Art Thinking: How to Carve Out Creative Space in a World of Schedules, Budgets, and Bosses

“We never lost hope that there is a path forward. We just have to find it.” Their mantra was to “shine your light and walk to the end of what you can see” and then to keep going again after that.

They distilled good manager success into eight attributes: 1. Is a good coach 2. Empowers the team and does not micromanage 3. Expresses interest in and concern for team members’ success and personal well-being 4. Is productive and results-oriented 5. Is a good communicator—listens and shares information 6. Helps with career development 7. Has a cl

terms. To capture that cross section of your own particularity, you need to design your own metaphor, and then become as broadly conversant as you possibly can. Like the computer recognizing cat photos, you need to own your ability to synthesize information across many fields—but from the point of view of your unique cross section.

You may be a captain of industry, or take on a great cause. You may collaborate with other people or work alone. It is true that everyone is an artist and a businessperson but it is also true that everyone is a citizen, in the broadest sense.

You can also think about aspects of your metaphor in terms of currency conversion rates. What I mean is that usually you can do things that are a little outside your comfort zone, but they will take more of your energy. It’s like converting money into a currency at a not very advantageous exchange rate—well over a unit of energy for a unit of outpu

Finishing any creative project is like simultaneously defying Zeno’s Paradox and the myth of Sisyphus—the idea that you cross a distance halfway and then halfway again, and again, and you never actually reach the other side, except that at some point you just round up, and the project gets pushed over the finish line.

That simple observation led to the distinction between fixed costs—those that you incur no matter how much you produce—and variable costs—those like materials that you only incur when you produce something. The distinction led Wedgwood to realize the advantages of specializing in product lines where he could produce larger quantities of the same go

The basis of our humanness is in our ability to create things. Our art—in the broadest sense—is whatever we make visible in the world. Each of us has to choose the scale at which we want to be artists of our own lives. It may be your family or your job or your neighborhood.

one of the kindest compliments you can pay to someone who is engaged in the deep middle of a creative project is, “You’re not crazy. Carry on.” And then you can try assigning roles and process goals and building an architecture to help them.