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![peternyc:
List of 10 things for Friday, April 26th, 2013
1. Morning meditation for people who don’t meditate (taken from Tim Ferriss)
- Avoid any electronics. - Sit erect. I do this on a bench outside my local coffeeshop. Tim uses a floor pillow against a wall. - Choose one song to listen to. It might take some time to find your song. Tims is Prince - 1999, mine, Talking Heads - This Must Be The Place - For the length of the song, close your eyes and breathe. Tim likes to imagine breathing in a green light. I thought this was weird until I tried it, my “energy light” is blue. - While you are breathing, run down a list of things you are grateful for.
2. Pictures, no matter how unrelated, will make it more likely people will read your writing.
The pecking order: 1. Cute animals (Cats, shiba inus, sloths then everything else.) 2. Food you should not eat on a daily basis. 3. Insanely beautiful people. Women must have underboob/underbutt. Men must have beards. Bonus for men: holding a baby.
3. Money is a ridiculously abundant commodity. It’s like salt. I could turn to the girl right next to me at this coffeeshop and sell her everything I had on me for $5.00. It would not be smart, but I would find myself with $5.00.
4. This means for creative people, one must not waste time doing jobs just for money. It is like doing a first hit of a drug. Before you know it, you will spiral and binge on creating shitty work for that pay-high (because any quality job understands the value of creatives.) It will be harder to land the quality jobs you want because all you have is shitty work in your portfolio. Pay-high or high-pay?
5. There will be the occasional job that is a mixture of great people, great ideas and a small budget. The key phrase you need to burn into your mind and articulate at those meetings: “The less money you have, the more creative control I get.”
6. If you are interested in designing fashion but are feeling discouraged by others. If you feel that it is not a valuable, worthwhile pursuit, remember that even those that claim they don’t care about fashion dress a certain way for work. Fashion is clothes, and clothes are culture. Do not confuse this with the culture of fashion. The drama, the peacocks and the parties one associates with fashion are like digital effects in films. They are used by certain people to distract from a lack of depth. (And once you know what to look out for, its so easy to tell when things are fake.)
7. To be taken seriously, one must stop being apologetic.
“I like your shirt.” “Oh, this? I found it for $15 at a store. Sorry I didn’t get any sleep and couldn’t figure out what to wear.”
“Tell me about your work.” “Oh, this piece. I was really rushed and got stuck creatively.”
Go on a first date. Start off by telling the girl how sorry you are that you aren’t the type of guy she’s used to dating. She’s going to believe you. Forever alone.
8. A creatives job is to organize the obvious into the unobivious. Which is then interpreted as obvious by apologist who wish they created it, if only.
Writers organize words we use every day into sentences to create stories. Fashion Designers organize garments, colors, shapes into collections. Chefs organize different foods to create dishes.
Do not assume though that you are not creative because you don’t “do something artistic”.
Managers organize people to get tasks done. Nutritionists organize information and food into meal plans to help people optimize their health.
Everyone applies this method of organizing the obvious into the unobvious daily. We are reframing.
9. The solution to stop being apologetic, then, is to reframe. The shirt isn’t cheap, you have a knack for finding beautiful things everywhere. Your work wasn’t rushed, you’re just really good at tight deadlines. You are a breath of fresh air for a girl that’s been breathing in smog the past 5 years.
10. Sorry, I ran out of things to write about. [Reframe] Or maybe I’m just being clever.
Really well put.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/bdfca6013424088e6332a87f3d233e5e/tumblr_mlv7zic0Nd1qzlz5go1_1280.jpg)
High ResolutionList of 10 things for Friday, April 26th, 2013
1. Morning meditation for people who don’t meditate (taken from Tim Ferriss)
- Avoid any electronics.
- Sit erect. I do this on a bench outside my local coffeeshop. Tim uses a floor pillow against a wall.
- Choose one song to listen to. It might take some time to find your song. Tims is Prince - 1999, mine, Talking Heads - This Must Be The Place
- For the length of the song, close your eyes and breathe. Tim likes to imagine breathing in a green light. I thought this was weird until I tried it, my “energy light” is blue.
