Category: Uncategorized
-
On Earliness
“If you’re 15 minutes early, you’re on time. If you’re on time, you’re late. And if you’re late, don’t even bother showing up, because you’re not going to get the job.” These are the words my high school co-op teacher said, which really made an impression on me and my punctuality. Still, my partner and…
-
When Stress Is the Problem, This Is the Solution: A Summary of Slack by Tom DeMarco
I first recommended Tom DeMarco’s Slack a few months ago in my Best of Books newsletter (and also mentioned it in this blog post). Here’s my original description of it, edited slightly with some line breaks: Slack is “the degree of freedom required to effect change.” This concept is key as more businesses and managers…
-
A Bias for Action: Amazon founder Jeff Bezos on How to Stop Overthinking
At Twitter, Dan Rose tells a story about working at Amazon on the team that was incubating the Kindle. He recalls a meeting with Jeff Bezos, and his boss Steve Kessel: Steve brought me + 2 other people from the team, we got on Jeff’s plane in Seattle. Jeff was fired up from the start,…
-
The Discipline of Joy
If you’re one of the millions of self-employed, you might know this saying all too well: When you work for yourself your boss is probably an asshole. Susan Piver writes at The Open Heart Project, which I found via Oliver Burkeman’s The Imperfectionist: I’ve spent a lot of time in my life trying to force…
-
How to Navigate an Unconventional Career Path (with 7 Examples)
Earlier into my career, it was easy for me to buy into the labels. I was either an “entrepreneur,” or I was an “employee.” The reality of the situation was more amorphous. For example, while I ran my own business and had a team staffed with self-employed and part-time colleagues, I actually worked with clients…
-
The Soothe of Creative Wellness
In 74 years, Betty Harper has drawn 20,000 images of Elvis Presley. That didn’t stop in the pandemic. “Since the pandemic, I’ve probably done almost a hundred pictures of Elvis,” she says. “It’s kind of relaxing. It’s like comfort food. You know the face so well.” Harper might have stumbled into creative wellness, but she…
-
What Does It Mean to Be a Creative Person?
In his famous TED talk, the late Sir Ken Robinson said (2:49), “My contention is that creativity now is as important in education as literacy, and we should treat it with the same status.” It’s high time we also more clearly defined “creative person”—including its cousins, “creative” (a term used widely in the professional world,…
-
3 Keys to Get Out of Feeling like There’s Never Enough Time and Get Creative Projects Done
In an age of time starvation and scarcity, I choose to believe there is always a way to make something difficult happen.
-
How to Decide What to Do with Your Creativity
2 Keys Discovering Your Creative Inspiration: Collect and Remix
-
This Four Stage Creative Process Shows You How to Unlock Your Creativity
Creativity has always been one of the most important skills you could learn. This truth is even, finally, being recognized in the corporate world. At the heart of creativity is the creative process. This creative process is accessible to everyone, including you, whether you’d call yourself “creative” or not. If you were to watch Shantell…