Category: Creativity
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It’s the climb
If you’re considering using artificial intelligence and generative technology in your creative process, just remember these two parables. First: An old man in Calcutta would walk to get water from a well every day. He’d carry a clay pot and lower it by hand slowly, all the way down, careful not to let it hit…
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“I don’t believe in titles, I believe in work”
Via Abloh-isms by Larry Walsh; a sentiment shared by Armando Zambrano and Karl Lagerfeld. The original interview with this gem—supposedly here—has disappeared from the internet; another reminder to rescue lost stories and collect them. Each idea gets new life when it’s mentioned. See also multi-hyphenate careers.
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Graceful embarrassment
Porsche recently shipped its first NFT, to little traction. It’s a 91-year-old company, turning 92 this year, with tons of cash in the bank. If you were being critical of it, you’d probably make the case that the team should’ve known better. It should have spent more time building ties to the community. It should…
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In defense of copycats
Michelangelo found his first patron, a Cardinal named Raffaele Riario, by forging a sculpture and artificially aging it. It wasn’t a cult of personality, or story, or perception of originality, that drove the work; it was the skill. The times have changed, in a way. We value work differently, because copies and replicas can be…
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The smart thing vs. the right thing
The internet is riddled with so many posts on how to do things the smart way. You’ll see it in other words—“more efficiently,” “optimize,” “pareto principle,” “shortcut,” “insight”—etc. Effectively, it’s an acceptable way of suggesting, “Here’s a secret.” You may also have been trained to keep a radar up for these things; to always try…
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Don’t live the someday life
In spite of the seasons in life, some things are too important to save for, “Someday.” Like, happiness. For those deferring happiness: bad news. The next promotion won’t make you happy. Quitting your job won’t make you happy. Learning a skill won’t make you happy. Dr. Hannah Rose wrote a great post on the proper…
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Your noise, my song
97-109-107 writes at Hacker News: “Do any of you share the impression that the threshold for what is passing for articles and opinion pieces barely warrants being written down? The proliferation of blogging, posting and social media seems to have left me with a feeling with slight resentment towards most written content (as it’s just…
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Ship it anyway
There’s a story Nahnatchka Khan tells about recruiting Ali Wong as a writer for Fresh Off the Boat; Khan asked Wong’s manager for samples and a spec script, and receives a nine page script—a fraction of what she was expecting. Still, Khan had seen Wong’s standup and familiar with her work, and she was interested…
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Creative Doing, at Pitch’s Presentation Gallery
When I was making a presentation for Ness Labs, I wanted to really step up the visual component, so I used Pitch. Some of the people who joined actually commented on how great the presentation looked during the Q&A. (Here’s how the team makes them… I love behind the scenes.) Pitch recently featured an abbreviated…
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Too big, too fast
I’ve got a draft of a post with a working title, “Better than SEO.” It involves what a venture capitalist named the “reversal of funnel” trend, where people start searching at platforms outside of Google. It started happening a few years ago with Amazon, and now it’s happening at TikTok and YouTube, and in groups…