Art
Seth Godin and Jennifer Crusie on Artistic Legitimacy
Following onto the post about Amanda Palmer’s exhortation to legitimize yourself as an artist, instead of waiting for gatekeepers to do so, here are marketing guru Seth Godin and best-selling romance author Jennifer Crusie on the same topic. First, Godin: No knight, no shining armor “Sure, Seth can do that, because he has a popular…
Read MoreHow to Live Your Summer Life All Year Long
Summer is a time for play, but what does your play tell you about the life you’d really like to be living? Many of us, during the summer: Relax Get more athletic Get more sensual (Shakespeare didn’t write A Midwinter Night’s Dream, after all!) Interact more with nature, and Dress more casually and comfortably,…
Read MoreTerre Roche: Happiness Comes From Focusing on the Song, Not the Success
Terre Roche and her sisters were substantially more than a flash in the rock ‘n roll pan in the late 1970’s. Their debut album, The Roches, was number one on the New York Times list for the year 1979. But as she describes in this moving article, massive critical acclaim does not always translate…
Read MoreSix Things You Should Never Say to a Photographer (Or, if You’re a Photographer, Never Say to Yourself!)
by Soraya Rudofsky and Hillary Rettig It’s never easy to be a creator, or creative professional, but in the age of ubiquitous camera-phones, photographers have it particularly rough. Photographers, how often have you heard someone say one of these: 1. “Photography’s easy, because the camera does all the work.” 2. “Photography’s not a real art…
Read MoreBetty Ming Liu Quits Her Job: Liberated Time Management in Action!
If your job is not central to your mission, but simply a way to earn money, then one of the profoundest acts of self-liberation you can make is to reduce your hours or (even better) quit. Blogger Betty Ming Liu just quit her job, and her list of goals for her next stage is awesome:…
Read MoreArtist Sol LeWitt’s Productivity Advice: Create More by Focusing on the Work Itself
This short movie contains many F-bombs but offers valid productivity advice: The movie’s text is an F-bombed version of a letter from Sol LeWitt to Eva Hesse, who struggled with self-doubt: Just stop thinking, worrying, looking over your shoulder wondering, doubting, fearing, hurting, hoping for some easy way out, struggling, grasping,…Stop it and just DO!……
Read MoreWhy Rodin’s “The Thinker” Should be Renamed “The Perfectionist” (Plus, Bonus Balzac!)
Auguste Rodin’s famous “The Thinker” statue (1902) is, all by itself, probably responsible for many cases of perfectionism and procrastination. It’s such a forceful statement that some, looking at it, probably think, “So THAT’S what intellectual work is supposed to look like! A grinding inner struggle! I’d better aim for that, and if my work…
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