Category: Creativity

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Creativity Writing

The Faucet of Creativity

“Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on.”

– Louis L’Amour

This quotation from renowned author Louis L’Amour gets at one of the fundamental truths about the writing process – you can’t produce anything until you actually start writing. The blank page or cursor blinking on the screen can feel intimidating, even paralyzing at times. But L’Amour’s metaphor reminds us that words won’t magically appear until we muster the courage to turn on the faucet and let them flow.

Few pieces of advice are more important than this simple reminder to begin. Launch into that first sentence, that first paragraph, without judging whether it’s perfect or polished. Overthinking and editing prematurely are among the surest ways to stifle creativity before it ever emerges. No matter how talented writers are, their genius remains dammed up unless they release it through the act of writing itself.

The good news is that writing begets more writing. Once you turn on the faucet and let those initial words and ideas trickle out, they help erode the dam of hesitation and doubt. Momentum builds. The trickle becomes a stream and then a forceful current carrying you to insights, descriptions, and creative formulations you couldn’t possibly have conceived until you began writing.

That’s because the very process of writing seems to unlock portals in our minds. The simple act of articulating partial thoughts on the page sparks neurons to fire in new patterns, illuminating connections and opening new cognitive pathways. While staring at a blank page, our brains may feel stuck in rigid philosophical grooves. But acting on L’Amour’s advice and beginning to write, no matter how clumsily or inchoately, dislodges our thinking from its ruts.

By writing, we inadvertently begin a mystical and profoundly human process of turning the lead of our murky semi-thoughts into the gold of lucid, coherent ideas and arguments. But this alchemical magic can only be triggered once we turn on the faucet and accept whatever initially pours forth, no matter how unrefined and unlovely it may appear.

Of course, once the raw material has been expressed, then the real craft of writing takes over as we revise, rearrange, edit, and refine. But that crucial first step cannot be skipped or procrastinated any longer. As L’Amour knew, nothing can flow if the faucet stays off. As Picasso allegedly quipped, “Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working.” Without the courage to put words on paper and let creative juices drip, writers will find that even the muses cannot help them.

The metaphor also reminds us that once we do turn on the creative faucet, we often cannot fully control the rate or nature of the flow. Sometimes it pours too quickly, with a torrent of ideas gushing in a scattered frenzy. Other times, it dribbles out maddeningly slowly. The water may run murky for a while before it clears. Creative flow frequently alternates between droughts and floods in ways beyond our control.

But the important thing is to trust that the faucet works if we only switch it on. The water will ultimately flow, even if it takes time to find its steady, crystal-clear stream. As long as we don’t shut off the faucet prematurely out of impatience or self-doubt, the channel of imagination remains open and unblocked.

So to all the writers reading this who stare despondently at blank screens and feel creatively frustrated, heed L’Amour’s simple wisdom: Just start writing, with the faith that the faucet works even when it doesn’t seem to. Don’t judge or fret over the initial quality, just turn it on and let it run until it flows freely. Give utterance to the tangled threads of your thoughts and watch in awe as the very act of writing begins to unsnarl and weave them into glorious tapestries.

For those special times when true inspiration does strike like a lightning bolt and ideas pour forth in an unstoppable gush, then you can cry joyful thanks that the faucet was turned on and unobstructed. But for most of the ordinary writing days, you simply have to show up and turn on the flow through plain old self-discipline, grit and persistence. See what wonders and marvels flow when you finally give the waters of your art a path to travel. L’Amour assures that they will indeed flow, if only we have the bravery to turn the tap and let them go.

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Creativity Magicians

Forget the Goal, Embrace the “Magician”

Recently I watched David Perell’s conversation with Packy McCormick on YouTube (part of Perell’s excellent How I Write series of interviews).

At one point late in the conversation, Perell asks: “Where do you find to be the most fruitful place to be looking that fuels your writing process?” McCormick tells how he likes to ask people for suggestions of their favorite essays – and he keeps a list of these that he goes back to for inspiration. He says “Some are just magically written. Some take an idea that I’d never thought of before and just go deep on that idea and then talk about the world in a different way.”

