creativity
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V is for vulnerable
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1 min read
Shake it up. The only reason to play it safe is to blend in. But the artist wants to be vulnerable. Unsure of their work but certain of their originality and passion, the maker prides themselves on self-expression. They’d rather show their work then let it sit in the tiny backwater of the internet. Art…
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The case for playing the long game
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1 min read
Good things take time. If we all settled for immediate results, there would be no Apple, Amazon, or Tesla. The world’s best leaders are visionaries. They work years ahead, having planted the seeds for what’s happening now to springboard them into the future. When asked in 2018 what he thinks when analysts congratulate him on…
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The artist never graduates
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1 min read
Years elapse with no apparent intention of an end. They want you to finish it to find closure and move on to the next ‘big thing’ without understanding the brisk tempo of a focused, hungry maker. Creators are slow cookers and even slower chewers, interspersed with periods of gorging. They expect to uncover as many mistakes…
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Art as stimuli
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2 min read
Yes, art is unnecessary. It is “everything you don’t have to do,” as Brian Eno put it. But it’s also the fuel that powers emotions and deeper thinking. We need art just as we need food. “Music is, to me, proof of the existence of God. It is so extraordinarily full of magic, and in…
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Be brave, clench fists
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1 min read
The quietest people have the loudest minds. That’s why introverts are more active than extroverts on social media. It’s easier to speak through screens than it is face-to-face. But showing up offline is the only way to get anywhere. No one’s going to marry or hire you because you speak well on screen but not…
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Following our external compass
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1 min read
The psychic costs of living in a place with gloomy weather or having trite friends is scarring. Our surroundings have a significant impact on how we think. That’s not to say if you want to be an entrepreneur you have to move to Silicon Valley or Hollywood if you want to be a star. Culture…
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Writing all the time
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2 min read
Some of us ”sweat the night into words,” the poet Bernard Spencer wrote in his poem “Night-Time: Starting to Write.” Morning or night, day time or lunchtime, it really doesn’t matter when you write. A note, a recording, a scribble — we write it down to remember it now and for later. Early morning, lunch…
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The strength of signal
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1 min read
Everything to everyone is like nothing to nobody. Imagine owning all the music in the world — such profundity reveals nothing about your interests or your identity. Unless of course, you’re passing on knowledge about the items in the arsenal. The internet too is the greatest copy-paste machine of all-time. Technology augments communication and connection.…
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Stan Lee offers this advice to creators
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1 min read
When Marvel Comics icon Stan Lee pitched his idea of a superhero called Spiderman, the executives laughed him off. They said no one liked spiders, teenagers only made good sidekicks, and no one was interested in a superhero with personal problems. Persist with your idea But it being the magazine’s last issue, Stan Lee got…
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Creativity: A way of thinking and doing
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1 min read
Creativity is a game of trial and error. The only thing under one’s control is the willingness to experiment. But being a creator doesn’t just happen. You must compel yourself to see in order to mix and match disparate things and tap into imaginative conclusions. “Creativity is intelligence having fun.” Albert Einstein The right brain…
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Do we have to be sad to be creative?
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2 min read
According to a recent study, you are more likely to be creative when you are sad. The researcher examined the personal letters of three artists — Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven and Franz Liszt — which revealed a link between their melancholy and peak creativity. Whether it was financial troubles or death of loved ones,…
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The malleability of it
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1 min read
Creativity beats the normal out of you by opening up all possibilities. Why does there always have to be one answer? The malleability of it — the sheer nature of its plasticity is what draws the creator toward a multitude of solutions. Should a level of confidence give, what works is eventually meant to be…