- While you are breathing, run down a list of things you are grateful for.2. Pictures, no matter how unrelated, will make it more likely people will read your writing.
The pecking order:
1. Cute animals (Cats, shiba inus, sloths then everything else.)
2. Food you should not eat on a daily basis.
3. Insanely beautiful people. Women must have underboob/underbutt. Men must have beards. Bonus for men: holding a baby.3. Money is a ridiculously abundant commodity.
It’s like salt. I could turn to the girl right next to me at this coffeeshop and sell her everything I had on me for $5.00. It would not be smart, but I would find myself with $5.00.4. This means for creative people, one must not waste time doing jobs just for money.
It is like doing a first hit of a drug. Before you know it, you will spiral and binge on creating shitty work for that pay-high (because any quality job understands the value of creatives.) It will be harder to land the quality jobs you want because all you have is shitty work in your portfolio. Pay-high or high-pay?5. There will be the occasional job that is a mixture of great people, great ideas and a small budget.
The key phrase you need to burn into your mind and articulate at those meetings: “The less money you have, the more creative control I get.”6. If you are interested in designing fashion but are feeling discouraged by others.
If you feel that it is not a valuable, worthwhile pursuit, remember that even those that claim they don’t care about fashion dress a certain way for work. Fashion is clothes, and clothes are culture. Do not confuse this with the culture of fashion. The drama, the peacocks and the parties one associates with fashion are like digital effects in films. They are used by certain people to distract from a lack of depth. (And once you know what to look out for, its so easy to tell when things are fake.)7. To be taken seriously, one must stop being apologetic.
“I like your shirt.”
“Oh, this? I found it for $15 at a store. Sorry I didn’t get any sleep and couldn’t figure out what to wear.”“Tell me about your work.”
“Oh, this piece. I was really rushed and got stuck creatively.”Go on a first date. Start off by telling the girl how sorry you are that you aren’t the type of guy she’s used to dating. She’s going to believe you. Forever alone.
8. A creatives job is to organize the obvious into the unobivious.
Which is then interpreted as obvious by apologist who wish they created it, if only.Writers organize words we use every day into sentences to create stories. Fashion Designers organize garments, colors, shapes into collections. Chefs organize different foods to create dishes.
Do not assume though that you are not creative because you don’t “do something artistic”.
Managers organize people to get tasks done. Nutritionists organize information and food into meal plans to help people optimize their health.
Everyone applies this method of organizing the obvious into the unobvious daily. We are reframing.
9. The solution to stop being apologetic, then, is to reframe.
The shirt isn’t cheap, you have a knack for finding beautiful things everywhere. Your work wasn’t rushed, you’re just really good at tight deadlines. You are a breath of fresh air for a girl that’s been breathing in smog the past 5 years.10. Sorry, I ran out of things to write about.
[Reframe] Or maybe I’m just being clever.Really well put.
(Source: peternyc)
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Q&A: Ben Keenan on how to be creative on demand | SmartPlanet
SMART PLANET: Do you have any strategies or tips on how we can be more creative?
BEN KEENAN: Sure, here are five:
1. Get the question right.
Before you consider the possibilities, you need to knuckle down and articulate the problem you are trying to solve in a single sentence. A problem well stated is a problem half solved.
2. Stop yourself from trying to solve things right away.
Years of rote education has drilled the question answer response into all of us.
You need to suppress that part of you that wants recognition and reward, and consider all the ways into the problem. Fill a page full of little boxes and try and put a thought in every box. Not an idea, but a thought, anything and everything that might solve the problem. Your goal is to fill the page, not answer the question.
3. Things won’t make sense after a while and that is normal.
We are not wired to consider possibilities when confronted with a problem, we are wired to jump out of harms way, that’s why the creative process makes you feel flustered, and like you aren’t getting anywhere. Understanding this helps you push through it and just keep going, it’s only after things stop making sense that the really interesting thoughts arrive.
4. Go do something else.
After you’ve a had a burst for an hour or two, go do an expense report, your time sheets, something that requires your full concentration. While you are applying conscious thought to this task, your subconscious will be sifting through all knowledge you’ve offloaded about the problem.
