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There are plenty of ways to tie a winter scarf; but after a friend showed me this method, I don’t think I’ll ever tie a scarf another way again. Most scarf tying methods I’ve found are bulky and uneven; but this method yields a knot that distributes the mass of the scarf evenly. So, it looks dandy underneath your winter coat.
Step 1: hang the scarf behind your neck. Position the scarf so that the majority of the length of the scarf hangs over your right shoulder, leaving a shorter length over your left shoulder.
Step 2: cross the short end of the scarf over the long end. Hopefully you still have plenty of length on the long end, because you’ll be needing it.
Step 3: wrap the long end of the scarf around the back of your neck. Hold onto some of the length to leave a loop. You’ll be using that loop!
Step 4: feed the long end of the scarf back through it’s own loop. Remember that loop you made in Step 3? That loop.
Step 5: pull both ends. Hopefully both ends are of equal length. If not, no biggie, just try again, adjusting the lengths of scarf accordingly.
Step 6: look awesome. You’re welcome. You have now tied a perfect scarf. Have a nice winter.
Want a video demonstration? Well, here ya go:
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The SXSW panel picker is live for the 2010 SXSW Interactive conference. This year, I submitted the panel idea, How to Fuck Up Properly, where we’ll explore just how integral failure actually is to success; and how to tell the difference between failure, and lack of follow through. It will be a great panel, and I promise not to fuck it up; but, it can’t happen without your vote. Please vote now!
I already have a couple of amazing panelists in mind:
David Weekly: Had a number of small ventures before building PBwiki (now PBworks), which “had more attention in two weeks than [his] year-and-a-half old project.” More on that in a presentation by him.
Paul Bragiel: Founded Meetro, a location-based IM client. Then, shut it down and took the lessons learned, and the same team, to then build Lefora.com – a hosted forum solution.
Please provide your input in the comments section of the panel picker. Who else is an expert on fucking up?
When you’re done voting, tweet this:
Find out “How to Fuck Up Properly” in @kadavy’s SXSW panel. Vote for it here: http://tr.im/wMDL
Other Panels of Interest
Online workteam building and management platform, oDesk is heading up an interesting panel on remote-work best practices, called Kill Your Cubicle.
Online dating advice expert Russ Ruggles plans to explain his theories in a presentation called How to Get a Date Online.
Go vote! Thanks for your support!
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I believe we are deep in “The Age of Maybe“. Chances are, you have hundreds of Facebook friends, and thus many social engagements that you are invited to through Facebook, evite, or Meetup. With social connections so much looser than they once were, it makes RSVPing Maybe to these things very easy to do. You want to see who else will be going. You want to see if something better will be going on that day. You probably won’t admit that these are the reasons why, but at any rate, you RSVP Maybe.
At least you have the guts to RSVP as such, rather than just flaking. In my experience, events I’ve attended or held usually have at least a 25% flake factor. If 30 people have RSVPed “Yes” (in which case, probably 15 have RSVPed “Maybe” ) then approximately 7.5 of them won’t show up. So, you’ll have 7.5 people’s worth of leftover chips and dips.
Maybe really has its virtues. Maybe allows us to find just what we want in life. We can Maybe our way through our days, making contact with thousands of people, hundreds of career opportunities, dozens of parties, a handful of lovers. Maybe is a date. Yes is a marriage. Maybes makes stronger Yeses.
Maybes have been made more abundant by the internet. We don’t have to restrict our friends to those who live on our block, go to our same school, who work with us, or attend the same church (if we go). We can seek out others with similar interests and lifestyles with unprecedented efficiency. I think that this is good.
Eventually, you’ve Maybed enough. If you’re a chronic Mayber, people will start to catch on. You cancel dinner with your friend because you have to work late. You miss someone’s birthday party because it’s raining, and you don’t want to go outside. Maybe will poison your relationships. Try denying yourself Maybe for just a little bit. Commit to that party, even though it’s three weeks away. Keep that drink appointment with a friend, even though you’re tired and have to get up early tomorrow. If you’ve Maybed your way long enough to fill your life with good things, you’ll find that Yes makes those bonds stronger.
I have a “no Maybes” brunch group. There’s a set number of people who can be in the group at any time. We have a special guest every meeting. There are other people who are interested in attending, so if you aren’t showing up, we’ll give your spot to one of them. You’re out. No can build as strong of bonds as Yes.
Just say No to Maybe.
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Woman photo by mkorchia. Dog photo by mudpig.
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Remember when I was testing the waters to see if there was interest in a DIYMBA group? Well, there was plenty of interest. Some were more interested than others. Those in the latter group and I started a DIY MBA group. Here’s what it consists of so far:
- Six select members, all of us entrepreneurs in Chicago.
