Paint + Pipette

A blog on the art & science of creative action.

Jeremy Utley Jeremy Utley

Lose Your Thumbs, Find Your Voice

For all the hype about Natural Language Processing (NLP), it’s easy to forget that typing isn't all that natural. For many, it’s a bottleneck to our thought process. In the age of AI, we can bypass our fingers and thumbs entirely in favor of actual “natural language”: the spoken word.

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Jeremy Utley Jeremy Utley

Wander

Mind wandering often connotes neglect. That’s a shame, because it’s essential to creativity: it enables the synthesis of unexpected connections, and the formulation of insights and fresh ideas.

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Jeremy Utley Jeremy Utley

Reject the Tyranny of Efficiency

One of the greatest challenges on the journey to creative mastery is that the “rules” of productivity. Stories from Seinfeld and others encourage me to persist in the wrong direction.

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Jeremy Utley Jeremy Utley

Schedule Unscheduled Time

When all of our time is spoken for, we short-change the longer-duration gestation required to form insights and think creatively. Bezos’ trick? He schedules unscheduled time.

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Jeremy Utley Jeremy Utley

Imitate the Masters

Frank Lloyd Wright is one of the most celebrated architects of the twentieth century. I was delighted to discover two routine habits that contributed to his breakthrough thinking.

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Jeremy Utley Jeremy Utley

Scale Yourself

Leverage is one of the most fundamental mechanisms of value creation, yet few folks look far enough beyond the balance sheet to reap the rewards of the strategy. Here’s how to bring the benefits of leverage into daily life.

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Jeremy Utley Jeremy Utley

Be Inefficient

One of the greatest challenges on the journey to creative mastery is that the “rules” of creative genius fly in the face of the normal, smart thing to do. Stories from Seinfeld and others encourage me to persist in the wrong direction.

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Jeremy Utley Jeremy Utley

Imitate Frank Lloyd Wright

Frank Lloyd Wright is one of the most celebrated architects of the twentieth century. You might be surprised to see the two routine habits that produced such breakthrough thinking.

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Jeremy Utley Jeremy Utley

Set An Absurd Deadline

Whitney Burks is one of the most creative people I know. She boasts prodigious output across a varied stream of responsibilities and interests. Her secret: “obscene, ostentatious deadlines.”

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