Category: Creativity
-
David Chang on the long, hard, stupid way
I recently came across a great quote from David Chang, “Just because we’re a casual restaurant, doesn’t mean we don’t hold ourselves to fine dining standards. We try to do things the right way. That usually means doing things the long, hard, stupid way.” David has elaborated on this quote: When your back is turned…
-
Expensive and cheap information
Stewart Brand has said, “On the one hand information wants to be expensive, because it’s so valuable. The right information in the right place just changes your life. On the other hand, information wants to be free, because the cost of getting it out is getting lower and lower all the time. So you have…
-
Dreams vs. delusions
A dream coming true is a delusion that becomes reality. A delusion is a dream that didn’t become a physical reality. (Yet!) If your delusion or dream comes true, you’ll look like a genius. Until it does though, you will experience a degree of loneliness. In other words, you can and should expect to be…
-
“Producing is about discouraging creativity”
That’s a lesson Tina Fey learned from Lorne Michaels, which she describes in Bossypants: You would think that as a producer, your job would be to churn up creativity, but mostly your job is to police enthusiasm. Editors also need to do this, and frankly it’s probably one of the least fun aspects of the…
-
Do you want to be known for that?
Sarah Cooper gained a lot of momentum through her Trump lip synchs, and made the decision to stop them. She says, “I feel like I kind of have to use it as a propellant, but I also have to escape it in a way. Like, I don’t want to be known as the ‘lip-synching girl.’”…
-
Restraint
A few days ago, I woke up to the word, “Restraint.” I like this phrase, “If ‘the essence of strategy is choosing what not to do,’ as Michael Porter famously wrote, then the essence of execution is truly not doing it.” One very tangible example comes from editing, where I learned to use rich words…
-
Essentials week: Write down 10 ideas
My next post from essentials week, a short collection of the best posts at this blog. This time, it’s an excerpt from my book that several readers have reached out to me about: You can write down or draw out any idea you like. If your interest is in architecture or interior design and you…
-
Essentials week: What Does It Mean to Be a Creative Person?
My next post from essentials week, a short collection of the best posts at this blog. Here’s an excerpt: Creativity is just about creating something—focusing on the process, discovering new possibilities, and actually doing the work. That’s why children are creative; they haven’t had years of labels applied and stuck to them yet. They don’t…
-
Essentials week: This Four Stage Creative Process Shows You How to Unlock Your Creativity
In this article, we’ll look at the creative process from the most popular conventional one, the four-stage creative process described in London School of Economics co-founder Graham Wallas’s The Art of Thought in 1926. In the spirit of collaborative creativity, it’s important to mention that many people have since put their own spin on it,…
-
Essentials week: On quitting, failing, and, “I find a lot of people who should quit don’t”
My next post from essentials week, a short collection of the best posts at this blog. Here’s an excerpt: Perhaps in some cases, quitting needs to be redefined, or reframed, as creating a life. Even art and work are just two aspects of a life. The extremities are framed as homelessness or do a soul-crushing…