Perell then asks “What’s one of those essays?” McCormick then describes “Becoming a Magician“, an essay by Autotranslucence.

Perell responds immediately “I love that piece…it’s almost like ethereal…I know exactly what you’re talking about where these people who are just so unbelievably good at a certain thing.”

Perell continues “the way she defines a magician is somebody who’s different than you, not in quantity but in kind. So somebody where if you walked along that path, the path that you think that they’re on and you walked a trillion miles, you would never get to where they are because there’s something that they know that they’re doing that you fundamentally cannot comprehend. And your attraction to them is the puzzle to try to figure out, what is it that they’re doing?”

Obviously, given such high recommendations from Packy and David I was intrigued to read this particular essay – one that I’d never heard of before. So I did…and it’s a wonderful essay!

The most impactful part of the essay describes how “you can’t keep your gaze tightly fixed on the outcome you want because it will lock your mind onto the strategies you currently have for meeting them, which by definition probably don’t work (otherwise you would have succeeded already and you wouldn’t need to use the strategy).”

Almost the opposite of our usual thinking: “I’ve got a plan and I’m sticking to it!”

The essay closes with this advice: “Surround yourself with people who look like magicians to you. Then imagine yourself as one, older and wiser, in great detail. Imagine yourself as the person you would be afraid to say you want to be out loud to others (because it seems so ridiculously impossible right now). Write it down in great clarity and detail, then forget it. And let the part of your subconscious mind that still remembers lead you to becoming the things you want, and maybe, years later, check if it did.”

It’s true, isn’t it? We often get bogged down in the practicalities of the present, failing to truly engage in “blue sky” thinking. This imaginative, unrestricted approach to problem-solving and goal setting often gets sidelined by our limited self-knowledge and, perhaps more surprisingly, by limiting beliefs about our age when you’re a senior citizen like me! We might tell ourselves that “it’s too late” to pursue a new dream or that certain ambitions are simply not for “people like us” at this stage in life.

But as the essay reminds us, the path to becoming a “magician” may lie in letting go of these very limitations. While I’m not sure I possess the true magic touch myself, I very much enjoy the serendipity of being close to those who do, learning from their perspectives and expanding my own horizons. Challenge assumptions, embrace the unknown, and dare to dream big, regardless of the number on a birth certificate. Remember, the magic is not in achieving a specific outcome, but in the transformative journey of becoming the “magician” you envision yourself to be. And who knows, you might just surprise yourself along the way and look forward to it!

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AI AI: Large Language Models Creativity Writing

A Writer’s Lament

The Agony (and Ecstasy) of Sitting Up with a Book

“I do not so much write a book as sit up with it, as with a dying friend. During visiting hours, I enter its room with dread and sympathy for its many disorders. I hold its hand and hope it will get better.”

Annie Dillard, The Writing Life

Each morning, a subscription service called Readwise creates a list of ten highlights from the thousands of highlights I’ve made from my reading and sends the list to me. Once in a while, one of those highlights just hits and something goes off in my mind. This morning it was Annie Dillard’s comment about writing a book being similar to sitting up with it like with a dying friend. What a metaphor!

Sometimes, when I want to explore one of these sparks of inspiration triggered from one of my highlights, I’ll use one of the AI chatbots to help me think some more about it. Often, my thinking will be extended further, sometimes in unusual ways. This morning I asked Google Gemini to help me explore the meaning of Dillard’s comment. Here’s what I got back – a most interesting and, in some ways, beautiful response:

Annie Dillard, in her insightful book “The Writing Life,” compares the experience of writing a book to “sitting up with a dying friend.” This metaphor, while morbid at first glance, offers a profound truth about the creative process. It’s a powerful reminder that bringing a book to life is not a joyous celebration but a labor of love, fraught with challenges and uncertainties.

