creativity
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The idle doodles of JRR Tolkien
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2 min read
The Bodleian Library in Oxford retains 500 boxes of doodles and other drawings by JRR Tolkien in a fireproof room. For 30 years as a university professor, the English writer and the father of modern fantasy drew on everything from newspapers, advertising collateral, and menus. In fact, Tolkien doodled the first line of The Hobbit…
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Too many interests, more than one skill
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2 min read
We need doctors who specialize in heart surgery and spend 100% of their time helping other people. But we also need polymaths (Newton, Darwin, Leonardo da Vinci, etc.) to combine ideas to push society forward. As Dilbert’s creator Scott Adam points out, achieving excellence is rare. If you want something extraordinary [in life], you have…
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How to avoid the comparison bubble
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1 min read
It’s easy to get caught up in the comparison bubble. You always want what we don’t have. You are incorrectly taught to copy, just as you’re erroneously taught to think in absolutes. Celebrate what makes you unique You should do what makes you unique. You should feel free to steal ideas from other people and…
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Surreal murals by Croatian artist Lonac
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1 min read
Lonac is a Croatian street artist who paints surreal images based on his experiences growing up Zagreb. His new exhibition “Strange Tales” appears at the Thinkspace Gallery in Los Angeles. The artist’s Croatian pseudonym translates loosely to ‘cooking pot,’ a nickname he hated as a child but went on to embrace while in search of…
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Hearing impaired photographer Kate Fichard teamed up with a former design school classmate at the Paris-based F&D studio to create a fashionable hearing aid. Called the H(earring) project, it just won first prize for accessories at the most prestigious festivals for young designers, The International Festival of Fashion and Photography in Hyères, France. Kudos to the F&D team for injecting some style and…
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There is no perfect idea
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2 min read
There is no such thing as the perfect idea. As Rebecca Solnit writes in Hope in the Dark, ‘Perfection is a stick with which to beat the possible.’ Or as novelist Iris Murdoch instructs, “Every book is the wreck of a perfect idea.” Our creative work calls for more action than reaction. Sure, there are…
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“I just make a series of oblique comments and strange drawings. That’s usually what my work is.” — David Shrigley, from an interview with 52 Insights All images courtesy David Shrigley. You can preorder his new book Fully Coherent Plan: For a New and Better Society on Amazon.
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‘Write drunk, edit sober’
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1 min read
In a recent study done by professor Andrew Jarosz of Mississippi State University reveals that drunk people are more creative at problem-solving. We gave participants 15 questions from a creative problem-solving assessment called the Remote Associates Test, or RAT—for example, “What word relates to these three: ‘duck,’ ‘dollar,’ ‘fold’?”; the answer to which is “bill.”…
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From hand-illustrating every emoji ever to showcasing all varieties of beer, a taxonomy of rap names, and a compendium of basketball jerseys, the artists at Pop Chart Lab turns data into creative infographics. Not surprisingly, the visuals make perfect posters for the wall. You can order a standalone print, pair it with a handmade frame, or request…
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Lisa Ericson’s supernatural beings
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1 min read
Bursting onto the art scene for her surreal piece on “mouserflies,” painter Lisa Ericson returns to Portland’s Antler Gallery for the fourth time. Writes the Gallery on her imaginative take on species as “mobile habitats”: “Her technical skill is beyond compare. The depth of her feeling really shines through in these gorgeous depictions of supernatural…
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Maria Popova: I loathe the term “content”
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2 min read
Brain Pickings blogger Maria Popova sat down with WordPress in the Own Your Content series to discuss evergreen ideas and rethinking the meaning of content. Popova writes about timeless topics. “I am drawn to ideas that remain resonant across time and space, across cultures and civilizations.” If you read her blog, you know that she excels…
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Steal like an artist: ‘You don’t want to look like your heroes, you want to see like your heroes’
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1 min read
Who to copy is easy. You copy your heroes—the people you love, the people you’re inspired by, the people you want to be. The songwriter Nick Lowe says, “You start out by rewriting your hero’s catalog.” And you don’t just steal from one of your heroes, you steal from all of them. The writer Wilson…