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Time to ship
Time and inspiration expands ideas. Obsession takes over. Most of the time, this is a good thing for creative work itself. The problem is, it becomes very difficult to actually make. The most difficult ideas to write are the ones that have expanded too much. It’s too big to chip away in 15 minute increments;…
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“I don’t know…”
And I’m going to try something now, because that’s the only way to figure it out. I’ll need to share it with a couple of people, or even release it or publish it to the world, because that’s the easiest way to test the solution to see if it’ll work.
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Off timing
Every hit comes with a lot of misses. The problem is you and I only see people discussing the hits—and we don’t see them discussing the misses so often. Everybody is missing every day. Sometimes, we’re just too early; we build BlackBerry apps instead of iPhone apps, we discovered YouTube before the entertainment industry recognizes…
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Creative oscillations (the third)
Isabel writes in obligation vs compulsion: I also feel this distinct sense of compulsion to be doing this work. I’m intentionally calling it compulsion and not obligation. These are two distinctly different forces—like a push vs. a pull. Obligation requires you to push yourself to do the thing: get up from what you actually want…
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My butt’s in the seat. Now what?
I recently received a question from a reader: I was hoping if you could advise me on how to develop habits that I could incorporate into my day on how to actively do design work and just explore my creativity. I feel like a lot of the times I get in my own way. Rather…
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When a dollar is not a dollar
One property of money is fungibility: a dollar is a dollar. To the bank, whether you or I make $10,000 working for ourselves, or $10,000 working for the worst boss in the world, it’s the same $10,000. Still, the way you and I make this money is not interchangeable. We know this inherently; for example,…
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The Winners Effect
When I was a teenager, for reasons I will explore in a separate post, almost every week I went shopping at Canadian discount retailer, Winners. Shopping at Winners felt like playing a lottery, because the inventory changed with time, and also varied by location. Every time I walked into a store, I felt a thrill;…
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A business model example blending creativity and expertise
The Futur founder and CEO Chris Do recently published his company’s business model: People come for the creativity (the bottom of the pyramid), and stay for the expertise. The more you want direct access to Chris’s time, the more you’ll have to pay. I also really liked this post: In other words, the more processing…
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Contentions: On Non-Coercive Marketing
Rob Hardy wrote a really great manifesto entitled, “Non-Coercive Marketing: A Primer.” Here are the principles, which he breaks down in full at his post: Optimize for aligned, empowered customers Surrender control, and embrace emergence Cede authority Treat people as ends, not means Enough is enough Play long games…