The Creative Mind

Because Hemingway left his work at an interesting moment, it became easier to return to his typewriter the next day. Think of it like a TV show cliffhanger. If you are interested in the story, you’re more likely to return to the show next season. Hemingway essentially incorporated self-made cliffhangers into his productivity schedule to maintain hi... See more

When there's a deadline, there's also a destination, a context, a reason for something. And that's what makes me finish it. Up until that point, it's an experiment. It's sitting on my shelf and I can take it down again as I often do, work on it again, put it back on. [Then I can take it] out two years later and work on it some more.

So everything's ... See more

“Listening is how I started. I didn't start when I was a piano player. I didn't start as a composer. I started as a listener.” RIP

There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is ... See more

I didn’t realize it at the time, but that’s the best advice you could give anyone: make what’s missing

The greater the artist, the greater the doubt. Perfect confidence is granted to the less talented as a consolation prize.

— Robert Hughes, 1996

Increasingly, the work that stand out will be more raw and incomplete (because — by definition — new ideas haven’t been optimized because…they are new).

Eno explains:

"[On one end, you have] auto-tune that perfectly puts music into tune…which is sort of flawless and faultless. [In contrast, the other side] is clumsy, awkward, crude and unfinished thi... See more

“The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect but by the play instinct acting from inner necessity. The creative mind plays with the objects it loves.”

—Carl Jung

In 1985, Nike held a 24-hour shoe design contest. Nike was struggling. Their stock dropped 50%. They had to lay off people. Adidas, Converse, and Reebok were all selling more shoes. So in a panicked attempt to find creative talent, Nike held a shoe design contest. The winner was a corporate architect named Tinker Hatfield. “Two days after the compe... See more