Category: Creator Confidential
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Getting stuff done sets you apart
Completing and delivering a project, on time, will set you apart. This observation tends to surprise me, although it really shouldn’t. There are so many people who fail to meet this standard test. Scoping goes awry, they don’t communicate enough (out of a lack of skill, fear, or understanding), and projects fall apart. Think about…
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Flexibility cost
Sticking to the plan is usually the least expensive solution. However! Plans are just guesses. Sometimes we guess poorly. Or, circumstances change, and our guess proves to be wrong. For example, you planned to quit our job, and entrepreneurship turns out to be nothing like what you guessed it would be like. Or you started…
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Practicing
1. Everything is a practice. 2. One practitioner I follow, relatively closely, is Vin Verma. Vin documents a lot of his practice at Futureland. 3. For all of the priorities there’ll never be time for, there’s practice. I love watching Paul Ford and Rich Ziade continue their podcast practice at their new company, Aboard. They…
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The work needs to be enough: A creative manifesto
It’s well known that power laws apply to creative work. While the top earners can make an incredible amount of money, the rest of us in the very long tail do not. For every Ryan Kaji who makes tens of millions of dollars every year, there are thousands of kids who are talking to dwindling…
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Creating a perception
Media—social, traditional, or otherwise—is not the ideal place to seek honesty, vulnerability, and genuine connection. It’s not a place to understand reality. It’s a place to create and interpret perceptions. If you’re doing creative work, your image and brand are an inherent part of the art. There’s a notion that work should be appreciated for…
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Separate Bedrooms
Eddie and Natashia Huang just launched a new podcast at YouTube, Separate Bedrooms: Eddie’s blog and career has been an inspiration to me for over a decade. (See self-worth and dreams, outspending vs. outteaching.) He’s done a really great job starting with himself and opening up a window into his life. I appreciate the free-flowing…
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Switch lanes to expand your perspective
Once you get into a good groove in your work, independently or at a company, you may feel reluctant to switch sides. Sometimes, exploring an adjacent or opposing lane is the best way to better understand the lane you want to be in. For example: If you’re an artist, try gaining experience managing or selling…
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“What do you write about?”
My uncle asked me this last night, I’m over 16 years into writing and I still struggle to answer this question precisely. Sure, I can put the highlights all in one place. Here’s an attempt to catalogue everything that’s caught my interest right now: Creative Doing is a compendium of exercises to unblock your creativity.…
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Why writing is fun for me
“There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed,” is a popular quote often attributed to Ernest Hemingway. I don’t mind that Hemingway wrote it; what confuses me is how popular the quote is. From this perspective, creativity is a curse, and the image of the tortured artist…
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10 questions to help you decide between career options
What do you want to be doing in a decade? What will your ideal day look like? (How can you make it feel like Saturday, every day?) Which game do you want to be over? Which game do you want to keep playing? What do you need to to keep playing the game, and how…