Category Archives: Creativity

Story Basics, According to Pixar

Pixar story artist Emma Coats tweeted a series of “story basics” she had picked up during her tenure at Pixar.  These were generously compiled by The Pixar Touch: #1: You admire a character for trying more than for their successes. … Continue reading

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Filling In The White Spaces

Advice from Peter Thiel’s final CS 183 lecture: There is something importantly singular about each new thing. There is a mini singularity whenever you start a company or make a key life decision. In a very real sense, the life … Continue reading

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Eggs

How you eat your eggs is a good barometer for how you live your life. There are people who do nothing but grab a plain hard boiled egg as they run out of the house in the morning.  Their eggs … Continue reading

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Get Used To Hearing No

Before you ever get into a field or a career, you’re probably going to hear someone say “no”.  No, that’s too hard.  No, you don’t have the credentials.  No, you don’t qualify.  No, it’s never going to work out.  No, … Continue reading

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Neil Gaiman on Life

Great speech:

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How To Write, Part 3

This one comes comes from David Mamet, perhaps the most well-known living playwright.  He wrote a memo for the writing staff on the CBS show The Unit, where he was an executive producer, reminding everyone what makes for good drama. … Continue reading

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Diamond Psychology

Most people are probably aware that diamonds aren’t particularly rare and that their price is mostly a function of cartel control over the supply (De Beers) and good advertising.  While this is true, the story behind it is fascinating (and … Continue reading

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Dieter Rams on Design: Understand People

Dieter Rams has been successful because he deeply understands people, both physically, psychologically, and how they operate in the world.  He’s not some sort of mind reader: You cannot understand good design if you do not understand people; design is … Continue reading

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Creativity Is Not A Talent; It’s A Way Of Operating

John Cleese manages to explain about 90 different topics I’ve written about in a 13 minute span.  Below is a really, really excellent speech on fostering creativity, becoming more effective, managing time, and much more.  The short version is excellent, … Continue reading

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Dieter Ram’s Ten Principals of Good Design

Good design is innovative The possibilities for innovation are not, by any means, exhausted. Technological development is always offering new opportunities for innovative design. But innovative design always develops in tandem with innovative technology, and can never be an end … Continue reading

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Share

For several hundred years now, most businesses have fought to keep things secret.  Ingredients, techniques, processes, suppliers, you name it.  Anything that might be a competitive advantage would attempt to be shielded from competitors and the public.  In fact, the … Continue reading

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Disciplined Mindwandering, or The Benefits of Daydreaming

Jonathan Schooler, the psychologist who helped pioneer the study of insight, has recently begun studying the benefits of daydreams.  His lab has demonstrated that people who consistently engage in more daydreaming score significantly higher on measures of creativity.  To evaluate … Continue reading

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How To Be 10x Happier In Just 60 Minutes A Day

If you have a job, chances are most of your waking hours are not your own.  Most of all your hours may not be your own.  Between the time it takes you to get ready in the morning, your commute, and … Continue reading

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How Criticism Encourages Creativity

We’re taught to think that brainstorming is an effective way to generate ideas and spur creative thought.  The key to successful brainstorming, it was thought, was lack of a lack of criticism.  This makes sense: if people aren’t afraid that … Continue reading

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Self Published

Ben Franklin Ezra Pound Emily Dickinson Marcel Proust Dave Eggers Thomas Paine Jane Austen Edgar Rice Burroughs Walt Whitman Nathaniel Hawthorne Stephen Crane Nikki Giovanni Virginia Woolf The question isn’t whether or not you should wait to be picked, the question … Continue reading

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