a newsletter we follow all the threads, think and feel deeply about complex things, and get inspired by the unexpected. A newsletter for lateral thinkers and creative souls. For multi-hyphenates and storytellers. It’s for rebels-at-heart and those who feel everything so, so deeply. Weekly letters into your inbox, with selected essays published here.
Last night, I cancelled my Adobe subscription. Lightroom was the last app I had out of the whole Creative Suite, and the hardest to let go of as it basically took care of my whole photography workflow, start to finish. But my yearly contract was coming to an end, and it was sort of now…
Seth Godin in (I think) The Practice, writes that true learning (as opposed to schooling) is a voluntary experience that requires tension and discomfort. He calls this discomfort “the persistent feeling of incompetence” as we get better at a skill. Ira Glass calls this discomfort The…
In internet culture, shitposting refers to creating any content whose humour derives from its surreal nature, lack of clear context, and an unexpected treatment of an existing form. Originating on underground internet forums like 4chan, shitposting evolved into its own form of content…
The first rule of improv comedy is that you never say no. “No” is a buzzkill. It robs you and your partner of an opportunity for forward motion. It’s a block, a dead-end of creative pursuit. A betrayal of trust. You can’t do anything with a “no”. “No” stops the creative process. There are no…
Want to know my secret formula for getting out of creative rut? Just kidding. There is no recipe to creativity. Even “bibles” of creativity like The Artist’s Way don’t suit everyone (I never got past the morning pages!) But here’s what tends to work for me. I’m calling them…
In rock climbing, beta refers to the intended way of ascending a route, and specific climbing techniques required to overcome the key challenges. It’s intended to give you a roadmap to a climb – making your life a little easier in outdoor climbing, or challenging you in just the…
They told us that curiosity killed the cat but it’s a freaking lie. In the original 16th century telling – and until the late 1800s – it was care (with the meaning of worry) that lead to the cat’s demise. And somewhere along the way, care was replaced by curiosity. Why? No one…
What does your creative practice look like? Mine looks a bit like this: Nature walks and swimming in the sea, Photography and collage, Embroidery and working with found objects, Staring at the wall and driving in silence, Conversations with friends, Gardening by trial and error (mostly error) and…
In the actual play podcast (if you’ve never heard the term, think improvised radio play) Chapter and Multiverse that my teen introduced me to, one of the characters, Mini Smithson (played by Lydia Nicholas) is an alien pretending to be human – but not succeeding very much (and it is…
I’m staring at a blank page today. I’m not quite sure what I want to write about. I have so many drafts and half-started essays, all of them competing for my attention. It frustrates me. Should I write about walking the tightrope of a public creative practice, and the dangers of seeking out…