- We read books on our own – based on the challenges we each face as business owners. Sometimes they are from the Personal MBA list, sometimes not.
- We meet for brunch one Saturday a month at a swanky place in The Loop, and invite a business leader from a particular field of expertise to join us each time and talk about their experiences.
- We keep each other updated on what we’re reading, and how it’s helping us with our businesses.
Sorry to say, but you’re not invited. There’s a ton of people we wish we could include in the group – but won’t. Here’s why we’re keeping the group small:
- Having a safe place to share confidential information about our businesses enhances the learning experience. This is really a big one.
- The waitstaff already hates us for putting down 6 credit cards at each brunch. Six is enough.
- In today’s world of bloated invite lists, “maybe” RSVP’s, and no-shows, it’s nice to know who is going to be there each time. We have stronger relationships within the group this way.
That said, I encourage you to start your own DIY MBA group, and I’ll do whatever I can to help you if you do. If you do, we would be very interested to hear how you run your group. Further down the road we can share resources and ideas, and maybe even find a way to join forces.
Some books/resources I/we have found useful:
- Harvard Business Essentials books. Right now I’m reading Finance For Managers
- The Ten-Day MBA
- Business Models Made Easy. What does that phrase that gets thrown around The Valley so much really mean?
- Harvard Business Review. Way more substance than those mags that are more fashion than they are business.
- John Bain & Company Interview Preparation. “Crack the Case” quizzes that show you how a top consulting firm thinks.
- SCORE Free Small Business Counselors in your area.
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Remember my Eight Life Hacks for Health Wealth & Happiness? Well, Brea Grant has made her own list of things to do to keep your life happy and simple.I love it! The summary is: Compliment Someone, Swap Mix CDs With a Friend, Water Yourself, Create a List and Complete it, and Grow Something. Check out Brea’s full post to see what all of that means.
I really need to Compliment Someone more often, and I’ve found that Grow Something is very relaxing, too. Though, it sucks when your plants die.
I want to see more lists! So:
What are Eight* simple things that make you feel like you’re cheating the system? Blog it, put it on a Facebook note, better yet, make a video and get Eight* people to do the same. Like an item on someone else’s list? Go ahead and include it on yours.
Are you not on the list? Do it anyway. What are your Eight Life Hacks?
* or 2, or 5, or 300 – you get the idea.
——–
Lemon photo by Lori Greig
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One of the Eight Life Hacks for Health, Wealth, and Happiness is to Buy Used. But, sometimes this can be tough. Really hot items can go fast off of Craigslist, and then there’s the rarer items – how are you to know when they show up? It can be tempting to just go to the store and buy that food processor you need; but what about all of those food processors out there that need new homes? Here’s a video showing you how I get a text message notification when new items I want show up on Craigslist:
Here’s the summary:
- Search on Craigslist for the item you want, and do the appropriate neighborhood filtering.
- Click on the “RSS” icon at the bottom of the search results.
- Copy and paste the URL for the RSS feed into Pingie.com (if you’re on Safari, you’ll have to change the “feed://” at the beginning of the URL to “http://”) Of course, you’ll have to enter your phone number, carrier, and e-mail address as well.
- Next time an item shows up with your search criteria, you’ll get a text message or e-mail notification, and hopefully – just what you were looking for!
I love buying items off of Craigslist because 1) it’s cheaper, 2) it’s good for the environment, 3) you can find more interesting stuff, and 4) I even make friends in the process!
Check out the rest of the Eight Life Hacks for Health Wealth and Happiness
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Inspired by the great pictures of food that people tweet using services such as TwitPic, myself and some friends have collaborated on nom.ms, a photo-sharing site especially for food lovers. With nom.ms, you can Tweet what you eat – and share recipes and restaurant info – simply by sending a photo of some food to new@nom.ms. And to sign up – well, do the same thing: send a photo of a dish to new@nom.ms. Once you get your nom.ms account hooked up to your Twitter account (we wouldn’t dream of asking for your Twitter password), we’ll start tweeting the subject line of your e-mail. The body will be used as a description for your nomm. Start nomming some nomms today, and tell your friends so you can nomm nomms with them, too!
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I’m overwhelmingly proud to celebrate kadavy.net’s 5th blogiversary today. While this blog certainly hasn’t accomplished as much as many out there in this length of time, starting it was still one of the best “decisions” I ever made. I’m not sure whether to call it a decision, because it was more of an impulse; but I’ve learned over the years that it’s such things that become the most worthwhile. This is a valuable lesson that I wish I would have learned sooner.
