My simple, battle-tested strategy for winning at the conference game. Developed to help combat the tendency to comfort-seeking and awkwardness-reduction. Applied in cringe-worthy moments, with delightful results.

Here’s my simple, battle-tested guideline for winning at SXSW. Developed to help me combat the tendency towards comfort-seeking and awkwardness-reduction. Applied in painfully cringe-worthy moments, with delightful results.

Deep in the throes of SXSW FOMO, I found myself heartened to keep up my daily blogging practice by an unlikely hero: Mike Winkelmann, aka the digital artist Beeple, who’s been making daily sacrifices for his art for over a decade. Spoiler: it paid off.

Wildly inventive and creative individuals have a habit of gathering conceptual pieces — aka legos — before they know exactly what they’re going to do with them. The more legos you collect, the more unexpected combinations you can make.

David Ogilvy attributed many business leaders’ difficulty with original thinking to what he dubbed “the tyranny of reason.” Austrian filmmaker Markus Mooslechner shared a few superrational techniques for escape with me at SXSW.

How did I have the boldness to approach a living legend of innovation? I learned from one of my own students. Another SXSW serendipity story…

Many early career decisions are driven by implicit — or often explicit — scripts that our communities and contexts force upon us. These scripts limit not only our perspectives, but more importantly, our potential.

Take stock of your last breakthrough, and of how you talk about it, both to yourself and to others. If you don’t call it “creative,” then chances are, you won’t call on creativity the next time you need it.