Category: Creativity
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“Why don’t we also…?”
The extra step sounds simple enough. It’s two words. It’s high leverage. People think it’ll bring a ton more value to the process. And it will! Except, of course, if you can’t make that step happen. “Get published.” “Pitch publications.” “Meet influencers.” Even if there’s an opportunity to work together, things stall. At best, collaborations…
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Experimentation, junk, and excellence
SpaceNTime describes Creative Doing, “The book really breaks down how one can tap into their best creative self while understanding why your shitty work comes along with it.” I’ve always described this as quantity leading to quality. Nell Painter writes in Old in Art School, “One of my painting teachers said 85 percent of what…
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Stir the pot
There’s a special type of luck that emerges just from taking enough action; enough shots at bat. You gather a hundred pieces of information. You take notes on a dozen of them, and they find your way into your brain. One of those notes enables you to understand people’s problems. You talk to dozens of…
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Wrecking the forgetting curve
Over a century ago, German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus put forward a theory on how quickly people forget information when no attempts are made to retrieve it. Here’s what the curve looks like: Notice how quickly memory for information decays; most people’s brains forget information it doesn’t think it needs. This is why I’ve made the…
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Strengthening brain connections
In The Source, Tara Swart covers the science of the law of attraction. Swart defines neuroplasticity as, “The power to create new pathways in the subconscious and conscious parts of our brain.” She writes: It’s important not to overcomplicate it. Everyday examples of neuroplasticity are all around us. When a colleague and leadership expert that…
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Preciousness vs. practicality
Author Nassim Nicholas Taleb writes, “Another discovery I made then, and to which I have been adhering until the present. If you consider writing a creative endeavor, then avoid practicing it in mundane matters as it may both dull your vitality and make it feel like drudgery, work. I find it painful to write outside…
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Luxury and imperfection
“If you were to buy some of the famous brands of a luxury watch, you would probably be warned that it loses two minutes every year. The flaw is not only known, it is assumed – one could say that that is both its charm and its guarantee of authenticity. It is the specific and…
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Finding passion, decision making, and shiny object syndrome
When I was growing up, my parents would describe me as a “generalist.” They didn’t mean it in a bad way—they were too!—though it also meant it wasn’t so obvious where my career would go, or what my skills were. I could develop my skills at most things I tried to do, especially with practice. …
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Time is not fungible
When you feel inspired, sometimes it’s actually really worth clearing your schedule out for the day. It’s time you won’t get back. Sometimes, the ideas will just pour out. Ideally, you can scribble them somewhere. On the flip side, those moments are not reliable and don’t come often for many of us; it’s also important…
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Don’t let Twitter teach you how to write
Social media platforms like Twitter are businesses, and their business models usually do not have your education in mind. Their business models usually involve getting the most reach for their platform and selling advertising. It’s agnostic to what content that is, even if it’s inflammatory, inaccurate, or miseducation. Professor Algorithm really isn’t a professor at…