Blog

We need algorithms for running our lives. Operating systems for reducing the burden of thought. Processes for extricating our brains and delegating simple tasks to ritual and routine.  Because once we reduce our total number of daily decisions, once we relieve our mind of the necessity of remembering, our creativity has the room to run free.  That’s why I eat the same breakfast and wear the same clothes and…

I was reading a fascinating book on commitment, which found that in order to sustain commitment, successful people focus on and emphasize the positive aspects, while downplaying or ignoring negative ones.  To keep a commitment strong, the research proved, it was vital to keep the negative aspects relatively deconstructed, that is, to regard them as isolated exceptions or temporary problems that were relatively unimportant in comparison with the broad pattern of…

Information in isolation isn’t particularly useful.  It’s how we encode the information we learn that influences our ability to be creative with that knowledge later.  Here’s a window into my process.  Everyday, I’m constantly scouring and learning and reading and inhaling and annotating from an infinite number of newspapers, blogs, publications, books, articles, songs, art pieces, podcasts, eavesdroppings, conversations, street art, advertisements, pieces of trash and other sources of inspiration. And the secret…

Baumeister writes that suffering is often linked to a meaning vacuum. He also says that people add meaning to their lives by deepening relationships, commitments and obligations.  And so, the antidote to our suffering is to compensate. To reengage with the rapture of new meaning.  For example, when I’m feeling sad and uninspired, I prefer to take long walks and make phone calls to friends and colleagues. The combination…

All creativity begins with the moment of conception. That little piece of kindling that gets the fire going. That initial source of inspiration that takes on a life of its own. That single note from which the entire symphony grows. That single spark of life that signals an idea’s movement value, almost screaming to us, something wants to be built here. And so, in this blog series, I’m going to…

Baumeisters’s groundbreaking research on the meanings of life found that happiness often requires illusions. That the happiest people systematically distort and exaggerate in their own minds the frequency of their successes, the perception of their identities and the quality of their circumstances.  Which makes sense, considering that nobody gets exactly what they want. Everybody experience shortfalls in their expectations. And few people achieve every goal, every time.  Our illusions may be…

Colbert’s writing staff works through the night.  His team scours the mainstream media landscape over the course of the evening, always looking at what shadow those stories are casting, so he can then distort the news in his own unique comedic way. That way, every morning when he commutes to the office, he has a digest of the most important information he needs to know to do his job…

Baumeister’s fascinating research explores the four fundamental human needs for meaning, including purpose, value, efficacy and worth.  We need to see our activities as oriented toward a purpose. We need to feel that our actions are right and good and justifiable. We need to experience the efficacy that we’re making a difference. And we need to feel worthy of respect from ourselves and others.  His research found that people are more…

The inner commitment to expressing yourself can’t be learned. It’s not something you’re conscious of. It’s just there. And the strength of that commitment will govern the speed and potency with which you advance your goals.  Philippe, the world’s greatest hire wire walker, writes in his book that that there is no such thing as motivation in his world. He is not motivated to do what he does. As an artist,…

I begin every day with a creative act.  Entering into the place where I was most powerful, my own mind.  And so, instead of checking email or reading the news or gluing myself to my phone first thing in the morning, I just start putting words on paper. Reflecting on my feelings, processing the night, organizing my idea inventory, updating my victory log, fleshing out new concepts I’m working…