Herbert Lui

Blog on creativity, marketing, and the human condition.

  • About
  • Creative Doing
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  • Organizing principle

    If an album has 12 songs, there are just over 479 million ways to organize them in a sequence (12 songs * 11 songs * 10 songs… all the way until the last 1). Out of all of these possibilities, a recording artist needs to decide which one tracklist represents what they want to say.…

    Herbert Lui

    May 25, 2025
    Creativity, Creator Confidential, Figma
  • Three things about options

    Options open up possibilities. They are a form of freedom. Time spent discovering and creating new options is an investment. Maintaining an option will always require extra work or fees. If you can afford it, this can be a good idea, even if you don’t have a great reason to maintain it. Don’t let your…

    Herbert Lui

    May 24, 2025
    Creativity, Creator Confidential
  • Sincerest forms

    Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Jealousy is the sincerest form of desire. Doubt is the sincerest form of humility. Guilt is the sincerest form of conscience. Confusion is the sincerest form of ambition.

    Herbert Lui

    May 23, 2025
    Life
  • Start lightly, without a commitment to consistency

    Many entertainers are on YouTube. When people asked comedian Yoo Jae-suk why he wasn’t, he explained that he didn’t have the time. Starting a YouTube channel would be a program in itself, and he wanted to do it well.  Jae-suk’s friend and colleague, Kim Jong-kook, runs a channel with millions of subscribers. Jong-kook explained to…

    Herbert Lui

    May 22, 2025
    Creativity, Creator Confidential, Turning Stories
  • Survival mode

    If you’re starting a business with little (or no) money, your main priority is to survive.  You will have a mission, and a position, and specific work you want to take on. Sometimes though, if your pipeline only has suboptimal clients, boring work, and projects you’re embarrassed to be associated with, you will need to…

    Herbert Lui

    May 21, 2025
    Creator Confidential, Turning Stories
  • Questions on my mind

    Because the first step to finding better answers is to ask better questions: How can I learn to love working on the business model, not just doing deliverables? What is a constructive way to honor the emotional experiences of disappointment, jealousy, and fear? What tradeoffs have other people who I admire made in their lives?…

    Herbert Lui

    May 20, 2025
    Creativity
  • One of the most important rules to writing

    Work with what you’ve got.  Bringing any work to life requires that you make a bargain with your imagination. You plead with each other to make it work. Your reality—schedule, energy, budget—demands compromise. Your imagination demands more.  Both are most unhappy when you don’t make a deal and give up on the work. This is…

    Herbert Lui

    May 19, 2025
    Creativity, Creator Confidential
  • Deliberate boredom

    It has never been easier to avoid boredom. Distraction is all around you, offering to cover up the painful things you’re avoiding that boredom can sometimes be a gateway to. Yet without boredom, there can be no inspiration. Boredom is the mud from which the flower of imagination blossoms. Your next creative idea is just…

    Herbert Lui

    May 18, 2025
    Creativity, Creator Confidential, Turning Stories
  • Three things about creative success

    1. Define what creative success means to you. Try to find an intrinsic source of motivation that you can work towards. 2. Extrinsic rewards matter, because you deserve to be recognized for your good work. Sometimes, these rewards need you to compromise. You will need to decide if it’s worth it. 3. Vincent van Gogh…

    Herbert Lui

    May 17, 2025
    Creativity, Creator Confidential, Expectations
  • Wading through the junk

    When science fiction was still emerging, one criticism of the genre was the sheer volume of bad work. After decades of defending science fiction, one writer realized that the criticism applied to everything. “Ninety percent of everything is crap,” he said. That observation became known as Sturgeon’s Law. “One of my painting teachers said 85…

    Herbert Lui

    May 16, 2025
    Creativity, Creator Confidential, Turning Stories
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