It all started with a Blogger account (I’ve since migrated platforms twice). I still get a kick out of reading the first blog post:
Okay, I’m finally trying out this blog thing. I don’t really have any particular intentions for this blog, except to ramble (and perhaps inform) about design, web design and the like. I looked around and saw some very impressive blogs all organized into categories and I was pretty intimidated…only to find out blogger.com seems to make all of that pretty easy. I’m glad I decided to just jump into it. I have a tendancy (sic), when I’m learning something new, to try to take in every detail of something before I attempt it. The result is a sort of paralysis. So, since I don’t know much about blogging yet, and it seems there is a decent amount to know, I’m just going to barf this out and clean it up later.
My favorite part is where I say “I’m just going to barf this out.” It’s amazing how a tiny little snowflake of an impulse can snowball into something greater. When I started this blog, so many people in my life were downright confused as to why I would put my precious evenings, weekends, and even an entire week of vacation time, into doing essentially the same thing I did for a living (I’m not sure if that sounds strange to people – but if it does: keep in mind, I grew up in Nebraska, which I connect to the fact that almost nobody surrounding me had genuine interests or passions that they actively pursued). I had no explanation for them – nor for myself – other than that I couldn’t think of not wanting to do this. I felt a sensation not unlike hunger in the pit of my stomach, and restless urgency in the first knuckles of my fingers.
But it’s those things for which you can stay up until 4am – those things that make you get out of bed in the middle of the night because you can’t get them out of your head – that are most worth pursuing. Having this blog provided a place where I could do things my way. Whenever I may have been coerced throughout the work day to cut corners and sacrifice quality – or to not take risks – to not let things be fun, there was always the blog. Through this blog, not only did I hone professional skills that enabled me to escape the cornfields of Nebraska to work in the richest entrepreneurial environment in the world, I was also able to unlock an undiscovered passion for writing, for sharing knowledge, and – in turn – helping others.
I’m still hungry and restless; but to me this is much more than just a blog. It serves as a reminder that you can’t connect the dots moving forward. You have to have a mound of clay (or barf) before you can make a sculpture people. Barf it out!
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In an effort to give my poor little fingers a break, I’ve started producing some video. It’s a little show called 8 Things This Week, and it’s already on it’s second episode.
So, to all of you kadavy.net subscribers (I love you, BTW): yeah, sorry for not telling you sooner, but you probably already know if you’re following me on Twitter. No, sorry (or don’t worry – depending on how you look at it), I won’t be updating you here every time a new episode comes out. Please subscribe to my YouTube channel, where you’ll see the show, as well as a few bonus videos here and there.
From any given episode of 8 Things This Week, you can expect to get a cool tip or two, some random observations from my week, and an amusing song; and hopefully a laugh or two. Please pass it on to your friends, let me know what you like, let me know what sucks, and let me know if you want me to just stop altogether.
The first two episodes are below:
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Tonight is my 30th birthday party at the Kadavy, Inc. Headquarters in Chicago. I’ll be shaving my beard off, live on ustream, in stages, starting about 8pm CST.Here’s a video on how to submit your beard designs. Maybe you think I need mutton chops. Maybe a handlebar mustache. Maybe a soul patch.
Here’s some general instructions:
- Make/find your beard design. Draw a picture on my face with skitch. Or just find an nice beard pic on the web. Just have some visual representation you can link to.
- Submit your design. Twitter an @reply to @kadavy, and add the hashtag #kadavy30
- Tune in to see what designs win.
Also, you can use this template, designed by Arlo:
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I love social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook, but they send an awful lot of notification e-mails. I get an e-mail every time someone comments on my blog; I get an e-mail every time someone follows me on Twitter. On my birthday, I got 63 e-mails from Facebook! Now, I’m not complaining about getting birthday wishes, and I like to review these other e-mails from time to time; but filtering them into little folders off to the side of my inbox is just too distracting. I want my inbox to have IMPORTANT STUFF in it, and I don’t want the tempation to poke around in these little folders every once in awhile.
I know that I can save myself alot of time and distraction if I just put these e-mails somewhere far, far away, so I’m going to filter them to an entirely new account. Then, I can set up a schedule to manage them in “batches”. Maybe I’ll check the account once a day, maybe three times a week. Maybe once a week. What’s important is that they will be far away from the more important e-mails that go directly into my inbox.
If e-mails from social networking sites are distracting you I’m going to show a special trick to get them out of your way. Check out this screencast.
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Isn’t it supposed to be fun? Remember when it was fun? Remember the freshness? The serendipity. The discovery. Enjoyment. Doing and not expecting, not anticipating. Not even hoping. Because you want to. Need to. Can’t help it. Who cares why! Then. Magic. Discovery. Fireworks! Superness! Who knew!? How is this happening? How can it happen more? Make it happen more. Process. Care. Tweaking. Researching. Repetition. Discipline. Repetition. Goals. Eyeballs. Risk.
