Timeless advice for creators
The life of a creator can feel lonely. But you are part of a long history and thriving community of creators—writers, musicians, filmmakers, artists. In these articles, I share examples, principles, and frameworks to help you become a better creator. Sign up to get these sent to your email each week.
Lift Heavy Thoughts
You’ve probably heard by now that we’re all getting dumber.
Our ability to focus is slipping away. We hear in the news that the IQ of young people today is, for the first time on record, lower than their parents’ IQ. AI is waiting with open arms to offload all of your boring, laborious thoughts, like AUTO, the destruction-bent autopilot in WALL-E.
Our phones are sucking away our life force like the Petrova Line sucks away the heat of the sun.
Our decline has been documented, and discussed, and explained. The end of humanity is near.
But is all this actually true? When abstracted to the level of the population, much of the warnings have high probability windows. But that only tells part of the story.
Now Is the Best Time to Reset Your Focus Skills
Confused. Dazed. Scatterbrained.
It can often feel frustrating to make up your mind to focus, but to feel unable to do so.
To set down a path of focus—to write a song, practice our instrument, work on a design—only to be offered a gleaming off-ramp in the form of a distraction from our phone.
It even happens to people trying to write a newsletter about focusing. My phone has buzzed 3 times since I started writing this newsletter.
Each notification from our phones is part of a habit-reward loop that promises a potential dopamine release for our brains.
We know that there is a war going on in the marketplace, and that our attention is the ultimate prize. Tech companies, advertising companies, even nonprofits and other creatives. All want to win the next second of our attention.
But I want to invite you to a different path. Now is the best time to disengage from our distracted networks of notifications and reengage your focus on what really matters.
This holiday season, make a plan to practice building the skill of focus in your creative life.
The Creator's Daily Struggle
Another morning and it’s there again. That Resistance. Those distractions. That hope of an easy way out, that avoidance. That wishful, irrational thought.
Maybe today I won’t have to work for my art.
Maybe I don’t have to seek out the Muse. To make any effort. ”Please, just let the Muse seize me,” we cry internally. Seize me from my bad habits. From my social feed, my Netflix account, my over-scheduled life. Rip me from my self doubt, my procrastination. Kicking and screaming, just save me from my own apathy.
From my own lack of preparation.