What do you mean when you write that everyone is an artist?
O’Donohue:
I mean that everyone is involved, whether they like it or not, in the construction of their world. So it’s never as given as it actually looks; you’re always shaping it and building it. And I feel that from that perspective, that each of us is an artist.
Bernadette Jiwa has written half a dozen extraordinary books that humanize the too-often industrialized craft of marketing.
In Story Driven, she makes it clear that if we merely try to fill a hole in the market, we’re doomed to a cycle of rearview-mirror behavior. We’re nothing but a commodity in the making, always wary of our competition. We have... See more
Behavioral scientists have long shown that specific goals are the ones that tend to lead to real wins. They have found, for example, that setting a small resolution for a day’s work motivates teams, and can do the same even if someone is working alone.
Your business exists in the context of a marketplace, but also in the context of your lived experience. Defaulting to the norms of your industry will shape your business to be similar to the rest, where the best entrepreneurs zero-in on their self expression. Do you have an eye for good design? Inject design into a tasteless industry. Do you have... See more
The programmer Simon Willison has described the training for large language models as “money laundering for copyrighted data,” which I find a useful way to think about the appeal of generative-A.I. programs: they let you engage in something like plagiarism, but there’s no guilt associated with it because it’s not clear even to you that you’re... See more
To be serious is to press for a specified conclusion. To be playful is to allow for possibility whatever the cost to oneself.