Paint + Pipette
A blog on the art & science of creative action.
Try This Now to Build AI Muscles
You’re probably getting fat on AI content: bingeing podcasts, hoarding newsletter tips, saving Twitter threads... While it feels productive, all that consumption is just giving you a knowledge sugar high. And like any sugar high, it’ll crash—leaving you with exactly zero new capabilities.
Who Will Lead the AI Charge?
NYU Chief AI Architect Conor Grennan makes a strong case for why GenAI shouldn't be an IT capability, but rather, championed by HR. He argues that the folks responsible for human behavior change need to be leading the charge.
Your AI Task Force is Missing the Point
Undisputed "Beyond the Prompt" fan favorite Jenny Nicholson drops by to share some insights from her adventures helping folks innovate with AI. Important lessons for any leader looking to unleash their teams with this transformative technology.
AI’s Secret Weapon: Your Humanity
A funny thing happens when humans interact with AI—they start talking like robots. This is tragic. It's the very humanity that we often unwittingly withhold that guarantees lackluster output. To revolutionize your output with GenAI, revisit your own humanity.
Stop Chasing Predictions — Start Shaping Your Future
Dr. Frederik Pferdt is Google’s original Chief Innovation Evangelist. Here, he shares an insight from his book, “What’s Next Is Now,” inspired by his adventures equipping hundreds of “Future Readies” at Google.
Unlock AI's Potential: Your Journey from Fear to Fun
It’s been 21 months since my book Ideaflow was published, and unexpectedly — catalyzed by the launch of ChatGPT just one month later — the period that many authors described as a victory-lap book tour was transformed into a front-row education in a thrilling new world, reshaping not just how I work, but how I think.
Beware Prompt-Hoarding
If you are to succeed in your quest to realize the gains promised by GenAI enthusiasts, you must regard every quick and easy prompt pack with skepticism. “The Ultimate Prompt Guide” promises to bestow a wizard-summoning ability with a blue-pill-like ease. No, you will not know Kung Fu after downloading that prompt pack.
Try This Before You Give Up on GenAI
The fine folks over at Section recently interviewed me about some common mistakes I’m seeing folks make when they use AI. One of the biggest ones? The tendency to expect too little, and get just that.
Unleash Your Inner Kindergartener
Puzzled by underwhelming results despite your expertise? Discover the surprising insights from a groundbreaking study that can help you tackle challenges and achieve better outcomes.
Declare an AI Recess
One critical reason folks in organizations aren’t imagining radical new applications of GenAI is, their imaginations aren’t stimulated. My recommendation might fly in the face of convention, but it’s been demonstrated highly effective in both this AI-moment and in times past.
If AI Hasn't Made You Giggle, You're Not Pushing Hard Enough
For all the existential angst spilled regarding AI on the news, there's one danger I haven't heard get much attention. It's not the threat of sentient machines or the loss of jobs—it's the risk of AI disappointing us, not because of its limitations, but because of our own.
Mind the (Generational) Gap: Bridge the AI Divide with Your Expertise
Are you an experienced professional watching the AI revolution from the sidelines? It's time to get in the game! Discover why your hard-won expertise is the secret weapon to unlocking AI's full potential and turbocharging your career.
Forget About “New Ideas”
Two words most commonly associated with ideas are “good,” and “new.” I’ve often encouraged folks to forget “good.” Here’s the case for forgetting, “new,” too.
Practice in Community
Want to accelerate your pace of learning? Join a community of practice. We learn much more amongst fellow-learners eager to share insights from experiments conducted in radically different contexts.
Find Your People
New domains — whether hobbies or entrepreneurial ventures — are fraught with risk and failure. One way to hack the learning curve is to find fellow learners committed to the craft. Find your people, and you accelerate exponentially.
Express Appreciation
As holiday season comes upon us, it’s worth considering the outsized impact that simple gestures like expressing appreciation for others can have on our collective creative potential. One of the highest-ROI activities you can pursue is spurring someone else on in their craft.
Commit An Epiphany
Inside every single human being lies the potential to discover hence-unknown possibilities, to have an epiphany. My mission in life is to teach others the tools that turn that seemingly-magical moment into a methodical, repeatable reality.
Make Space to Fail
Business leaders should take a page out of one of the most brutally-straightforward innovation laboratories in the world: lessons from Jerry Seinfeld and Steve Martin’s stand-up routines.
Reflect on Experiments
Steve Martin’s reflection routine as a fledgling magician gives a masterclass in learning through experimentation: if you don’t reflect, you can’t connect the dots in unexpected ways.
Try Something Now
One of the greatest misconceptions in innovation is that folks start with a good idea. How rarely that’s true. Here’s to starting, followed by enlightened iteration.