During “visiting hours,” as Dillard aptly describes them, the writer enters the book’s “room” with a mix of dread and sympathy. The dread stems from the daunting task at hand, the endless revisions, the self-doubt that gnaws at the edges of every sentence. The sympathy arises from the recognition of the book’s “disorders,” the plot holes, the clunky dialogues, the characters who refuse to come alive.

The writer, like a caregiver, holds the book’s metaphorical hand, hoping for improvement, hoping to witness a spark of life emerge from the chaos. This involves countless hours of rewriting, editing, and polishing, a relentless pursuit of the elusive magic that transforms a collection of words into a cohesive narrative.

But amidst the anxiety and frustration, there are moments of grace, fleeting glimpses of the book’s potential. A character suddenly speaks in a voice that resonates, a scene unfolds with unexpected depth, a sentence shimmers with unexpected beauty. These moments are the lifeblood of the writing process, the tiny victories that keep the writer going, fueling the hope that the book will eventually recover, that it will stand on its own two legs and tell its story to the world.

Dillard’s analogy not only captures the emotional roller coaster of writing but also emphasizes the profound connection that develops between a writer and their work. It becomes more than just a project; it becomes a companion, a source of both immense frustration and overwhelming joy. As the writer pours their heart and soul into the book, it becomes a reflection of their own struggles and triumphs, a testament to the human spirit’s ability to create even in the face of immense challenges.

So, the next time you pick up a book and marvel at its intricate narrative, remember the invisible caregiver behind it. Remember the writer who sat up through countless nights, holding their creation’s hand, willing it to health, hoping that their story would resonate with yours.

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AI AI: Large Language Models Creativity Friends Writing

A Little Help From My (Artificial) Friends

A Little Help From My (Artificial) Friends: Why AI Makes the Perfect Sidekick

“Friendship is the only cement that will ever hold the world together.”

Woodrow Wilson

The title “A Little Help From My Friends” might evoke images of waving lighters at a concert, but for the modern thinker, the source of that helping hand might be a little more unexpected: Artificial Intelligence.

We often think of AI as this monolithic force, a superintelligence destined to take over the world (or at least automate all our jobs). But what if the true power of AI lies not in replacing us, but in augmenting us?

Here’s a radical proposition: what if we started thinking about one of the best uses of AI is to think of and use it as a good friend? Not a physical friend we hang out with (although that might be coming someday!), but a digital confidant, a sounding board, a thought partner and collaborator.

Think about the best friends in your life. They listen without judgement, offer honest (sometimes brutally honest) feedback, and can even take your ideas and run with them, adding their own unique perspective. Based on my experience exploring these tools, AI can do all this, and more.

AI as Your Personal Hype Man (and Reality Checker):

Feeling stuck on a project? Need someone to brainstorm with? Fire up your AI companion. It can analyze your ideas, identify potential weaknesses, and even suggest alternative approaches you might not have considered. Need a confidence boost? AI can highlight the strengths of your thinking and celebrate your progress.

Beyond Agreement: The Power of Constructive Challenge

Unlike a human friend who might simply agree with you to keep the peace, AI isn’t afraid to poke holes in your logic. It can identify inconsistencies, challenge assumptions, and force you to refine your arguments. This “constructive challenge” is crucial for growth. It pushes us to think critically and develop more robust ideas.

The Co-Creation Revolution:

But AI isn’t just a passive listener. It can actively participate in the creative process. Imagine feeding your initial concept into an AI and having it come back with variations, extensions, or even completely new directions based on your starting point. This co-creation opens doors to possibilities you might not have explored on your own.

The Future of Friendship?

Is AI destined to replace human friends? Absolutely not. Human connection is irreplaceable. But AI can become a powerful tool in our friend group, a tireless brainstorming buddy who’s always available to lend a (digital) ear and push us to be our best selves. So next time you’re facing a challenge or have an idea brewing, consider reaching out to your AI friend. You might be surprised at the kind of help it can offer.

