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- September 20, 2010
Colleen on “Killing All Kinds of Darlings”
September 20, 2010Read moreColleen Wainwright’s latest newsletter lay unread in my inbox for days, and when I finally opened it, it was a revelation. Remember less is more when it comes to promoting myself, and don’t list every damn thing. To stand out, one must dare to be secure in one’s simplicity, and that means thinning the herd of your accomplishments. Check it out.
- September 20, 2010
Supporting Factors for Productivity
September 20, 2010Read moreA week ago I wrote that writing is my engine, meaning that I’ve realized that the way I get anything started or done is by writing about it. It’s the activity that engages my brain most productively; in fact, writing is the way I focus. You’d think it would be the other way around, that writing is the product of a focused mind, but nooooo…for me it’s backwards. I have little choice but to embrace it.
Despite this epiphany, it’s taken the past week to realize that there are supporting elements for my writing (and by extension: productive) mindset. (more…)
- September 18, 2010
Simple Artist Websites
September 18, 2010Read moreI came across a mention of Indexhibit, which is a “simple” website framework for artists that doesn’t require a lot of messing around with content management.
For people who want something even simpler, there’s Stacey, which does its file management purely through folders and files that you FTP up.
All we need is the world’s simplest FTP client, and then things would be great!
- September 14, 2010
Bureau of Idea Approval
September 14, 2010Read more
Amanda Pingel emailed me the other day about joining her Bureau of Idea Approval by submitting a design for a certificate.
The Bureau (or BIA) is something that Seth Godin wrote about in Tribes: wouldn’t it be great if everytime we had an idea, there was some official body that somehow made it OK to pursue them? (more…)
- September 14, 2010
Hung Up on Purpose
September 14, 2010Read moreThinking about Posco’s comment about the usefulness of knowing origin in tool use, when abstraction is ultimately more powerful. I tend to lock-up when I don’t know the originating context and ultimate application of an abstraction; a good chunk of my process is devoted to ferreting out that information before I start. Without this grounding, it just seems arbitrary memorization, which I find difficult because my memory works around organizing principles and associations. It has been difficult to find teachers capable of delivering this insight, which is why I’m so militant about it. It is one of the ways I don’t fit in with typical practice, which is a problem in some ways (slower startup) and a boon in others (better in the long run).