Paralysis.
Remember when it was fun?
Make it fun again.
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Fun photo by -Gep-
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For those of you who live a lean lifestyle, as much as you hate affluenza, you have to admit there are a few items that make it all possible.
- The iPhone - Nobody can deny the brilliant utility that is the iPhone. Sure, it sucks at making calls; but who likes talking on the phone anyway? From public transit directions on the go; to tons of time and frustration saved through the many Timer app uses; to the countless apps eliminating the need to own a multitude of devices from a calculator, to a guitar tuner, to a flashlight – the iPhone is one of the biggest winners when it comes to helping you live efficiently.
- A Macbook / Macbook Pro - Along with the iPhone, these can eliminate the need for alot of other posessions: a home stereo system, a television, and – with a decent internet connection – cable, or even trips to the movies. Best of all, you can take it all with you wherever you go. And with the Remote app for iPhone, you can control your media from afar.
- Heated Mattress Pad - Huh? You say. Don’t you mean a heated blanket? Hell no! Heat goes up genius, haven’t you heard? So why would you put heat on top of yourself, when you can have it coming from below. I was skeptical at first, too; but these things are amazing. On those cold winter nights, why heat your whole place, when you’re going to be staying put for the next 8 hours? You can even get the two-sided model so your sleeping partner can control her or his own side of the bed – or you can just leave one side off for the nights you snooze solo. There’s no simpler way to lower your heating bills – and reduce your carbon footprint – than with one of these. At least until they release the heated Snuggie®.
Every heated mattress pad comes with a remote to turn you...*it*...on. - Sonicare Tooth Brush - I held out for so long, but just couldn’t wait any longer, and I’m glad that I didn’t. These things really make a difference in the health of your teeth and gums. When I finished brushing with a manual toothbrush, my teeth still felt like pumice rocks when I was done. Now, they feel like pearls. With the prospects of eternal life on the horizon, I’m holding on to my teeth for damn sure.
- Faucet Water Filter - Your water is regulated by the EPA, which is stricter than the FDA (who regulates bottled water), so it’s got to be clean, right? Well, yeah, for the most part, but what about those miles and miles of pipes delivering that water to your Kleen Kanteen? Since I know you live in a relatively dense area to keep things in walking distance, you probably live in an area with some pretty old pipes. Instead of drinking out of bottles that use double the water inside of them just to make themselves, filter the water at the source. If you’re a stickler, the Aquasana has the most complete data about its filtering capabilities, but the Culligan is more reliable and cheaper up-front.
- Rice Cooker - I know I lead a sheltered childhood, but would you believe I had never seen one of these until I lived in California and had an Asian roommate? Rice makers rock! Especially for those who are wheat-free. You throw rice and water in, press a button, and you have rice for days. Since you’re probably smart enough to not consume evil white rice, but don’t have the patience to stand around to wait for water to finally soak into your brown rice, you’ll love that many of these have a scheduling feature that allows you set what time you’d like the rice to be finished. You might want to drop some extra coin on a Zojirushi: it comes with a recipe book for a bunch of delightful dishes (like Jambalaya) that you can make with the touch of a button. How does it do it? I has artificial intelligence. It knows. Oh, it knows. If you don’t want to spend that much, you can always set up a Craigslist alert.
This rice cooker can program your VCR. - Sleeptracker Watch - Ever get a full night’s sleep and wake up feeling like the living dead? You probably woke up during the wrong stage of sleep. Sleeptracker is a watch you wear that monitors your body for signals of your more alert periods of sleep. Then, it picks the best time to wake you up – within the 60-90 minute window you’ve set. It sounds crazy, but everyone from Dr. Phil, to 37 signals’ own Jason Fried uses these to wake up. If you get the fancy model, you can even upload your sleep data to do all sorts of creepy things with.
- A Library Card - Okay, so this isn’t technically a gadget per se, but have you seen lately what one of these things can do for you? Sure, it’s no Kindle when it comes to eliminating to need to own physical copies of books; but it can get you movies and audiobooks too, and costs you little more than what you’re already paying Uncle Sam. Oh, and the books you get there have nice full-color pictures and such in them. I like to place books on hold through my local library’s web site, and they get delivered to my closest branch within days. Magic! If you haven’t used your local library lately, do it today.
Well there ya have it, hippies: some necessaries, to go along with your hacky sack and bong.
