Paint + Pipette
A blog on the art & science of creative action.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.”