Creativity

Sometimes maybe it’s best, in art and writing, to be as dumb as possible, follow the joy, because at the very least that's real. And there, you’ve taken the first step towards the truth.

“The Velvet Underground didn’t sell many records, but everyone who bought one went out and started a band.”

I call this media’s “drug future”: a wire to your head that drips dopamine, co-opts your mind, and steals your life.

Many concepts that sound good on paper are infeasible to implement, or simply don’t produce the expected results. It’s frustrating when that happens, of course, but the pace of experimentation and learning at a startup is unparalleled. I think this is an especially important form of rigor for theorycels like me. Building product forces a different ... See more

Creativity arises from making new connections—contemplate unexpected things together. Don’t wait for moments of inspiration to strike. Creativity is a muscle; exercise it. There’s a logic to creativity: find what works for you, break it down, and you have a process that can serve you forever. Unstructured freedom is the enemy of true creative achie

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For those of us who are not geniuses, it may be tempting to outsource some portion of our creativity to the AI, so we can get past the fact of our non-geniousness, but those barriers and climbing them is the work of creativity. The goal isn’t to become a genius. It’s to do the work.

Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

The best artists are often those who don’t consider themselves artists; conversely, those who do tend to be the most pretentious and annoying. [laughs] Their priorities are misplaced – they create art for the sake of being artists rather than out of genuine passion. Many jungle producers were car mechanics or painters and decorators – really down-t... See more