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Cat photo from Mihnea
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UPDATE: My account is back! Turns out I had test account(s) (as a developer) that weren’t officially “test” accounts by Facebook’s standards. I wish Facebook would have notified me in some manner. They should definitely be more careful with this if they want people to trust them with all of that personal data. This made me think a lot about how much precious “information” (memories) I trust they will keep available to me. Anyway, it is good to be back! Thanks everyone for your support and insights.
Facebook disabled my account, and didn’t tell me why. The other day, as I was trying to comment on a Lifehacker thread using their super-cool Facebook Connect integration, I received this message:
HUH?! Disabled? How could my account be disabled? How could they take away from me my main means of communicating with my friends back in San Francisco, and everywhere else? Now I can’t even play Scrabble with my own mother!? Oh, yeah, AND WHY THE FUCK WAS MY ACCOUNT DISABLED?
At first I thought maybe it was this Tweet:
I figured, probably the words “teen sex”, followed by a link, set off some sort of flag when it was syndicated to my status message. One would think they would have a more sophisticated system for screening these things, but whatever. I sent them a message explaining this may have been it.
Then it was pointed out to me that since this tweet started with an “@” it probably wasn’t syndicated to my status message. The mystery continues.
Then I remembered a message I got a few weeks ago, regarding a video I posted that included a song by Spoon.
Hello,
We have removed your video entitled “Proportional Design Technique Time Lapse” uploaded at 8:20pm February 4th, 2009. We did this because we learned that your video might include copyrighted material owned by a third party, such as a video clip or background audio.
If you are the copyright owner, or have permission from the rights holder to upload and distribute this material on Facebook, you may file a counter notice of alleged infringement by following the link below.
Please note that if you re-upload this video without filing a counter notice, or if you upload another video that infringes on the rights of a third party, our system will again remove the content. This could cause your access to the Facebook Video application to be disabled, or your Facebook account to be disabled.
For any other questions, view our Help page.
The Facebook Team
“Okay,” I thought. A little anal, considering the video is only being shared with my friends, but whatever. Typical sort of language for this thing: “this could cause your access to the Facebook Video application to be disabled, or your Facebook account to be disabled.” Surely this language is for flagrant offenders. Anyway. Done deal. I can go on with my life, and spend the rest of my days throwing as many sheep at my friends as I wish.
Well, I guess there was one other video I had up that had a copyrighted song. A little experiment I did with processing.org and a Crystal Castles tune. I uploaded this video well before the Spoon one, so I didn’t think to take it down. Besides, they’ll just take it down and send me another message. Right? Right?
So, I’m left to assume that this was the egregious violation I had committed - putting up a video with a soundtrack that included a copyrighted song. By a group that, incidentally has had some copyright troubles themselves.
It’s been about 48 hours since my account was disabled, and still no comment from Facebook, or response to my inquiry. It’s as if my very existence has just gone into the ether. All those comments from my regular status updates via Twitter - shall be no more. Unless I get my account back.
Oh yeah, and that Facebook application that I spend thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours developing (which was also just about killed by the new API) what happens to that?
- Something is fucked here: yes, I did violate the Facebook Terms of Use by uploading a copyrighted video. In fact - TWO of them. But really guys? Disable my account? And cut off access to a portion of my business without word of when, why, whatTF? That’s a dick move. Would the same happen were I to publish a picture of the Eiffel Tower at night, or a picture of The Lone Cypress?
- Everyone should know: Facebook needs to know that if they are going to encourage users to invest their entire social lives in their platform, and to entrust them with housing and managing all of this personal data, those users - excuse me - PEOPLE are going to need to know that access to their own personal data isn’t going to be destroyed on little more than a whim.
- So, those of you on the inside can you start one of those Facebook group thingies? Join this group (thanks, Fayza). Get the word out that Facebook is very unforgiving with their policies, and can destroy this account you hold dear without notification.
If you’re on Twitter, please tweet this:
Save @kadavy! Facebook disabled his account: http://tr.im/h7Ji Please ReTweet!
Thank you. Here is a picture of a kitten:
Photo by willgame
Related posts:
- Through a Friend; A Socially-Intelligent Classifieds System on The Facebook Platform
- Introducing Nom.ms: Tweet What You Eat!
- Filter Your Social Networking Notification E-mails into a Separate Gmail Account
Today I am going to share with you my biggest design secret. Well, I think it’s a big secret, anyway - it may not turn out to be that unique at all. It all began when I spent a semester in Italy, studying the origins of typography. I discovered the meticulous geometry and beatiful proportions behind the letterforms of Bodoni, the within the margins of hand-scribed Bibles, and in the architecture all around Italy’s beautiful cities.
