In 1996 Bill Gates wrote an article entitled Content is King for the Microsoft website. This premise has proven prophetic. And yet no one seemed to stop and ask what kind of King. If content is king at all, it's not a good king and it serves no one but itself. I think we can do better in our art-making. I think the true king, if there is one at all, is connection and engagement and I was thinking maybe we should talk about it. Click here for a full transcript of this episode:...

Einstein's brain was stolen, and subsequently studied. What did it reveal about his genius and creativity? Not much. Certainly not as much as Einstein himself did when he said, "I have no special talent, I am only passionately curious." What has curiosity got to do with your creativity and how can it be honed or nurtured? Let's talk about it. Click here for a full transcript of this episode: https://www.abeautifulanarchy.com/podcast/episode-055 A Beautiful Anarchy is posted 3 out of every 4...

While 'thinking outside the box' is short-hand for 'let's be really creative!' It is thinking inside the box, within our constraints and limitations, that gets our best work started. What do painter Paul Klee and a heavy-metal band called Okilly Dokilly have to do with this? let's talk about it. Click here for a full transcript of this episode: https://www.abeautifulanarchy.com/podcast/episode-054 A Beautiful Anarchy is posted 3 out of every 4 weeks. On those 4th weeks you can get your fix...

There are two narratives competing for the attention of creative people trying to unlock the so-called secret to success. One relies on natural talent, the other on super-natural perseverance. I think the truth–as it so often does–lies somewhere in the messy middle, let's talk about it. Click here for a full transcript of this episode: https://www.abeautifulanarchy.com/podcast/episode-053 A Beautiful Anarchy is posted 3 out of every 4 weeks. On those 4th weeks you can get your fix by...

Where do you get your ideas? If you're like me, sometimes they appear out of the blue, but most often it's the result of a catalyst bringing together all the half-formed notions and influences floating around in your mind. Consistently the one catalyst that exposes me to new ideas, and makes new possibilities of those I already had (but often didn't know I had) is conversation. One mind being exposed to another mind. So, speaking of conversation, since where we get our ideas is so important...

When you're selling juggling to the world, as I did for a dozen years, you can't afford to let your marketing slip. It's easy to get lazy with marketing, to believe that "social media" is a two-word marketing plan. But to relegate your marketing efforts mostly to social is to miss out out on a wider gamut of real-world marketing and connection. Let's talk about it. Click here for a full transcript of this episode: https://www.abeautifulanarchy.com/podcast/episode-051 A Beautiful Anarchy is...

A friend asked me a question recently that brought me a series of revelations that have pulled me once again, from my funk and my boredom. That question was this: what's your fight? Life is always a bit of a struggle but the specific fight we choose to be part of is what gives us the kind of focus and challenge we most need to get to Flow Let's talk about it. Click here for a full transcript of this episode: https://www.abeautifulanarchy.com/podcast/episode-050 A Beautiful Anarchy is posted...

In reaction to something the Chief Economist of the Bank of England said about creative work, and how working from home might be a barrier to that creativity, this episode takes us down a rabbit-hole about how and when we do our best creative work and how that differs for us all, and how–in the end– it's more important that we know how to find flow and create sparks than it is that we know how to find the perfect context in which to work. Let's talk about it. Click here for a full transcript...

Worried about others watching (and judging us), many of us become self-conscious about how we present ourselves and our art to the world. Understanding that this imaginary audience is, in fact not watching us, but dwelling instead on their own concerns, gives us the freedom to make work that's not only less self-conscious and more authentic, but to be more empathetic and make work with greater impact. What this got to do with those dreams in which we have no pants? Let's talk about it. Click...

Two months ago I left social media. The response to my leaving, from friends and those who follow me was varied, but predominantly what I kept hearing was how trapped people feel by social media, mostly by the promise of what being on these platforms can do for us. But are these platforms, on balance, serving us and enriching our creative lives? Are they bringing us the kind of freedom in which we thrive? Let's talk about it. Click here for a full transcript of this episode:...

Things are pretty uncertain right now and most of us aren't completely chill about uncertainty. We fear what might lurk in the shadows. But rather than hiding under the covers at the thought of the monsters under the bed, it's time to turn the lights on. It's time to fight the fears and let art-making be one of the ways we do that, for ourselves and for others. Let's talk about it. Click here for a full transcript of this episode: https://www.abeautifulanarchy.com/podcast/episode-046 A...

It's never been easier to get feedback on the work we create, and it's never been harder to avoid it. But is that feedback helping us make work that's authentic and meaningful or can it be a trap that pushes us further away from that same kind of work? Let’s talk about it. Click here for a full transcript of this episode: https://www.abeautifulanarchy.com/podcast/episode-045 A Beautiful Anarchy is posted 3 out of every 4 weeks. On those 4th weeks you can get your fix by subscribing to On...

On January 24, 1975, American Jazz pianist Keith Jarrett sat down at a piano in Cologne, Germany, and recorded the best-selling solo album in jazz history. Not much of a story. But when you learn he improvised the whole thing on an unplayable piano, it becomes an astonishing lesson in showing up and in making art not despite our limitations but because of them. Let’s talk about it. Click here for a full transcript of this episode: https://www.abeautifulanarchy.com/podcast/episode-044 A...