5. Keep a pen and paper handy.
Once your subconscious has done its job, the answers will come to you thick and fast. Usually, if we are not having any luck on a solution, I’ll just go at it for an hour or so at night, sleep on it, and an idea will come to me while I’m on my way into work the next morning. We all do this without realizing we do it, it’s why your best ideas often happen in the shower.
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A Liberal Decalogue: Bertrand Russell's 10 Commandments of Teaching | Brain Pickings
Perhaps the essence of the Liberal outlook could be summed up in a new decalogue, not intended to replace the old one, but only to supplement it. The Ten Commandments that, as a teacher, I should wish to promulgate, might be set forth as follows:
- Do not feel absolutely certain of anything.
- Do not think it worthwhile to proceed by concealing evidence, for the evidence is sure to come to light.
- Never try to discourage thinking, for you are sure to succeed.
- When you meet with opposition, even if it should be from your husband or your children, endeavor to overcome it by argument and not by authority, for a victory dependent upon authority is unreal and illusory.
- Have no respect for the authority of others, for there are always contrary authorities to be found. [Grace: This is not to be confused with not respecting people in general. BE KIND.]
- Do not use power to suppress opinions you think pernicious, for if you do, the opinions will suppress you.
- Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.
- Find more pleasure in intelligent dissent than in passive agreement, for if you value intelligence as you should, the former implies a deeper agreement than the latter.
- Be scrupulously truthful, even if the truth is inconvenient, for it is more inconvenient when you try to conceal it.
- Do not feel envious of the happiness of those who live in a fool’s paradise, for only a fool will think that it is happiness.
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25 Of My Personal Rules For Writing And Telling Stories
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Makin' Ads: Headline Tips
A friend of mine recently asked if I have any tips for writing headlines. I’d never stopped to write any of them down. But here’s my incomplete list of headline tips. Like all the advice on this blog, these tips are only sometimes true. Sometimes they will help you write great lines. And sometimes they will be wrong and lead you down paths of lameness. But most of the time, they’ll be mostly true.
- You’ll write 100 headlines for every one worth keeping.
- Sometimes great body copy can come from the 99 lines that you threw out.
- You can make your line stronger by removing every word that’s not absolutely necessary.
- If you have an unusual visual, go for a straight-forward line. If you have a straight-forward visual, put as much character and personality in your line as you can.
- Finally, we should all stop writing headlines that begin with “Finally,”
- Avoid the “It’s like a (blank) for your (blank)” formula. This has been done to death.
- Take inspiration from the Communication Arts Advertising Annuals. Over a decade later, I still think the 1999 and 2000 issues have the best collection of headlines.
- Headlines are often easier to write when you have a visual in mind – or better yet, a specific photo or illustration tacked to your wall.
- Don’t believe the platitude that negative words like “not” and “don’t” should be avoided.
- Write the way people talk. Not the way companies or mission statements want people to talk.
- Puns are not punny. See?
- If you’re not having fun writing, you’re not in the right job.
Great tips. Especially #12.
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High ResolutionWhat good shall I do this day? by The Father of Invention
Founding Father of the USA (and the one man most often confused as a former president), founder of the first public lending library, founder of a fire department, university, and hospital, inventor, and role model for one of this country’s greatest traits (ingenuity!)… how did Benjamin Franklin do it? To start: he had a good schedule.
Above image from And the Pursuit of Happiness, by Maira Kalman.
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(via cubiclerefugee)
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Vendors — Lined & Unlined
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Jay Parkinson shares some of his awesome
msg:
Jay shares someof his awesome:
READ FULL POSTMany people have gone through this process of self-discovery at various ages. Sometimes it hits us when we’re 20, 36, or 86. But each person I’m sure stumbles through it differently. Here’s what I discovered and what’s helped me:
- Write a personal mission statement and keep it open in your browser and read it slowly every morning. Revise it as often as you see fit and try to minimize the number of items to establish an essence of who you are.
- Get rid of things that aren’t essential to your life. Simplify.
- Eliminate as many stressful things as possible. Do meaningful things that make you happy and relaxed, like massages and hikes in the woods. Give yourself a break.
- Eliminate people and things that make growth difficult.