When I returned to The States, I was starving for more. My design program wasn’t concerned with these aspects of design, but my university’s library had any book I needed about typography and proportion. In addition to my regular class work, I regularly spent 16 hours a day, alone in my apartment, devouring all of these books. My curiousity with the relationship between proportion and beautiful typography became an obsession. I even conducted my own exercise, where I laid out copy from a deodorant stick onto a canvas using nothing but proportionally-derived space to create a hierarchy. A few years later, when I taught a typography class, it was this odd exercise that I adapted into a lesson plan that was published in Ilene Strizver’s Type Rules!.
After all of this experimentation, I, of course had to re-do every project in my portfolio to live up to my new standards. I developed a sort of technique, which I demonstrate in this video. No, I’m not using the golden ratio. I’m simply creating a series of “blocks,” of descending size, based upon the aspect ratio of the “canvas” itself. I then use those blocks to determine margins, the size of elements, and the size of spaces between those elements. Oh, just watch the damn video.
I talk about this technique a little in my Design for the Coder’s Mind presentation, but this video should give you a much clearer picture.
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Image via briangeek
Hey, FREE book!
Best comment (relevant & thought-provoking) will receive a free copy of Kim Elam’s Geometry of Design, a book which I personally find fascinating. It’s full of illuminations of geometric proportion’s influence in beautiful design. Deadline: midnight PST Wednesday, February 18th.
Related posts:
- Determining Proper Book Margins
- De Stijl Five of Clubs
- Creatively Creative: A Book Giveaway for Creative Thinking
UPDATE: Adelle’s site, Fuel Your Creativity, is the winner. Quite appropriately named, and full of great resources and inspiration. Check it out!
Thanks so much to all who chimed in on the creativity convertition! When I decided to solicit these ideas, I really wasn’t sure if I should expect to hear much of anything outside of my general understanding of creativity, but I really found some useful tips out of it all. Here are the 10 tips (in no significant order) that were 1) my favorite tips, in combination with 2) submitted by someone who invited - or at least attempted to invite, other people to participate.
Vote (NOW!) for your favorite tip by leaving a comment with the number of the entry that is your favorite, to determine who wins a copy of The Guerilla Art Kit. I’ll close voting at midnight PST Tuesday, February 11th.
Finalists
- jelling recommends a set of playing cards by Brian Eno that give random suggestions, such as “honor the hidden intention of your error.”
- Mary suggests assembling a “committee of whimsical people” to drink beer and brainstorm at a particular Tuscon, Arizona bar - and trying not to barf.
- Adelle recommends Fuel Your Creativity, a blog soley created to provide inspiration.
- sj suggests that you read magazines from industries NOT related to your own to get ideas from a different perspective.
- Roger (who submitted via e-mail) has written a great blog post telling you to embrace failure: “errors serve a useful purpose: they tell us when to change direction.”
- Stephen Davis suggests a blog post by Seth Godin, about how the market conditions of a recession can fuel creativity.
- Gordon says that something as simple as some household chores can keep him thinking creatively.
- Ryan suggest, amongst other things, that when listening to music “listen to whole albums, don’t use random,” presumably to keep yourself in one particular frame of mind.
- Mark discovered in his improv class don’t try to be original.
- Patty finds that by helping others, she gains a new perspective.
I’d like to add that 1) it was exceptionally difficult to narrow this down to the maximum of 10 that I promised, and 2) there are a couple of slightly late entries in this list that were so strong I decided to include them.
Remember, Vote (NOW!) for your favorite tip by leaving a comment with the number of the entry that is your favorite. Also, please feel free to continue the conversation about creativity, on the original post.
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image via wolfpix
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In a shameless attempt to get some donations, and to just be silly. I am offering a promotion: between the end of a post, and the beginning of the comments, you will see a cropped picture of a puppy. Buy me a tea ($3) donation, and you will get to see the rest of the puppy.Why not just have a regular “donations” button? I have many important reasons for choosing this. Here they are:
- Everyone loves puppies.
- That is all.
So, give it a shot! Buy me a tea (NOW!) and see the rest of the puppy.
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Puppy photo by Ryan Halvorsen
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UPDATE The finalists have been chosen! Thanks to everyone who participated. Vote (NOW!), but please feel free to continue the conversation in the comments below.
How do you keep yourself thinking creatively? Maybe you just go for a walk, you do some yoga. Maybe you spar at your local boxing gym, or fire a gun at a firing range. Maybe it’s a website full of inspiration that you visit, or a simple blog post somewhere that gives you inspiration. The best answer to this question will win a copy of The Guerilla Art Kit, by Keri Smith - which will teach you to start an artistic revolution through your creativity. Whatever it is, be creative - and share it with us. Here’s how the convertition* works:
- Submit your ways of being creative: do this by @ replying kadavy on Twitter, or simply leave a comment here. Also, if someone told you about this convertition, be sure to mention them, for Karma’s sake (they get clout in the convertition for telling you about it). Your creativity tip can be something you try yourself, or a website, article, book, or blog post that keeps you creative. Need some ideas? Check out my blog post, Eight Life Hacks for Creative Thinking. There may be ways that you stay creative that you hadn’t realized. (This blog post, by the way, is ineligible for submission. Sorry, I only wish.)