Examples of Prompts to Spark Your AI Friendship

Here are a few simple examples of prompts you might want to play around with as you treat AI as a good friend and collaborator:

  1. Brainstorming Buddy: “I’m feeling stuck on a project about [topic]. What are some unexpected approaches I could take?”
  2. Constructive Critic: “I wrote this blog post about [topic]. Please analyze it and tell me what’s working well and where I could improve the argument.”
  3. Idea Expander: “I have this initial idea for a [creative project/business venture]. Can you suggest ways to expand or refine it, and offer different directions I could explore?”
  4. Knowledge Sharer: “Tell me everything you know about [topic]. Be creative, include surprising facts, and different perspectives.”
  5. Persuasion Expert: “I need to write a persuasive argument for [position on a topic]. Analyze various arguments, identify potential counter-arguments, and help me craft a strong and convincing message.”

Remember, these are just starting points. Feel free to tailor your prompts to your specific needs and interests. The more specific and engaging your prompts are, the more valuable the insights you’ll receive from your AI friend. For example, I often find it helpful to tell the AI right up front what role I’m expecting it to play in our interaction – such as “you are an expert storyteller and editor who is collaborating with me writing posts for my blog.”

“We can build AI assistants that can not only understand what we want them to do, but also understand why we want to do it and help us achieve our goals even better than we could on our own.”

Fei-Fei Li, Co-Director of the Stanford Human-Centered AI Institute
Categories
Creativity Living Photography

The Root of Creativity

 “At the root of creativity is an impulse to understand, to make sense of random and often unrelated details. For me, photography provides an intersection of time, space, light, and emotional stance. One needs to be still enough, observant enough, and aware enough to recognize the life of the materials, to be able to ‘hear through the eyes’.” — Paul Caponigro

Paul Caponigro

In his poetic reflection on creativity and photography, Paul Caponigro speaks to the impulse within us to find meaning and connection. He describes creativity as the act of synthesizing seemingly disparate details into a new understanding. This certainly rings true for photography, which takes fragments of time, space, light, and feeling and fuses them into a single image.

Caponigro argues that photography requires stillness, observation, and awareness. In stillness, we allow the details to come into focus rather than rushing past them. In observation, we notice and absorb the subtleties that give those details meaning. And in awareness, we sense the deeper essence that animates the materials—the “life” inside inanimate objects and moments.

This process of seeing and synthesizing creates order from chaos. The photographer looks patiently until the details crystallize into something coherent. By “hearing through the eyes,” they grasp at the threads connecting each fragment into a whole. They take meaningless bits of time, space, light, and emotion and compose them into an image that conveys a new understanding.

There is a mystical quality to this act of creativity that Caponigro evokes. Photography becomes almost a meditative practice of slowing down and listening closely enough to hear the inner life of the world around us. When we tune into that life force, we can then give it expression through a photograph. Just as a musician channels sound into music, the photographer channels light into art.

Note: for more about Paul Caponigro, see this short video about making prints from his images.

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AI AI: Large Language Models Bing Chat ChatGPT Claude Creativity Google Bard

Hacking Creativity with AI

Abstract surface of Multicolored splash watercolor blot. Artistic hand-painted vector, element for banner, poster, card, cover, brochure.

On my walk this morning I listened to the latest episode of Cal Newport’s podcast Deep Questions which was about “creativity hacking”. He reviewed a couple of his techniques, shared a few links to good articles related to the topic, etc. For example, he talked about using different venues for working – such as moving between multiple locations in a single day. He cited several other techniques that he’s used all of which involved helping lift your mind out of the mundane to stimulate its ability to get creative.

Listening to Cal stimulated my mind to make the bridge between something like working on a whiteboard in front of a group of colleagues and, in lieu of humans, working on a topic with an AI chatbot like Claude, Bard, ChatGPT, etc.

