Category: Creator Confidential

• Two quotes about fans and enthusiasm

  “It’s not what you know. It’s who you know,” the cliché goes. (Not one of the quotes.)  If you’re doing creative work—visual art, writing, music, entrepreneurship, programming, design, amongst the many other forms of expression—it’s entirely about who you know and who knows you.  These people create supportive contexts for you by working as managers,…

  Herbert Lui

  April 30, 2025

  Creativity, Creator Confidential, Expectations, Promotion, Turning Stories

• Making the money vs. collecting it

  Chris Rock asked a young comic what he did that day. “Nothing,” the young comic said. “But I’m going to do a set tonight.”  “You make money during the day. You collect it at night,” Chris responded. “During the day is where the money is made.” There’s a writing lesson here: While comics and comedians…

  Herbert Lui

  April 29, 2025

  Creativity, Creator Confidential, Turning Stories

• The right answer vs. your answer

  Cluely is a new AI app that listens to your conversations and feeds you the best answers. The team behind it created a phrase designed to be misunderstood and polarizing, but saying that it lets you cheat on any conversation. Cheating like a calculator is cheating a math test, of course. If you choose to…

  Herbert Lui

  April 28, 2025

  Creativity, Creator Confidential, Turning Stories

• The trunk and the branches

  Every tree has a central trunk. This trunk eventually splits into branches.  Some trees, like the pine tree, will maintain a strong central trunk throughout and very weak side branches, with a goal of growing as tall as possible to get more sunlight. It focuses all of its nutrients towards strengthening this central trunk. This…

  Herbert Lui

  April 27, 2025

  Creativity, Creator Confidential, Promotion

• The wall of cringe

  Let’s say you want to be a DJ. You’ve done some DJing for friends, you’ve gotten good at the craft, and you’re ready to go pro. Your goal is to be invited to a mainstream festival stage and get offered tens of thousands of dollars.  You start to put some feelers to your family and…

  Herbert Lui

  April 25, 2025

  Creativity, Creator Confidential, Expectations, Turning Stories

• Cash covers things up

  Money makes it easy for people to lie to themselves, and to other people. None of the entrepreneurs who started Theranos, Nikola, Fast, Juicero, and WeWork would have gotten very far with what they were doing if they didn’t raise cash from investors. Cash can cover up all sorts of problems, or at the very…

  Herbert Lui

  April 24, 2025

  Creator Confidential, Turning Stories

• Talking myself away from the fear of being seen

  Some people who have a lot to offer the internet feel too much doubt to write and publish it. Ashley Willis wrote a great post about this. Even though I publish here every day, I identify with this group of people. I’ve written for over 1,000 days now. Sometimes, for me, it feels like the…

  Herbert Lui

  April 22, 2025

  Creativity, Creator Confidential, Turning Stories

• You learn to swim by swimming…

  Which means you need to get off dry land, and get in the water.  You’ll need a teacher. They work best with you in the water too. It’s gonna be scary at first. It’s gonna be wet. You’ll need to rinse after. That’s what it takes to learn to swim. (Applies to everything else too.)…

  Herbert Lui

  April 20, 2025

  Creativity, Creator Confidential

• “Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional”

  A couple of months ago, I caught up with a good friend on the phone. An opening came up for me to recommend Derek Sivers’s book, Useful Not True, and so I did. I chatted with my friend again, a couple of days ago, and he told me the book resonated with him. Particularly, he…

  Herbert Lui

  April 19, 2025

  Creator Confidential, Life, Turning Stories

• What the jellyfish knows: A compilation

  Do most people get stuck with their creative work because they didn’t create momentum? Or do most people create momentum, but need more time to think out a breakthrough idea? Which direction sounds more correct to you? To me, it’s very clear the first direction applies to more people. Most people’s creative ambitions die from…

  Herbert Lui

  April 18, 2025

  Creativity, Creator Confidential