After 10 wonderful years, Calvin and Hobbes, one of the last great newspaper comic strips, ended on January 31, 1985, leaving fans bereft and full of questions. Its creator, Bill Watterson, was silent on the issue. But years later he opened up about his life, his work, and the wonderful world he created with his popular strip, and why he ended it. What's that got to do with your own creative life? Let’s talk about it. Click here for a full transcript of this episode:...

Aside from all the other voices we listen to, and the screaming rationality of our brains, there is a part of us that begs to be listened to and considered more carefully: the gut. I don’t know if it’s a kind of pre-rational thinking or if it’s instinct, but it’s got it’s finger on the pulse of what makes us distinctly us and we ignore it to our peril. Let’s talk about it. Click here for a full transcript of this episode: https://www.abeautifulanarchy.com/podcast/episode-042 A Beautiful...

Few things are as paralyzing as the pressure placed upon us by the blank page, or whatever version of that applies to you. It’s like those guys who used to find out I was a comedian and demand that I “say something funny.” There was no better way to make sure I then said something profoundly un-funny. You’re not the only one that feels like the blank page demands that you “do something creative!” Let’s talk about it. Click here for a full transcript of this episode:...

What do you when the fire of your creative passions burns low or, for that matter, burns out entirely? Fire needs fuel, heat, and oxygen, and so does our creativity, though it doesn’t have to be all fire all the time and there’s nothing wrong with letting the flames burn out now and then, especially if the embers remain hot under the ashes. Let’s talk about it. Click here for a full transcript of this episode: https://www.abeautifulanarchy.com/podcast/episode-040 A Beautiful Anarchy is...

No one likes being called a copy-cat. Among the great pursuits of many everyday creative people is the desire for originality, to make things no one else has made. Is it possible? Is it desirable? And might we not be better served by spending our energies on becoming more distinct individuals and letting originality take care of itself? Let’s talk about it. Click here for a full transcript of this episode: https://www.abeautifulanarchy.com/podcast/episode-039 A Beautiful Anarchy is posted 3...

Balance is over-rated. Very few of us achieve ever really achieve it; I know I don’t. I tend to fall to one extreme or another with alarming frequency. Two of those extremes are boredom and burnout. But rather than feeling guilty (or scared) about either, is there a benefit to them, and how do we get back into flow when we’ve been bored and burned out for too long? I see boredom and burnout as part of the creative rhythm and they can signal one truly important thing. Let’s talk about...

Most of us learned to say No when we were babies. Some of us spent months saying No to everything. No we can hardly coax it out of our mouths when we need to, and this inability to say No is sabotaging our big Yes. We can’t do it all, and only knowing your Big Yes and defending it with an army of No is going to help you get your most important work done. Let’s talk about it. Click here for a full transcript of this episode: https://www.abeautifulanarchy.com/podcast/episode-037 A Beautiful...

Deadlines are often touted as a powerful constraint for creativity, a tool to help us get stuff done. But too often they aren’t a helpful tool so much as they are a source of guilt and pressure, and I think there might be a better way not only to use deadlines but to replace them with something that’s always helped me ever more. Let’s talk about it. Click here for a full transcript of this episode: https://www.abeautifulanarchy.com/podcast/episode-036 A Beautiful Anarchy is posted 3 out of...

Standing in front of Michelangelo’s David in Florence it’s hard not to be impressed, and easy to forget that masterpiece was once just a (very large) twice-abandoned chunk of dirty marble that no one seemed to want, or that Michelangelo himself was once a scrappy apprentice without the skill to find David in the marble. But they both became so much more. Let’s talk about it. Click here for a full transcript of this episode: https://www.abeautifulanarchy.com/podcast/episode-035 A Beautiful...

We love to label things, and to put them in a category. But we’re so often wrong, or biased, and our labels blind us to possibilities and creative thinking. How much more creative would we be if we were more suspicious of the labels, less eager to apply them, and more willing to pull them off when they no longer fit? Let’s talk about it. Click here for a full transcript of this episode: https://www.abeautifulanarchy.com/podcast/episode-034 A Beautiful Anarchy is posted 3 out of every 4...

Beginnings are hard but our creative lives depend on them. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe knew a thing or two about getting things done. Not only did he live behind a legacy of astonishing prolific creativity but he left us words that suggest his secret: Begin. Begin with courage and boldness, without any guarantee of success. Let’s talk about it. Click here for a full transcript of this episode: https://www.abeautifulanarchy.com/podcast/episode-033 A Beautiful Anarchy is posted 3 out of every...

Our creative lives are full of mistakes and missteps, but what if we embraced those rather than fearing them, looking to them as possibilities and relying on them as mutations that drive the evolution of our work. What if we saw them with less fear? Would we stop playing it safe and do better work? Let’s talk about it. Click here for a full transcript of this episode: https://www.abeautifulanarchy.com/podcast/episode-032 A Beautiful Anarchy is posted 3 out of every 4 weeks. On those 4th...