I’m drawn to this approach because of just how low the overhead is to start to use chatbots for helping in my thinking and creativity processes. Unlike other humans, the chatbots are always available – 24×7 – and generally they’re pleasant and polite to interact with. Sometimes humans are too but they can also be unpleasant and impolite!

The speed of the interaction with a chatbot is probably slower than with another human or group of humans but I don’t find that to be an issue. In some ways, the ability to just pause, give me time to think, and then interact again with a chatbot is more pleasant and completely eliminates any peer pressure I might be feeling.

I can also use chatbots to respond to challenging questions I might ask or have it brainstorm wild ideas, or roleplay different perspectives – all of which help to get my creative juices flowing. A friend would do the same – but, again, the low overhead nature of creativity hacking with a chatbot is very attractive to me. I can also spread my chatbot interactions around between the various AI chatbots. They’ll bring different perspectives, just like a group of my friends might. I might also ask a chatbot to help me think about an idea from the perspective of a particular historical figure (e.g., “what would Steve Jobs say about this idea?”).

I’m increasingly finding the benefits of this chatbot approach helping me in my creative work. For example, while writing this blog post, I asked for a critique of it from one of the chatbots. Over a few interactions, I was able to gain some new insights to include which hopefully made it even better.

Update: this morning Andrew Chen posted a great article titled “How I use AI when blogging and writing” which explores his experiences using AI chatbots to help with blog posts, generating topic ideas/questions, and even starting a book outline. Definitely worth reading!

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Creativity Living Photography - Black & White

Uncovering Hidden Value

Leveraging the “Sawdust” of Your Creative Process

person holding chainsaw
Photo by Karolina Grabowska on Pexels.com

For creatives, the byproducts of our work often get swept aside once the main project is complete. The unused sketches, raw demo recordings, or half-baked concepts – these become the “sawdust” we leave behind after building something new. But what if we viewed these creative leftovers through a different lens?

Rather than discarding the residual materials from your creative process, consider how they could hold untapped potential. Just as a woodworker’s sawdust can be repurposed into revenue-generating products, you may be able to extract value from the fragments left over from your projects.

By sifting through the unused ideas, experiments, and prototypes you accumulate, hidden opportunities can emerge. Could an alternate lyric or melody from a recording session work in a new song? Might those rough product sketches contain the seed of a fresh design? With the right perspective, your leftovers can become ingredients for future work.

This philosophy of maximizing resources aligns with Jay Clouse‘s emphasis on reframing challenges. By bringing a spirit of creative reuse to the byproducts of your efforts, you can uncover new possibilities where you once saw waste.

For photographers, the sawdust metaphor could apply to all the unused or discarded photos from a shoot. Rather than deleting the outtakes, putting in time to review these images with fresh eyes may reveal some gems. Photos you initially disregarded due to small flaws could potentially be salvaged through editing. Or alternate angles could lend themselves to new creative compositions. By taking the time to re-examine your photo “sawdust”, you may find shots that warrant a second look. With some targeted post-processing or creative cropping, those photos destined for the trash could end up being featured in your portfolio. Just like a carpenter transforming sawdust into useful material, photographers have the power to find merit in the images they may have previously discarded or overlooked. I’m often surprised when I look back at old photos and see an image with “new eyes” – for me that joy is one of the best parts of photography.

So challenge yourself to regularly revisit the “sawdust” of your creative process. You may discover surprising connections that spark your next big idea. With some imagination, everyone has the capacity to transform their leftovers into treasure.

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AI AI: Large Language Models Claude Creativity

A Creative Helper

woman filling job application form in office with boss
Photo by Sora Shimazaki on Pexels.com

Having an interest in posting more to my blog, I’ve started playing with chatbots to help with ideas, etc. In particular, I’ve found Claude.ai to be quite a partner. Over the last few days, when I’ve come across an idea, perhaps a quote I liked, etc., I would flip over to Claude and start a prompt with: “write a musing on the following…” 

Claude will quickly respond with a few paragraphs riffing on that idea. I can then add to it, perhaps argue with a point it made, bring in additional thoughts, etc. and it continues to help me flesh out my own thoughts that were triggered by that idea. Once I’ve had that conversation, I’ll copy it into Drafts and let it chill for a day or two before going back to it and seeing whether I want to pick it up for a blog post.

