If you want to make new things, you need to know the history of field in which you’re working. A working knowledge of the past gives you tools to function in the present. Woody Allen couldn’t exist without Groucho Marx knocking ash from his cigar. The Tesla couldn’t exist without the Prius silently pulling out of the garage.
Read MoreFEELING THE FORCE
Ultimately the Star Wars mythology asserts that galactic order is a function of militant power exerted willfully, whether from the light side or dark side. Taken as a political exegesis, I fear the influence of this tale, even if the adolescent geek that gleefully resides inside me can’t wait to see the movie.
Read MoreSMART PEOPLE
The best smart people in my opinion are those who are unafraid to pose a challenging idea, even a contrary idea, but can do so without becoming a bore, or worse, a wrecking ball. Elite skills need to speak for themselves without practitioners having to mentally file everyone else into hierarchical categories.
Read MoreTHE NEED
For creative people, the pressures of life are all about finding enough time and resources to create. For other people, the goal is often reversed. For many people the pursuit is often about creating enough time and resources so that they don’t have to work in their free time.
Read MoreGIVING THANKS, 2015
When I experience or even hear about gestures of civility, I’m thankful. The alternative to endless vitriol offers profound potentials for invention, for growth, and even pleasure. On Thanksgiving, I’m thankful for demonstrations of people finding ways simply to treat each other well, or at least with respect.
Read MorePREPARATION
Preparation is all about learning how to listen to our senses to figure out what we want to do, and then asking them to step aside for a while so that we can think clearly. Preparation is the difference between practice and improvisation. Preparation is the invisible shield held by pros.
Read MoreTHE ENDOCRINOLOGIST
Even with all of the many satisfactions — the patients who counted on him, the years of work it had taken him to build his reputation, a measure of financial security — the doctor longed for something elsewhere.
Read MoreNOT GOING QUIETLY
Get out of bed. Make something new. Make it extraordinary. Share it with the world. All you've got is the act of doing it, and you do it because you have to. The alternative is no alternative at all.
Read MoreEMERGENT PROPERTIES
Emergent properties tend to have deep truths. They bubble up organically, like they were just waiting to be discovered all along. The best way to cultivate their growth is to learn how not to suppress them, how to get out of your own way.
Read MoreINVISIBLE WORLD
The difference between everything that’s come before and the last two seconds (relatively speaking) is that media now shows us things that were otherwise invisible, as opposed to made up. We now seamlessly blend our intake of special effects—impossible events, like superheroes flying over skyscrapers—with otherwise unseeable events—things like slo-mo, high speed, and highly dynamic color correction. We practically expect it, demand it. We count on augmented experiences that transcend our unassisted human abilities, and we feel like there’s something unsatisfying if our media experiences don’t show us physics-defying phenomenon.
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