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.
Read MorePULLING FOCUS
In business, in leadership, in education, and everywhere else where creativity has a place to shine, there are probably all sorts of things right in front of you that could play valuable roles. If you’re not seeing a solution to your problem, consider shifting your focus and see what pops into view.
Read MoreLUST
There’s a reason so much art has to do with love and sex and desire in its many forms. Lust empowers us to short circuit intellect so we can access other forces.
Read MoreOF COURSE I'M LYING!
I lie to tell the truth. My actions may contrive, but my intention is to speak clearly and honestly through those actions. Creative work never lies; it’s always authentic to itself. That it might invent tales to reveal deep truths about reality is beside the point. You may tell falsehoods in a story, but if the story successfully misleads an audience, the story itself…it’s true.
Read MoreREVERSION TO THE MEAN
We all revert to the mean when we do the things that we know work. It’s a self perpetuating trend, proving the phenomenon every time we achieve so-so results. Actions that deliver middling results tend to be things we repeat, no matter how hard we try to tip the balance toward brilliance. We tend to do things today that worked out yesterday.
Read MoreTHE OTHER SIDE
Fully alive, we see the world in a stage of constant changing, and if we give into that eternal state of change, we begin to understand that the present doesn’t exist at all. There can only be what came before and what’s yet to happen.
Read MoreDOUBLE RAINBOW
Sometimes there are moments of beauty or epiphany or surprise that simply need to exist in the moments you experience them. You have to make peace with the thought that there simply won’t be a “later”. There won’t be a “future”. There won’t be a “payoff”. There is the experience, right now, and you just so happen to be lucky enough to experience it.
Read MoreTHE WALKING DEAD
That mortal fantasy is the crux of the show’s genius and the singular reason why it’s so successful. Without a complex and sophisticated playbook of narrative rules governing the program’s engine, the action would be little more than splashing around in a shallow pool. Instead, The Walking Dead taps into a deep sea of anxieties and simultaneous wish fulfillment and social means testing.
Read MoreEVENTS CONTINUE, EVEN WHEN YOU’RE AWAY
Things are happening simultaneously, small and large all the time, for everyone. The moment you remember that simple thought is the moment you notice the details happening right in front of you, wherever you happen to be.
Read MoreVISITING PLACES YOU WOULDN’T CHOOSE TO VISIT
You wouldn’t have signed up for the experience if you had a choice. Choice is the great luxury, the downy pillow beneath a tired head in a private sleeping car on a long journey. Reality is a seat in steerage on a wooden bench, with inadequate ventilation and a colicky baby in the row behind you.
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