Mise-en-place French, literally ‘putting in place’. Google Dictionary The creative’s place of work is like the professional kitchen. The professional chef doesn’t go looking for the ingredients while he is creating magic. Everything is there, where it should be, as it should be. The only mess that’s allowed
Hiding and starving. The hunter-gatherer can’t hide. If she hides for long, she’d starve to death. She has to go out there and hunt. There is no other option. Over the last 100 years, we have created a system where even if we keep hiding, we don’t starve. If
The labour of feedback. When we seek feedback (or when we give it), I think it makes sense to be clear about what we are looking for. Sometimes, all we are seeking is validation, and that’s okay. It’s kind to mention it though. If we are seeking to improve, and if we
Irritations. There’s a Breaking Bad episode where Walter White and Jesse Pinkman find a ‘fly’ in their meth lab. Jesse: “Dude, you scared the shit out of me! When you say it’s contamination, I mean… I’m thinking like an Ebola leak or something.” Walter: “Ebola.“ Jesse: “Yeah, it’
Reliable. You simply can’t count on your other handicaps to hold you back if you persist in being reliable. Charlie Munger’s prescriptions for misery in Harvard Commencement Speech, 1986 Reliable: Able to rely upon. Are you reliable? If yes, great! You can skip today's post. If no,
The butterflies. The ones that flutter in your stomach. When you are about to say ‘Hi!’ to the cute girl or guy. When you say ‘Yes’ to something that you’re not sure if you’d be able to pull off or not. When you know you are about to change things
What time do you get off from work? If you ask this question to any corporate employee, they’d give a very specific answer. Sometimes the answer might be, it might get very late today, but mostly you’d get something like ‘At 7.’ Not with the creatives though. They don’t know. How could they know? That’
Destination and distractions. Let’s say you are driving from New Delhi to Shimla. You get a thought about Kolkata. Would you immediately take a U-turn and start driving towards Kolkata instead? While driving, would you stop at every billboard, every eatery on the way? No, you’d keep driving until you
Eating an elephant... There’s a riddle that’s common among children: How do you eat an elephant? The answer: One bite at a time. It hides a lot of wisdom in its ridiculousness. Most of the time we keep looking at the elephant, strategising and planning about how to go about it.
Excuses. “I don’t have enough experience.” “I am not that good.” “I don’t have time right now.” “My parents…” “My teacher…” “My this…” My that..” “I don’t…” “You don’t understand…” Easy and free to make, excuses are there everywhere. Yes, you don’t have enough experience and
The warmup. My dance teacher keeps emphasising on the need of warming up before you start dancing. The same is true for a creative. You need to warm your fingers up to type. Morning pages are a good way to do that. You need to click a few casual pics. You need
The camera is heavy. So is the guitar. The keys on the keyboard are hard to press. The vocal chords are jammed. The record button does not work. There is one and only one solution to the supposed writer’s (or creative’s) block. Lift the damn camera.
The battle has to fought anew each day... The day when you underestimate the enemy… The day where you take him lightly… The day when you are casual about your work… That’s the day the enemy strikes back. Day by day, a streak is built, day by day, the battles and the wars are one. The life
The therapeutic power of typing and shipping. Resistance can make us feel miserable. It can make us selfish and self-indulgent. We get mired in apathy, instead of empathy. We start believing that we are a victim and it’s time for the world to cut us some slack. There is helplessness and hopelessness in ResistanceLand. What’
Slowing down time! There’s more to life than simply increasing its speed. – MK Gandhi Just like ‘a calorie is a calorie’ isn’t true when it comes to food, similarly ‘an hour’ simply isn’t ‘an hour’. It depends a lot on what we are doing in that hour. A minute in
Uphill battle. Being a professional creative is an uphill battle. It’s Sisyphus, pushing the boulder up the mountain. The only way to arrest the downhill slide is to keep moving uphill. The moment you are not doing that, the moment you are not pushing against the gravity, you start losing out
The ghost behind the curtain. Paralyses us. Makes us stick to the status quo. To break the status quo, we need to get up, and remove the curtain. That entails risk. What if there really is a ghost? What’s the point of removing the curtain? What possible good can come out of that? This
The revolution in online learning Not education, learning. Education is a model based on scarcity, compliance and accreditation. It trades time, attention and money for a piece of … The revolution in online learning
Taking charge? Are we taking charge of our careers and of our life. Or are we waiting, waiting to be picked and selected. Because, if it’s the latter, then we lose all power. Then we seldom have a choice. But if we start taking charge. If we generate more opportunities and
Get it out of your mind. Don’t keep anything in your mind. Get it out. Get it all out. Write it on paper. Type it out in an app. You should not act from the voices inside your head, it should come from a feeling from your gut. – Cyrille Aimee.
Making important urgent. I have heard this many times: Do the important before the urgent. Eisenhower’s quadrant, law of priority and so on. But what I realise is that urgent is the only thing that happens. We can always put the important for later, simply because it is not urgent. So, the
The streak of 5. That’s the challenge. Can you reach 5? After that it takes a soul of its own. After that even the most daunting habit seems easy. But getting to that streak of 5. That’s not easy. That’s not what everyone can do. Do whatever it takes, but reach
Guilt For a long time, guilt was my predominant emotion. I would feel guilty by default. Sorry was the first word I’d say to anyone. I think guilt is useless. It is an unnecessary baggage from the past. The illusion that it creates is that it helps us learn, that
How much is your hour worth? That should be the only question that matters. If you use your hour to build an asset that generates $10,000 dollars over the next 10 years, then that’s the value of your hour. If you spend your hour watching one video after another on YouTube, then you might
Time orientation. Where is your compass pointing towards? Resistance is past obsessed. It loves when we cry over spilt milk. We can’t really do anything about that, and that’s where Resistance gets its kicks. Another Resistance favourite is the obsession with the perfect future. The future orientation that we have
