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How average first drafts become extraordinary
The myth of great art is that it’s created through spurts of inspiration, genius, and epiphanies. This isn’t always the case. Rather, great art can evolve from what seems like very ordinary, average, rough drafts, often created during very ordinary moments. Not unlike an agile sprint or a lean startup, artists will then get feedback,…
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Why you should work on one thing at a time
I grasped one of the my important productivity insights when I worked at Xtreme Labs: the importance of doing one thing at a time. Our VP of Engineering, Farhan Thawar, was a proponent of “monotasking,” and he warned against multitasking and distraction. Professor Gloria Mark from the University of California, Irvine, told Fast Company that…
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How the U.S.A.’s first billionaire destroyed the myth of hard work (i.e., “hustle”)
The lazy, concentrated, approach to work that made John D. Rockefeller “I attribute my good condition to my almost reckless independence in determining for myself what to do and the rigid adhering to regulations which give me the maximum of rest and quiet and leisure, and I am being richly paid for it every day.” — John…
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Don’t wait until you feel more confident. Action comes first
There’s a quote often attributed to Henry Ford, “Whether you believe you can do a thing or not, you are right.” Something like this might your mind as you watch as these other people, chin up, assured, relaxed, almost effortlessly do exactly what you wanted to do. The reason many of them are able to…
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Consider your conveniences
You’re running late for a meeting. You push the elevator button. Ugh, the closest one is still 23 floors up. You reach into your pocket. You pull out your phone. Peter sent you a message. Ahhhhh. What did he say? You slide the screen and check. Peter: Hey, I got some tickets to the Jays…
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Creative excess leads to creative success
There is no substitute for creative waste. It’s a part of the process I’m listening to Pharrell speak with NPR when he says he doesn’t know where his hits come from, or why they were hits in the first place. They just work. He laughs and calls himself the Mr. Magoo of music. I find…
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Choose or others will choose for you
The old saying goes, “Those who stand for nothing fall for anything.” Or, more appropriately, as Madame Gao tells Wilson Fisk in Daredevil: “Man cannot be both savior and oppressor, light and shadow, one has to be sacrificed for the other. Choose, and choose wisely, or others will choose for you.” No matter what you…
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How music taps into your creative gold mine
Two strange creativity chargers: Songs on repeat and movies with the sound off A few years ago, I procrastinated on my homework by reading books on productivity. Yeah, it was weird. (Another topic for another day.) One of the productivity systems I noticed was David Allen’s Getting Things Done. I don’t really use the full…
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The Case for Working Relaxed
I’ve long considered Pharrell Williams and Kanye West two sides of the same coin. Pharrell, the zenned out, laid back, happy-go-lucky, type of artist (reminiscent of Rick Rubin in how relaxed he is). Kanye is the polar opposite — manic, outspoken, angry, upset type of artist. Some might say that there would be no Kanye…
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Rust builds quickly
Sharpen your tools every day My folks used to make me practice piano everyday. Three songs, six times each (and eventually ten) during regular season. Then, when I was rounding exam season, I’d practice each song five times perfectly. If I played even one wrong note incorrectly, or I messed up the tempo of it,…