- Not required, but encouraged: include “#cr8” in your tweets so everyone can follow along.
- Be one of the finalists: Out of all of the submissions, I’ll pick no more than ten finalists. My admittedly unscientific criteria will be the following:
- Originality of idea: while it may really keep you creative, simply saying “painting” is not likely to land you there - unless your presentation is really interesting (see next).
- Presentation of the idea: Simple tweets and links to blog posts certainly stand a chance, but why not make a quick video of your creativity inspiring activity of choice - or some other format. The only requirement is that it can be shared on the web for all to see. Your presentation should arouse curiousity, entertain, or simply better explain how said activity keeps you thinking creatively.
- How many people you get to participate in this convertition: As mentioned above, be sure to share who it is that told you about this convertition (and remind your friends to say you sent them). Remember socializing is a good way to keep yourself thinking creatively.
- Get voted for: After I pick the finalists, and present them in a new blog post, I’ll ask all of you to vote - via comments - for which tip you like the best. It’s tempting to tell all of your friends to vote - and as such, this is totally permissible and encouraged.
So, how do you stay creative? Blog it, tweet it, whatever - take two minutes to share it with us, and you can win this excellent book. The deadline for submission is Midnight PST, Tuesday, February 3rd. Has passed.
Here’s a video version of the call-for-entries you might enjoy, too:
About the book (via Princeton Architectural Press):
We are living in a golden age of self-expression. The explosion of user-created content on blogs and social networking sites moved Time magazine to name “You” their 2006 person of the year. But while we may be spending a lot more time in virtual worlds, we have not lost the urge to make our physical world more meaningful. By leaving art and ideas in public places, you can affect someone’s day—change their mood or their mind—and maybe even change the world in the process! more >>
*convertition: sort of a competition, but more of a conversation: convertition.
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Image via alicepopkorn
Related posts:
- Creatively Creative: 10 Great Tips to Stay Creative
- Eight Life Hacks for Creative Thinking
- Proportional Design Technique: My Biggest Design Secret, Revealed (Free Book!)
It can be difficult to keep thinking creatively, but in a global economy, creative thinking is becoming a critical asset to being successful. Over the years, I’ve tweaked my daily life to be able to get myself thinking creatively whenever it’s needed. Here are some of the key methods that I’ve found work for me:
- Move your body: Whether it’s swinging from a pull-up bar during a conference call, or hitting a few yoga poses to start off my day, I’ve discovered a strong connection between my thoughts and my body movement. Dancing, running, walking, playing sports, or just jumping around for no apparent reason are good ways to get your mind thinking differently. When was the last time you did a hand stand?
- Express your thoughts: In any way you can. The most important thing is, minimize friction between your brain, and the medium of expression. If you feel like talking, just pace around and talk, even if you aren’t recording it. And, don’t be afraid to not make any sense. A tiny fraction of what I write or draw ever sees the light of day. Sometimes I’ll just sit and write a string of random words that are on my mind - the next thing I know, that exercise has me writing complete, coherent, sentences that would have never gotten out of me otherwise. When I write, sometimes it’s in a Moleskine with a compressed-felt pen, and other times it’s in one of my favorite apps, VooDoodPad.
- Use your senses: Whatever your core competency, explore other mediums of expression that use other senses. For your ears, take a dance class, or learn to play an instrument. For your smell and taste, take a cooking class, or just experiment in your kitchen. I like to go to a life drawing class once in awhile, and I’m still playing around with the idea of keeping a big hunk of clay on my desk. There might be room next to my LifeBeans.
- Socialize: With passionate people from all fields. Your brain will light up hearing about how other people approach challenges of their respective crafts. Also, the more you socialize, the more you understand people, and the more people will understand your work.
- Isolate: If all you do is socialize with passionate people, you aren’t creating much, are you? To really inject your unique perspective into your work, you have to spend some time with your own thoughts. If your profession has a “scene,” try pulling yourself out of it for a bit. Ever seen “Best in Show?” If your life is starting to look like that, maybe you should stay in this weekend.
- Laugh: You have to have fun, or your work will lose all of it’s soul. Set aside 15 minutes a day to poke around on YouTube if you have to. I like to watch The Office on hulu while I work.
