creativity
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The shared tempo of minds
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1 min read
If the blog is dead, then writing is dead. And if writing is dead, thinking is dead. If thinking is dead, then ideas are dead. If ideas are dead, then there’s no experimentation nor communication. Memes fail to sprout when words die. Yet, we are creators, unmoored from the prison of biology. The pull to share is…
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Starting the process, dancing with maintenance
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1 min read
The room of our mind decorates itself with doubt. Anxiety is a thinking problem, a challenge to contain the inner narrative that bears the footprints of our decisions. Extreme self-belief and passion offer the antidotes to quitting. Immersed from the start, we dance with persistence when times get difficult. Evolution is an imaginative process. As we…
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Known and strange things
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1 min read
Exploration augments the senses. Within the pursuit of strangeness lies one important truth: we prefer the unknown. Can you imagine if the world stopped innovating, where everyone just decided that they’d seen it all! Yet even history compels us to repeat new mistakes. Discovery pushes us forward slowly. There’s a limit to all the novel information…
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A vocation of old and new
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2 min read
Everyone harbors an undeniable vocation that starts when we’re kids. Playing in the NBA, winning a Grammy or an Oscar — most aspirations are pipe dreams. But the characteristics we build in pursuing those far-fetched fantasies such as confidence, persistence, result from facing all the anxieties and fears that arise from such honest confrontation. When…
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Evolutionary parameters
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1 min read
We evolve from the art of spontaneity. The future is an extension of the present. We respond to the demands of the moment with ingenuity, not suave perfection. Humans harbor the same creative impulses: to survive, express, and question the status quo. In the 14th century, we wore pointed medieval shoes. Today, we’re wearing Nike,…
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Doing it our own way
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2 min read
To do it our own way, for you, regardless of external interpretation and expectation. Individuality is all we have. Character is destiny. Sure, it’s in our DNA as social human beings to want to receive feedback on our creative outpourings. But making is therapeutic in itself. Output is the manifestation of input. What we cultivate…
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Reborn ideas
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1 min read
Life arises out of nonlife, developing as a consequence of the random workings of nature. Similarly, creativity arises out of noncreativity. Concepts are non-existent without chance execution. All ideas are dead ideas until further movement. Yet, it is procrastination that brings some of our best work to the forefront. Clarity emerges during idle times — thoughts coalesce…
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The boss of time
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1 min read
Time is more important than money, yet time is money. So the clock (exported by the East India Company) emerged as a system for streamlining global trade. He who obeys the hour, minute, and second is a slave of time. Nature moves toward continuous variation regardless of tick-tocks, adhering to the sun, water, seasons, and…
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Creativity is a game of inches
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2 min read
It comes as no surprise that lousy work begets good work — the more one creates, the more they have to play with. People mistakenly believe that successful artists excelled all along. In reality, what the viewer sees are remarkable stories told by people who decided never to give up. The internet is a great liberator…
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Head to head
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1 min read
Two people live inside our heads, one left-brained and analytical and the other right-brained and more free-flowing and creative. Together, the two opposing cognitive forces work in harmony. There’s also a part of the brain that spaces out and permits the subconscious to connect the dots. The mind works like a dishwasher amidst sleep and daydreaming, cleaning…
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Less is best
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1 min read
We achieve breakthroughs because of restraints, not because of endless options. There’s a reason we feel satisfied when someone removes the cashews at a party; it eliminates the temptation to snack on them. Our willpower is generally weak. And a surfeit of choice further aggravates self-control problems. Even worse, we transmit vices to others. When…
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The critics
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2 min read
The critics try to impinge as much as possible on the artist. It is their job to find weaknesses and room for improvement. The irony, of course, is that they couldn’t repeat the artist’s work. Critics are inadequate makers, no matter how masterful they are in their feedback. Said French-American painter, sculptor, and writer Marcel Duchamp,…