- Spend much less time looking at screens and more time reading books.
- Spend a ton of time alone reading books that provide a little insight into life. I’ve found waking up a little early and reading something nice is a great way to start your day. Anyway, time at night would be good too. The point is, just read enlightening books and eliminate distractions when reading.
- Write. I created my own private tumblr that I’m treating like a diary adding my own writing but also anything that I find insightful, like passages from the books I’m reading. I want all of this stuff to be in the same place. And I also want to be able to read through it and see progress and reminders.
- Write down the qualities you find attractive in a person. Read them a few times a week.
- Go out with friends that talk about real issues and ones that you trust for good, objective advice.
- Have a glass or two of wine but not much more.
- Be consistently kind to everyone.
Here are the books I’ve read this year that have helped sculpt my philosophy on life:
- The Art of Loving, by Erich Fromm (the best, by far)
- King, Warrior, Magician, Lover
- The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People
- The Road Less Traveled
- How to Win Friends and Influence People
I’ve found that I love the classic self-help books. If you haven’t read them, I encourage you to do so. They just may change your life. But most importantly, 2012 taught me the importance of a team and artfully creating your world around you to optimize that team, whether that team is at work or at home. And difficult times are by far the most enlightening. I never run away from a challenge. Never have. Never will. And starting 2013, I’m a much happier, wiser man who has so much optimism inside it hurts. Life is grand, isn’t it?
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Ah what the hey. Let's do a little Q&A for giggles.
- 1: What did you do in 2012 that you’d never done before?
- 2: Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
- 3: Did anyone close to you give birth?
- 4: Did anyone close to you die?
- 5: What countries did you visit?
- 6: What would you like to have in 2013 that you lacked in 2012
- 7: What dates from 2012 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
- 8: What was your biggest achievement of the year?
- 9: What was your biggest failure?
- 10: Did you suffer illness or injury?
- 11: What was the best thing you bought?
- 12: Whose behaviour merited celebration?
- 13: Whose behaviour made you appalled?
- 14: Where did most of your money go?
- 15: What did you get really, really, really excited about?
- 16: What song will always remind you of 2012?
- 17: Compared to this time last year, are you: (a) happier or sadder? (b) thinner or fatter? (c) richer or poorer?
- 18: What do you wish you’d done more of?
- 19: What do you wish you’d done less of?
- 20: How did you spend Christmas?
- 21: Did you fall in love in 2012?
- 22: What was your favourite TV program?
- 23: Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
- 24: What was the best book you read?
- 25: What was your greatest musical discovery?
- 26: What did you want and get?
- 27: What did you want and not get?
- 28: What was your favourite film of this year?
- 29: What one thing made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
- 30: How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2012?
- 31: What kept you sane?
- 32: Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
- 33: What political issue stirred you the most?
- 34: Who did you miss?
- 35: Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2012.
- 36: Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.
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For this and more of my current rotation of favorites, subscribe to my Spotify playlist.
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Today I
- Missed Oxford
- Looked up plane tickets to London
- Worked on some things for TwoInchCuffs that I can’t wait to share
- Was sad that I missed Grace Potter & The Nocturnals when they came to Atlanta
- Made bolognese sauce with leftover grilled eggplant and galbi
- Downloaded Adele’s song for the new Bond movie
- Watched Daniel Craig on SNL
- Got excited for Skyfall
- Realized that I’ll be in the Himalayas when the movie comes out
- Looked for compression clothes
- Perused photos of Oxford with a deep sense of longing
- Wrote this list
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"1. Make sure you enjoy writing.
Writers always like to say how hard the writing process is and how much suffering it causes. They’re lying. People don’t like to admit they make a living from something they genuinely enjoy."-The first of Etgar Keret’s ten rules for writers echoes Ray Bradbury’s insistence on writing with joy. For more timeless advice on writing, see writing rules by:
(via explore-blog)
(via explore-blog)
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Ogilvy’s Writing Tips
This has been making the rounds of the creative ‘net lately, so we tossed it up here for those who haven’t seen it. What’s cool about Ogilvy is that he believed the responsibility of strong, clear writing belonged to everyone, not just copywriters. He felt it was a proof of how you think — and it’s true: Knowing how to structure your writing and elaborate on an idea also helps refine your thought process.
