
How To Be Creative - rms
http://gapingvoid.com/Moveable_Type/archives/000932.html
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DaniFong
38 bold exhortations to live life creatively. Here's my favorite:

"Sing in your own voice.

Piccasso was a terrible colorist. Turner couldn't paint human beings worth a
damn. Saul Steinberg's formal drafting skills were appalling. TS Eliot had a
full-time day job. Henry Miller was a wildly uneven writer. Bob Dylan can't
sing or play guitar.

But that didn't stop them, right?

So I guess the next question is, "Why not?"

I have no idea. Why should it?"

~~~
mlLK
One HN-relevant Picasso quote. . .

 _Computers are useless. They can only give you answers._

and one that always cheers me up since I make more logic errors than anyone I
know. . .

 _I am always doing that which I can not do, in order that I may learn how to
do it._

\--Pablo Picasso

~~~
anamax
Picasso also outlived his talent.

[http://www.amazon.com/Old-Masters-Young-Geniuses-
Creativity/...](http://www.amazon.com/Old-Masters-Young-Geniuses-
Creativity/dp/0691121095/ref=sr_11_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1230920697&sr=11-1)

------
noonespecial
_"A lot of people in business say they have twenty years experience, when in
fact all they really have is one year's experience, repeated twenty times."_

This has always been my favorite quote from this essay, probably because to
goes double for the software industry. Having 10 years experience programming
poorly makes you a _worse_ hire than someone with no experience at all.

------
jcromartie
This may be a repeat appearance on the front page, but I welcome it any time!

~~~
dhotson
Agreed.. this is always worth re-reading every few months. It's a fantastic
read.

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hhm
"Beware of turning hobbies into jobs"

Don't most hackers turn their hobbies into jobs? How does that work for you?

~~~
th0ma5
i've had some success but mostly irritation over this... for the most part
computers in general are both my hobby and my career, and that mostly works
out, although can be exhausting, so i find other things.

specifically aspects of computerdom, administration like things used be a
hobby for me, but not anymore now that i'm an admin, so my hobby is
programming.

then i got moonlighting work on special programming projects. lots of fun, but
now i just feel like making art and music more... and hopefully i can avoid
making those a job just because i want to keep it fun.

i don't know... i might go back into design fulltime and become just a hobby
hacker again, but i guess i need that in depth analysis of systems
troubleshooting to feel relevant. it used to be a cool rewarding hobby, but
now it is a cool and rewarding job, so i guess i can't complain, and it still
works for me

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jmtame
Iterate over and over until you find something interesting.

~~~
zitterbewegung
Yea thats what I do but I have an efficiency function which judges my
iterations so I know if an iteration is actually good or not.

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jacobbijani
stop reading huge lists and go fucking make something

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antiform
There's also a nice pdf version here:
<http://www.changethis.com/6.HowToBeCreative>

~~~
Timothee
It is nicer but it doesn't have all the 38 points.

I like the layout though.

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palish
_Everybody has their own private Mount Everest they were put on this earth to
climb._

I stopped reading there.

~~~
ynd
why?

~~~
palish
Because it's overgeneralized, useless, feel-good nothingness.

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sammyo
They missed #1: 10% inspiration, 90% perspiration.

~~~
echair
It's 1:99, not 10:90.