L.O...I have an idea! - Invite Serendipity: Put yourself in a place where something random, yet magical can occur. The general criteria for such a situation is that it be something unfamiliar and full of random stimuli. My two favorites are strolling around the streets of any major city, or wandering around a thrift store. Twitter user stephendavis02 does something similar.
- Eat right: For me, this means lots of fruits and vegetables (organic when possible), a lot less meat than the average American, and whole grains (brown rice, quinoa). I also try to do a fast one day a month, and it’s amazing what it does for my mood and energy level. The most dramatic effect occurred when I cut out wheat.
So the overriding themes for me are variety, curiosity, and health. What works for you? Tell us and win a book!
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Laughing photo by Jim Epler, lights photo by kevindooley.
Related posts:
- Eight Life Hacks for Health, Wealth, and Happiness
- Creatively Creative: A Book Giveaway for Creative Thinking
- Creatively Creative: 10 Great Tips to Stay Creative
Twitter is all of the rage with the kids these days. No kidding. It’s all the rage with the webcocks* too. Here’s how to kick ass with Twitter, without being a webcock. These tips are written with the assumption that you are using Twitter for marketing purposes and want to be seen as influential, interesting, and helpful.
- Try not to follow more than follow you. (this is admittedly childish and snobbish) Every once in awhile I go through all of my newest Twitter follower e-mails (I have a rule that automagically archives them into a folder), and see if they are reputable people I should be following, or just spammers. The first thing I look at (and I imagine is the case for others) is follower/following ratio. If it’s less than 1, I’m instantly turned off. Then I’ll look at their latest tweet, or two. They better be damn interesting/useful for me to then decide to follow this person back. If the ratio is more than 1, I’ll look at more tweets than in the former scenario, but they still better be interesting/useful.
- Say something interesting. Sure, Twitter is about “what you’re doing right now,” but c’mon! They don’t mean that. Well, you can use it for that if you really want to, but if you’re really trying to get a following, then you will have to do better than that. Make sure you’re saying things that concern those whom you want to have following you, rather than just you. The fact that your coffee is too hot today probably doesn’t concern anyone other than yourself. Now, a link to a coupon that will get your followers 25% off at Starbucks, well, that’s another story. If you’re looking for followers surrounding a particular category, then scour the web for really amazing new stuff around that topic, and tweet links to that stuff. It will pay off in the long run.
- Don’t complain. I think this is called “Twitter bitching,” and yeah, we all do this, but there are some people you would swear only do this (not that I’m complaining :). Think twice just before you hit send on that tweet that simply says “I’m sick,” and in pursuit of the former tip, maybe say something like “there’s nothing that works better for my colds than aromatherapy with eucalyptis essential oils [link].”
GOD! I hate all you fucking complainers! - Track things. You know that link from your tip about treating colds? Wouldn’t you like to know if anyone gave a crap about that tweet? Try putting that link through a URL-shortening service that tracks clicks. I like to use snipr, but cli.gs does it too. This way you can get an idea of how interesting your tweets are to your followers, and adjust accordingly.
- Tweet at the right time. You want people to read your tweets, right? So make sure the important ones go through during prime-time. In my experience, for business-related stuff, that’s during working hours. If you come up with a doozy over the weekend, or finish up your latest blog post at 3am, don’t tweet it right then! Use a service like TweetLater to get the word out at a time that works better. I have yet to find a URL-shortening service that tracks activity by time-of-day, but if anyone knows of one, let me know!
Oh, so many tweets scheduled! - Engage in conversation. Unless you’re famous for that very fact, you aren’t going to get much of a following by not engaging with your audience. Respond to people’s tweets with useful thoughts. Ask people questions when you need help. You end up helping people in the former situation, and making others feel useful in the latter (besides getting your questions answered). I know it’s hard to keep track of all of those @ replies, but TweetLater, in addition to helping you…Tweet…Later, provides an @replies digest e-mail, that is delivered to your inbox on regular intervals, so you won’t miss out.
- Here is my last tip. When you’re linking to something, arouse curiosity. Get your audience motivated. How many times have you seen someone tweet “here’s my new blog post: [link].” Why on earth should I click on that? What the hell is your post about? I recommend pulling out an interesting tidbit of information from the post, and tweeting it, along with the (shortened with a trackable URL-shortening service) link.
What are your killer Twitter tips?
*In case you’re wondering here’s what a webcock is. I wouldn’t have wanted to put that link at the beginning of the post, now would I have? (I want you to read the post)
Explosion photo via kevindooley, graffiti photo via aturkus clock photo via avlxyz
Related posts:
- How to Get Twitter Updates on Your Cell Phone Without Going Crazy
- TwitBlog: Syndicating Twitter to My Blog