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Cliffhangers are cheap
I just watched two films that closed with incomplete stories: Across the Spiderverse and Fast X. I’m aware both are very different—the former was received very well, the latter was received as well as the other Fast movies—and I found both to be similarly frustrating experiences. Infinity Wars was probably the first blockbuster to pioneer…
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Documenting Config
My colleague Jenny and I have been busy documenting Config here at the new Figma blog, Shortcut. Because you can already watch many of the sessions here, we decided to approach it with an emphasis on the atmosphere and the experience.
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“I don’t have anything to say about this…”
I’m researching a topic that’s outside of my wheelhouse, with a character that’s outside of my wheelhouse. While it’s incredibly culturally relevant, and I’ve been studying, I can’t say I’ve developed a perspective on the topic yet. And yet, it still captures my attention. A truer statement is probably, “I haven’t done enough research on…
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When emotions limit earnings
When I ran an editorial studio, I was often approached by clients to join their companies full-time. I declined these opportunities and conversations, because I enjoyed entrepreneurship and thought it was the best way to learn, until one client approached me with a salary that I found difficult to say no to. While money was…
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“Don’t do that”
I once got this piece of advice from a bestselling author after I told him I wanted to write a memoir. He told me, “Memoirs don’t sell unless you’re famous.” He wasn’t wrong, and I’m glad I listened to his advice at the time. It was also a sign to me: I didn’t really want…
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Doing meta-creativity well
Whisper of the Heart is all about a protagonist chasing her dream of being a writer, with her love interest becoming a violinist. Hacks is all about a protagonist early into her writing career, who gets cancelled for a distasteful joke. Girls5eva is a comedy show about a retired band going viral and getting a…
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A creator’s perspective
From the point of view of one who creates, everything is a gamble, a leap into the unknown. Yayoi Kusama, Infinity Net
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“You don’t even know what hard is”
You don’t even know what hard is. You got plucked off the internet at what, 20? You just got lucky!… Good is the minimum. It’s the baseline. You have to be so much more than good. And even if you’re great and lucky, you still have to work really f–king hard! And even that is…
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Medium Day topics
Medium recently announced a call for Medium Day, which takes place August 12. When I wrote my first post for Medium, over a decade ago, I was in between graduating college and my first job at Pivotal Labs (and even tried to make Medium a part of its content strategy). I received an invitation to…
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Changing your context
Everything you experience is filtered through your mind. There’s no way to remove this filter, (nor would you want to). If you want to change your behavior, or how people perceive you, you need to embrace the art of contextualization. Reading a book, writing regularly, and identifying someone you want to be more like and…