Agalia Tan

A busy calendar and a busy mind will destroy your ability to do great things in this world. If you want to do great things—whether you’re a musician or entrepreneur or investor—you need free time and a free mind.

If the early modernists sold method and mastery, this next wave began inserting personal stakes more clearly; client briefs still set the parameters, but designers were claiming more space within them.

scrolling narrows the field of my curiosity. I take what I find there; I don’t make adventurous or consequential inquiries. I used to sit with boredom all the time—oh, I flinched and chafed, but I always found my way out, or around it. In habitually checking messages, I lost the chance for intimacy with slow dawnings, the feel of big decisions send... See more

“As with the rise of reality TV in the 2010s, personal disclosure became parasocial currency.”

The process of reducing a briefing requires great courage, rigor and repertoire.

You have to make brave choices and say a thousand times more No’s than Yes’s.You have to respond rigorously to the problem that you’re trying to solve.You have to have a vast repertoire of references in and outside Advertising in order to get to fresh thinking - and tha... See more