Category: Uncategorized
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The shortcut that isn’t
If you are making a change in your career—carving out a new path—one sign things are going right is a feeling of constant contradiction. One day you feel like quitting. The next you feel like doubling down. The experience of confusion is a sign of the process taking place. You don’t want to rush it.…
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Writers and readers as co-creators
When you read a comic strip or a graphic novel, your eyes move from one panel to the next. What happens in between the panels? Your brain filled in the gaps. You participated in a co-creation process. An experienced author or artist knows to intentionally create these spaces in order for the reader’s brain to…
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This is a bad sign
I was once asked to talk at a comedy class. I went in front of the class, and I said, “The fact that you’re even here is a very bad sign.” Jerry Seinfeld Most mornings I woke up early and took a walk around the neighborhood listening to an audiobook about confidence. Because that’s what…
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Demos need details
In Creative Selection, Ken Kocienda describes a backlot scene from Singin’ in the Rain, set on a Hollywood backlot intended to look like a city street. Immediately before Kelly dunks himself under a gushing downspout draining water from the roofs of the “buildings” he is dancing past, he skips past La Valle Millinery Shop, an…
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A gym for reading
Yoshitaka Haba, who works as a book curator (!) and started a private library and cafe, Donkou / Kissa Fang, says: “There are lots of things I’m worried about, but the thing I’m most worried about is that the competition for our time is too intense. Right now, it’s possible to surprise, entertain, and impress…
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Bad dads
In an interview with Vulture, James Lance (who plays Trent Crimm in Ted Lasso) discusses a three-minute conversation he had with Jason Sudeikis: I said to him that I felt the reason Trent was the way he was has to do with his father. He had a dad who really wanted him to be a…
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What I discussed at Interintellect
I visited Interintellect today and discussed Creative Doing in a session hosted by Jason Shen. Here’s some of what we talked about! It was a lot of fun, and I’d love to do more of these. If you know anyone who’d be interested, please feel free to contact me or to leave a comment at…
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Embracing average
In spite of what you and I have been told, and desperately want to believe, we are not protagonists in a film. We are not exceptional. We are not special. We are not The One. Even if we do have one competency or skill, I’d wager that’s pretty normal too. A lot of people have…
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You won’t know until you do it
The trouble with wanting to learn how to do something accurately—knowing how it’ll turn out, knowing how much effort you need to put in, even knowing the purpose and reasons you need to do it, sometimes—is that you need to do it first. It’s a paradox. Some experiences you can only get firsthand. It’s expensive…
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Pricing, in magnitudes
I recently came across a speech by the son of LVMH chairman Bernard Arnault, Alexandre Arnault, who describes the very classic brand Tiffany and Co., where he now works as an EVP: We try to be super accessible. We want to be a place where everybody can get in the store and find something for…