Category: Creator Confidential
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Notes-based meeting prep
Earlier this week, my coworker and I had a 1-1 meeting and she was delighted to see that I had brought a small index card and pen to the meeting. We spent a few minutes chatting about it. Here’s what I said: Before every meeting, I prepare a 4×6 index card. If there is a…
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The case of the stolen smell
I recently saw James Blake tweet, “The brainwashing worked and now people think music is free.” Then, a couple of days later, I read this story: In the days of old Yedo, as Tokyo was once called, storytellers told wonderful tales. Many of the stories were about the wit and wisdom of Ooka Tadasuke. Ooka…
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Big fish in a bigger pond
In Lucky Me, Rich Paul writes: Now I have to help guys in the league who used to be stars, but can’t let go of their ego and accept a new role. Then there are my young clients coming into the NBA; every one of them was once the star on their high school or…
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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…
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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…
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Volunteering
People don’t like risk. They usually commit to the option that they trust more, or at least feels less risky. It takes time to build this trust. Job interviews, social media updates, phone calls, blog posts, demos—all of these are ways to demonstrate that you are trustworthy. When you ask a person to get paid…
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“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…
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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.’”…
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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…
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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,…