In my experience, Claude is better than ChatGPT, Google Bard, etc. for this kind of “conversation” with me. But I’m sure everyone’s mileage may vary – and it could also be that this kind of creative back and forth isn’t what you’re looking for or don’t find helpful. Again, for me, it all begins with challenging the chatbot to “write a musing on the following…”

Categories
Creativity Photography

Just throwing some paint around…

For a while I’ve been enjoying being a member of Story Club by George Saunders. I’ve enjoyed his writing a lot and find that the kind of interaction that Story Club enables deepens my appreciation of his work. In addition to the insights George shares there, the comments shared by other members also add a lot of value.

One of the regular weekly things George does is to answer a few member questions. His most recent Office Hours post was good fun where he talked about having a recording session to capture a snippet of music to include on an audiobook version of one of his books. He wrote:

What I found electrifying about this experience was the way it shot me back to the early days of my writing life.

— George Saunders

That triggered me to think about the similar feelings I get when I’m doing some of my photography work – in particular, when I’m re-editing an old photo perhaps years after I originally made it. There’s something about the re-editing process that takes me back to the time I made the image – including how I felt that day, what the location was like, anything usual about the lighting or the smells of the place, perhaps any music around – that kind of stuff. There’s also often an element of serendipity at work drawing me back to a particular image and even thinking about editing it.

I find one of the most enjoyable things about photography is a certain left brain/right brain aspect it brings me. For me, the process of making an image often begins in the creative side of my brain – being drawn to the light, color or shadows of a scene – but my mindset than quickly shifts to being an analytical one as I consider the specifics of things like settings, composition, etc. required to capture the image. And maybe I become captured myself by the scene and my creative side pops back in and out.

What’s wonderful later about the editing process is re-awakening that initial creative vibe that brought me into image making in the first place. And, while that original image is static – frozen in time when I snapped the photo, the editing process can be very dynamic and non-destructive. I can play with adjustments, try different things, perhaps make some severe manipulation or just a light tweaking.

As Saunders wrote in his post: I’m really “just throwing some paint around…” and it’s such fun!

Categories
Creativity Photography

My Creation Process

During this time of much more limited opportunities to make new photographs, I’ve enjoyed going back through my back catalog of images (over 70,000!) and doing creative edits on them.

Most of these edits are done quickly – literally in the spur of a moment – when I get an inspiration. And the edits are almost always done on my iPhone – it’s become the workhorse of my photographic creativity!

A typical session involves me coming across an old image of mine (the Photos widget on the iPhone does an amazing job surfacing old yet interesting images). I’ll then make a duplicate of the image and open the duplicate in one of the editing programs I use (usually either Photos itself, Snapseed, or DistressedFX Pro). I’ll make whatever edits, crops, texturing, etc. that I’m inspired to make by the image itself.

A few minutes later, I’ll save the edited image back to Photos – and, if inspired, make one final edit pass – typically using Snapseed. Sometimes I’ll want to add a black border – I do that in Snapseed. Then I’ll post the image to my Instagram account. End-to-end this process usually takes 5-10 minutes. Once in a while I’ll stumble across another image in the process and go on another editing jag.

There’s a wide range of creativity that I’m applying during this process – depending on the image. Often I’ll be using DistressedFX Pro as I’ve come to love the addition of textures to many of my images. Other times I’ll take a color image to black and white, perhaps severely cropping it as well to reduce what I call “image noise” (distracting elements) and provide increased focus on what I find most interesting.

You can see some of the range of creativity in some of my images below. More can be found on my Instagram account.