creativity
The Era of Perfection
YouTuber/Record Producer Rick Beato mourns the loss of imperfect music [https://youtu.be/L-8EbHkc8tc]: It does seem that there’s a new generation of anxiety-filled, perfection-seekers topping the charts. But what’s topped the charts has rarely been what’s interesting to the devoted fans/evangelists of any art
Apply Constraints
We know creativity thrives with constraints [https://hbr.org/2013/01/how-intelligent-constraints-dr]. But what does it have to do with anxiety [https://www.cjchilvers.com/30-practical-tactics-to-decrease-your-anxiety-intro/]? Have too much information and too many options when making decisions is great trigger for your anxiety. This is why minimalism is so popular
Keep Going
Austin Kleon and I tend to write about very similar subjects, but to completely different audiences. I follow his blog [https://austinkleon.com] and read his books [https://austinkleon.com/books/]. More than once I’ve deleted drafts of posts, because he just posted the same thing. So, I look
The Creativity Bubble
It’s never been easier to find better system for solving our problems. What we should be doing is finding better problems to solve. Anything requiring intense thought and risk is naturally avoided for easy answers, safe bets, and “clever” strategies. “Clever” doesn’t change things. It’s a pat
There's Nothing Magical about Creativity
I've been preaching about how creativity is really just problem solving. There's nothing magical about it. Give your brain enough room and it will be creative. You could even schedule it. You should schedule it. Neuroscientist Sam Harris has spent the past few years studying artificial
Why Tumblr Was the Best
Shawn Blanc [https://shawnblanc.net] (in his newsletter): > "Tumblr encouraged you to post anything and everything: quotes, links, conversations with friends, photos, videos, articles, etc. > On the one hand, this led to tons of Tumblrs being the online equivalent of an angsty teenager’s messy bedroom. But
The Creative Bar Podcast
I went on Jon Wilkening's wonderful podcast The Creative Bar to talk about creativity, constraints and obscure 1990s photography topics I had bouncing around in my head. Check out the episode here [http://jonwilkening.com/blog/2017/12/7/the-creative-bar-38-cj-chilvers].
How to Balance Creativity and Productivity
A post over at Kottke.org [https://kottke.org/17/11/the-tension-between-creativity-and-productivity] about the struggle between creativity and productivity is getting a lot of attention today. I don't usually link to trendy articles, but this is right up my alley: > "I get more done in less
Behavioral Economics and Creativity
I believe most the readers of the A Lesser Photographer book [https://www.cjchilvers.com/books] understood and agreed with the basic message of the book: constraints foster creativity. Yet, some of the book’s biggest fans don’t follow that message. They know what they should be doing to
Constraints work (on experts too)
“As soon as I decided that the format of books was really constraining me, the ideas I've had for new books have gone up dramatically. There's definitely a correlation there.” - Seth Godin [https://overcast.fm/+E44U-e58s/26:29]