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Do more, think less
Gapingvoid recently published a piece entitled, “Do more, think less.” It touches on one of the premises of Creative Doing, which is that new insights emerge from doing, not merely thinking. The phrase was drawn from a phrase I mentioned in an episode of Infinite Loops I did with Jim O’Shaughnessy. Jim introduced the phrase,…
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The 451 day project
I wrote a guest post at #The100DayProject, one of my favorite daily creative challenges. I just plugged the dates into a counter, I’ve published a post every day for 451 days! 🤯
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Getting to know a business
If you’ve ever wanted to start a company, or write a book, or make something meaningful, it helps to go through the process as the person who’s paying for it. If you’re starting a company, figure out your potential competitors and see if you can work with them as a customer. If you want to…
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“What would you recommend?”
Whether it’s selecting an item at a new restaurant, or mapping out the 10 year vision for their business, the other person—your boss, your customer, your client—doesn’t always know what they want. They’re waiting for you to tell them. That’s when preparation meets opportunity; it’s your chance to provide them with the information they need,…
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Contentions: Names set expectations
What’s the difference between a book, an ebook, a digital book, a pamphlet, a booklet, a brochure, and a bulletin? By strict definition, they share a lot of common traits. They are all documents that hold words on them. The main difference is what each word leads a person to expect. For example, a book…
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People make plans, and nature laughs
Resisting nature is not constructive; it’s always best to roll with it. You can plan around nature, too. It’s not going to stop laughing. You can choose to scream at it, worry yourself to death about it, try to make sense of it, laugh with it, or to sit beside it.
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Play to your strengths
It’s one thing to find a strategy, tactic, or best practice that worked for someone else. The internet is bursting with people sharing what works for them. It’s an entirely different thing to find the practice that works for you. You are the most important factor in how the things you do turn out. For…
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Their currency, their rules
With the prevalence of loyalty programs, it’s important to remember: if you’re using a company’s currency (such as points, rewards, coupons, etc.), you’ll need to abide by their rules. They can update their rules anytime with arbitrary guidelines and principles. They will often do this to incentivize you to make decisions or behave in their…
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Compiling
Film editor Brian Kinnes recently compiled a 73-minute film of Frank Ocean’s infamous Coachella set, using fan-made footage. Brian Kinnes’s insight was to download all of the files as they were uploaded to YouTube; the footage has since been removed from the internet, and he uploaded it and received a cease and desist. He now…
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What are we surviving for?
There’s a common belief that medicine saves lives, and that art doesn’t. (Or, “Medicine actually saves lives though.”) This isn’t a constructive story. Nor is it a true story. This story was invented by people whose myopia for calculation blinded them to the facts. The benefits of salaries, scientific theory, and fear (disguised as practicality)…