creativity
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The bright rush of ideas
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2 min read
Where do good ideas come from, and how do they form? They come from extensive research bolstered by the ability to connect the dots between knowledge and different experiences. Good ideas form through time, osmosis, long walks, boredom, and the misheard; a fruitful combination of work, rest, and fearless play. Maintaining curiosity motivates part of…
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Swallowing the elements
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2 min read
Deliberately bad, mashed up, distorted like a Francis Bacon painting. Ugly art brings the worst of our subconscious to the fore as a means of hobbling our concentration. It goads people into fully grasping how they feel, like a good old-fashioned puke, where the vocal cords saddle up and ride a ribcage as tight as…
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We are nobody’s establishment
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2 min read
Good, bad, and ugly — honesty is what’s at stake. Of course, we strive for the perfect edited self. But such is a fallacy, as even influencers have adopted the strategy of no-makeup makeup. Social media intends to captivate and drive mimetic desire. But all marketers are liars, as are the followers who buy the…
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Passion project be damned
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2 min read
The banality of doing what we’re told gets bottle-necked at the top of free will. Eventually, one balks at the factory of someone else’s to-do lists. We do what punctures the heart. When we feel compelled to create life intentionally, the very bottom of our souls opens up. But outsourcing the work to robots is…
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The brilliance in absurdity
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1 min read
The synergy between brilliance and absurdity is one of the paradoxes of our time. One can’t be crazy without being wickedly smart. Thinking different isn’t supposed to compute. For the innovator, experimentation is the antidote to perfectionism. Trial and error is a mechanism for chance discovery. The right answer is a function of the mistakes.…
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Conformity as a preventative structure
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2 min read
The obvious remains invisible only because we choose to turn a blind eye to any framework that doesn’t align with our interests. Our minds crave homogenization. Even the misfits and activists who believe in no other cause than hope share tribal urges — there’s a strong instinct to join the pack. The herd outwits the…
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A test case of curiosity
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2 min read
There is no plan. We go through long stretches of time, just guessing. But the passage into mystery lures us forward. It costs nothing to try. The world changes—we change—when we live in the continuous present to see where it’ll lead us. As we dabble in life’s experiments, our efforts necessitate a kind of dream…
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Raging against the machine (us)
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2 min read
Writing is to rage against the machine, not the powers that be. It’s a practice that hollows out the anxieties within. The machine is us, and the blank page is the battlefield of emotion. Writing is a meditative process, a chance to pause and self-distance from the everyday. Prose allows us to exhaustively test society’s…
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Purposely absorbed
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1 min read
Absorbed in the real work, unlike the spasmodic focus of want-to-be influencers. The professional demands order, rituals, and practices that solidify the certainty anchor. Those serious about their craft very much know they’re alive. They draw a map of the future based on reality, then lean right into it. It’s easy to believe that armed…
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Ear players and slow bakers
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1 min read
Ear players, slow-bakers, and scribblers; all are just noticers of things. But they are also the most impeccable dancers, converting nerves into spontaneity to battle fear itself. For the musician, the student, and the artist, what’s elemental clicks into place. They are at their freest with the tools in their hand — the saxophone, the…
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Flow of attention
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1 min read
The creator goes from broad attention to a narrower focus. They see the forest for the trees while simultaneously shifting their vision to see the trees through the woods. Like a student, the artist aggregates what’s interesting and then goes deeper, pulsating from a generalist to a specialist, adding and subtracting, exploring the world through…
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Double or nothing
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1 min read
The best art deserves the long look, just as the best books earn a re-read. The second our surroundings pull us out of a desultory scan and compel interpretation, we learn twice as much. Pausing (and thinking deeply) is integral to the learning process. Disfluency extends the hesitation and augments the meaning. We’re not all vacuum cleaners.…