But our favourite tip is the last one. How many misunderstandings and botched jobs could be avoided if people stopped thinking that shooting an email into the ether is enough … and got the hell out of their chairs to talk to each other?
H/T: adteachings.
YESYESYESYES
I’ve probably posted these tips before, but they bear repeating.
Favorite Things
Twenty-something.
Atlanta.
Hedonist.
The views expressed here are my own and do not represent the views of my employers. No one should be held responsible for my stupid thoughts.
![peternyc:
List of 10 things for Friday, April 26th, 2013
1. Morning meditation for people who don’t meditate (taken from Tim Ferriss)
- Avoid any electronics. - Sit erect. I do this on a bench outside my local coffeeshop. Tim uses a floor pillow against a wall. - Choose one song to listen to. It might take some time to find your song. Tims is Prince - 1999, mine, Talking Heads - This Must Be The Place - For the length of the song, close your eyes and breathe. Tim likes to imagine breathing in a green light. I thought this was weird until I tried it, my “energy light” is blue. - While you are breathing, run down a list of things you are grateful for.
2. Pictures, no matter how unrelated, will make it more likely people will read your writing.
The pecking order: 1. Cute animals (Cats, shiba inus, sloths then everything else.) 2. Food you should not eat on a daily basis. 3. Insanely beautiful people. Women must have underboob/underbutt. Men must have beards. Bonus for men: holding a baby.
3. Money is a ridiculously abundant commodity. It’s like salt. I could turn to the girl right next to me at this coffeeshop and sell her everything I had on me for $5.00. It would not be smart, but I would find myself with $5.00.
4. This means for creative people, one must not waste time doing jobs just for money. It is like doing a first hit of a drug. Before you know it, you will spiral and binge on creating shitty work for that pay-high (because any quality job understands the value of creatives.) It will be harder to land the quality jobs you want because all you have is shitty work in your portfolio. Pay-high or high-pay?
5. There will be the occasional job that is a mixture of great people, great ideas and a small budget. The key phrase you need to burn into your mind and articulate at those meetings: “The less money you have, the more creative control I get.”
6. If you are interested in designing fashion but are feeling discouraged by others. If you feel that it is not a valuable, worthwhile pursuit, remember that even those that claim they don’t care about fashion dress a certain way for work. Fashion is clothes, and clothes are culture. Do not confuse this with the culture of fashion. The drama, the peacocks and the parties one associates with fashion are like digital effects in films. They are used by certain people to distract from a lack of depth. (And once you know what to look out for, its so easy to tell when things are fake.)
7. To be taken seriously, one must stop being apologetic.
“I like your shirt.” “Oh, this? I found it for $15 at a store. Sorry I didn’t get any sleep and couldn’t figure out what to wear.”
“Tell me about your work.” “Oh, this piece. I was really rushed and got stuck creatively.”
Go on a first date. Start off by telling the girl how sorry you are that you aren’t the type of guy she’s used to dating. She’s going to believe you. Forever alone.
8. A creatives job is to organize the obvious into the unobivious. Which is then interpreted as obvious by apologist who wish they created it, if only.
Writers organize words we use every day into sentences to create stories. Fashion Designers organize garments, colors, shapes into collections. Chefs organize different foods to create dishes.
Do not assume though that you are not creative because you don’t “do something artistic”.
Managers organize people to get tasks done. Nutritionists organize information and food into meal plans to help people optimize their health.
Everyone applies this method of organizing the obvious into the unobvious daily. We are reframing.
9. The solution to stop being apologetic, then, is to reframe. The shirt isn’t cheap, you have a knack for finding beautiful things everywhere. Your work wasn’t rushed, you’re just really good at tight deadlines. You are a breath of fresh air for a girl that’s been breathing in smog the past 5 years.
10. Sorry, I ran out of things to write about. [Reframe] Or maybe I’m just being clever.
Really well put.](http://24.media.tumblr.com/bdfca6013424088e6332a87f3d233e5e/tumblr_mlv7zic0Nd1qzlz5go1_500.jpg)
