Herbert Lui

Blog on creativity, marketing, and the human condition.

  • About
  • Creative Doing
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  • From research to imagination

    You remember a fragment of a song that sounds like it’s from the eighties. You do some research, but you struggle to remember where you heard it, and when. Your guesses are more imagination than recall. No hints come to mind.  When this happened to Questlove, he was stumped. He decided to transform this research…

    Herbert Lui

    April 14, 2025
    Creativity, Turning Stories
  • 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…

    Herbert Lui

    April 13, 2025
    Uncategorized
  • Whose task is this?

    Is it a child’s task to study? Or is it a parent’s task to get them to study? “There is a simple way to tell whose task it is. Think, Who ultimately is going to receive the result brought about by the choice that is made?” Fumitake Koga and Ichiro Kishimi write in The Courage…

    Herbert Lui

    April 12, 2025
    Creator Confidential, Expectations, Life
  • One step at a time

    In my 20s, I spent my working hours at different gigs—running my editorial studio Wonder Shuttle, doing Prologue, writing at Medium, and a bunch of other cool projects. I had found or created a lot of opportunities, and I gave in to my ambition to pursue all of them. I was running on excitement and…

    Herbert Lui

    April 11, 2025
    A Matter of Time, Creativity, Creator Confidential, Life
  • “Why is this important to me?”

    When you know why you’re doing what you want to do, you do it better.  You can prioritize clearly, adapt when you need, and endure the inevitable setbacks. More importantly, you’ll know when you’re heading in the right direction. This sense of clarity doesn’t just magically happen to you. Fortunately, it’s pretty straightforward to get…

    Herbert Lui

    April 10, 2025
    Creativity, Creator Confidential, Expectations
  • The privilege and point of writing 

    Last weekend, my good friend showed me how I could train an LLM to write blog posts just like me. The LLM generously assessed my voice and tone (which made me feel understood!), and then spat out a blog post that could’ve been a first draft for me. While I felt curious about it, I…

    Herbert Lui

    April 9, 2025
    Creativity, Creator Confidential, Turning Stories
  • Do you borrow from your future to pay for the present and past?

    A ponzi scheme takes place when the schemer uses cash from later investors to pay returns to early investors.  My friend Peter makes the case that when an entrepreneur borrows from their business’s future to pay off present and past obligations, they are operating it like a ponzi scheme. Peter’s framing of the situation resonated…

    Herbert Lui

    April 8, 2025
    A Matter of Time, Creator Confidential, Expectations, Turning Stories
  • Why you feel lost, what to do next

    The story of The Courage to Be Disliked is told mostly in dialogue, between a student and a philosopher. Spoiler alert: While the student starts off opposing the philosopher, hellbent on proving the philosopher and their school of thinking—Adlerian psychology—wrong, he starts to come around.  By the end of the book, the student’s intention has…

    Herbert Lui

    April 7, 2025
    Creativity, Life, Turning Stories
  • Commit first, plan later

    My former colleague at Figma, Claire Butler, recently wrote a really great post about what she learned working at Figma. The lesson that stood out to me most was this one, “When you’re stuck, commit to action. Strategy will follow.”  In other words, if you’re making something new, planning too far ahead will likely just…

    Herbert Lui

    April 6, 2025
    Creativity, Creator Confidential, Expectations, Figma, Turning Stories
  • How replaceable is your work?

    If you drive for Uber, you work in a software supply chain. The software facilitates a bunch of people’s requests for the service, and decides when you—the driver—get to do a ride. The only reason you’re driving is because Uber’s software can’t drive the car itself yet. The second Uber invents a self-driving car, you’re…

    Herbert Lui

    April 5, 2025
    Creativity, Creator Confidential
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