Herbert Lui

Blog on creativity, marketing, and the human condition.

  • About
  • Creative Doing
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  • The paranoid only survive if it doesn’t kill them first

    “Only the paranoid survive,” is a great business book title. It also contains a kernel of truth for business leaders. Without paranoia, the people running a business will grow complacent, and lose to a more innovative competitor. The flip side is this: paranoia can kill too. The entrepreneur who deals with anxiety, fear, and insecurity…

    Herbert Lui

    September 28, 2025
    Creator Confidential, Expectations
  • Make your phone dumber so it’s less addictive

    A smartphone—like an iPhone, or one that runs Android—is capable of many things. It can help you do your shopping. It can keep you in touch with thousands of people. It can notify you whenever someone is reaching out to you. Whatever your laptop computer can do, you can probably do it on your smartphone…

    Herbert Lui

    September 27, 2025
    Creator Confidential, Life
  • Robert Frost on uniting your hobby and vocation

    Good things happen when you find the Overlap. Here’s an excerpt from a poem by Robert Frost (via Jim O’Shaughnessy) that describes the Overlap very well: My object in living is to uniteMy avocation and my vocationAs my two eyes make one in sight.Only where love and need are one,And the work is play for…

    Herbert Lui

    September 26, 2025
    Creativity, Creator Confidential
  • Making art is a small part of the job

    DJ Khaled is an artist, and a very popular one at that. He doesn’t sing, rap, or make the beat. He makes songs by finding good instrumental tracks and hiring other artists to record over it. Some people—maybe a lot of them—take this to mean that he doesn’t make music. So what does he actually…

    Herbert Lui

    September 25, 2025
    Creativity, Creator Confidential, Promotion
  • The desire paths of your mind

    When you walk off the sidewalk or paved ground, you contribute to a desire path. The more people that do this, the clearer the path that emerges. Here’s an image of a desire path: Apply this metaphor to your mind. Imagine that your mind was a town that you have designed with a lot of…

    Herbert Lui

    September 24, 2025
    Creativity, Creator Confidential, Expectations
  • When you change your routines up, you slow time down

    I used to work as a writer for Lifehacker. A couple of years before that gig, I’d already started writing guest posts for them. I wrote the first of these while I was a student, about how our brains perceive time. I was curious about it because I noticed people older than me always saying…

    Herbert Lui

    September 23, 2025
    A Matter of Time, Around the World
  • Doing difficult things with, and without, motivation

    When I was a teenager, I started going to the gym for a lot of reasons. Namely, I wanted to get stronger. I also wanted to look more grown up. I was a 16-year-old teenager with the body of a 12-year-old and the face of a 10-year-old. My classmates thought I was cute, like their…

    Herbert Lui

    September 22, 2025
    Creator Confidential, Expectations, Life, Turning Stories
  • Three easy ways to give to a good cause

    Giving becomes easier when you realize how many opportunities there are. Here are three easy openings, amongst many: Whatever money you save on a discount, donate it. You can do this through donations or coupons. If PetSmart gives you $2.00 back, donate $2 to help animals. Round up your change. If you pay $15.50, donate…

    Herbert Lui

    September 21, 2025
    Life
  • Artists make New Work

    On a visit to the MoMA PSOne, I saw a mural that said, “Artists make New Work.” The pink typography was set on forest green. I loved it. Then I looked closer, and I saw that it actually said, “Artists Make New York.”  I liked my hallucinated version more.

    Herbert Lui

    September 20, 2025
    Creativity, Creator Confidential
  • Better options

    If you’re unsure how to create better options, giving your attention to fewer of them is a good way to start.

    Herbert Lui

    September 19, 2025
    Creator Confidential
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