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constraints

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The Books of No Excuses

I buy books to dissect their strategies as much as to read. A sub-genre of these purchases is the “no excuses” book — a book that exists to show you why you have no excuses not to publish your next book. Kevin Kelley’s new book, Excellent Advice for Living, is

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Principles for Creating with AI

As usual, when I find myself writing too much about a topic, I have to distill it all into a set of principles — easily digested by a (very) mere human. These principles are backed by real data, case studies, and personal interviews. They are subject to change, ridicule, and memes…

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They tricked us.

All of the following rock guitar gods sold tens of millions of albums. Guitar players, like myself, believed for years that these artists had access to futuristic tools and production tactics that were out of reach for the ordinary musician. The opposite was true. * Eddie Van Halen’s iconic striped

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Consistency is simpler than you think.

Why does mediocre writing and photography often get more attention than best of the best? Why do mediocre “coaches” get more attention than industry veterans with decades of advice summed up in a single book, video, or blog post? What are we missing here? The hardest problem to solve in

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Are you useful?

I preach about the miracle of constraints and their ability to boost creativity in anyone. But I see un-useful constraints being used all the time by creators, so I wanted to make a small list of examples to clarify what a useful constraint looks like. There’s only two real

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The Most Useful Book Cover Constraint

Love plain linen hardcovers. Wisdom without hype. pic.twitter.com/nlvHCAWcMe — Derek Sivers (@sivers) September 6, 2021 I can’t tell you how many hours and how much money I’ve spent on book cover design. But, for nonfiction, nothing beats the stamped, cloth cover. It somehow adds more weight

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For the Best Ideas, Go Without

I just returned from a walk on the beach, jumping in the water, searching for shells with my son. I had nothing on me that couldn’t be underwater in the ocean — pretty much just the clothes on my back. That’s when all the ideas hit me. * The best

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Read This Before You Blog

This week’s links: Hugh MacLeod wrote the best article about online publishing in years this week. If you blog, tweet or publish your stuff in any way, you need to read it [http://www.copyblogger.com/vanity-metrics/]. Don’t Quit Your Day Job [http://www.levenger.com/BOOKS-17/LEVENGER-PRESS-BOOKS-238/

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Eddie Van Halen Gave A Talk About Invention And

false Eddie Van Halen gave a talk about invention and creativity at the Smithsonian last night, while dropping off a few guitars. As you’ll hear, even to one of the most innovative artists in rock history, it’s all about a daily grind and constraints.

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David duChemin on Constraints

David duChemin [http://davidduchemin.com/2013/07/the-power-of-constraint/]: > “We need constraints. They force our hands creatively, and while many advocate embracing constraints, I suggest we go one better and create them.” Exactly. Our brains are set up to avoid the pain of creativity and embrace simple, painless and bland solutions.