubek notes, after publishing 90 books, “I can trace a pretty, if not completely, clear line between an author’s marketing prowess and effort and sales.” There are a lot of people who would probably want to learn more—as soon as they are aware of it and can…