Unblock Party When you’re having trouble thinking of new ideas, go to one of your old ideas and rework it.

If you’re feeling like things aren’t going anywhere, hang out with people from different disciplines.

I started to notice that they were acting their way through a different set of creative stimuli and responses. That led to a long-term interest in the way chefs function as creative professionals. The biggest difference, obviously, is in the relationship with their audience. Musicians have audiences making demands on them, but not in the pure

This is my commencement address to you. Graduates, class of now, as you enter a world that will be increasingly filled with links and apps, take some time to be bored. Take some time to navigate both distraction and boredom. Take time to make time. Now go forth into the world.

Copying, or covering, is always a valuable creative exercise. It gets you going. It restarts your brain and encourages you to look for the way things are built.

I think that my creative identity is unquestionably made up of parts of other people’s creativity. I have lived my life being referential and reverential.

here’s my advice to anyone, in any field: when you feel you can’t make work, make work from work that is already made. Don’t duck and cover. Cover without ducking. Do it proudly. It keeps you active.

I recommend this to any creative person in any discipline. If you’re a painter and you can’t think of anything to paint, copy a landscape or a portrait by a painter you like. If you’re a writer and you feel like you’re not capable of writing something new, find a poem you like and type it out again. If you’re a chef and you’re drawing a blank in

The Connect Effect Think of two artists you know, who you consider to be very different, and imagine what project they would make if they collaborated.