Table of Contents

Book: The Practice: Shipping Creative Work

Last month I was reading The Icarus Deception by Seth Godin. Now, I'm working through The Practice. I frequently fall back on the wisdom shared in Seth's writing when I feel stuck in my creative endeavors.

Working in anticipation of what we’ll get in return takes us out of the world of self-trust and back into the never-ending search for reassurance and the perfect outcome. We believe that we need a guarantee, and that the only way to get that guarantee is with external feedback and results. It draws our eye to the mirror instead of the work.

Seth Godin

Seth's framing of creative endeavors as "practices" is something I've discussed before. It's a frame that's been incredibly useful in helping orient my actions around intrinsically enjoyable activities rather than the outcomes associated with my actions.

If I failed, would what I'm doing be worth the journey?

Book: Creative Visualization

I began reading Creative Visualization last month, and I continue to find it inspiring and applicable as I design my ideal post-sabbatical working environment.

To create prosperity, we need to visualize ourselves living as we desire to live, doing what we love, feeling satisfied with what we attain, and in a context of other people doing the same.

Shakti Gawain

Using visualization out of fear of the negative outcomes that might occur if we don't reach our goals is counter-productive. We end up energizing our fear of failure more than our desire for success.

Article: In the Dark

This essay discusses how the civil unrest that arose out of the Arab Spring in 2011 opened the door for increased political censorship of the internet by oppressive regimes across the world.

I highly recommend reading this article if you want a deep dive into online censorship technologies employed by authoritarian regimes across the world.

Russia is a pioneer in the use of [internet censorship] tools but not an outlier. The technologies it uses are proliferating, creeping into internet infrastructure all over the world, helped by multinational companies that have turned censorship into an off-the-shelf product.

I loved the art direction of this essay. In particular, I enjoyed the web animations implemented for images using CSS. I dove through the source code for the essay and turned these animations into a CodePen example to learn how they implemented them.

Podcast: Shoptalk Show 516 — Shipping creative work and "Twitter-driven development"

Shoptalk Show is one of my favorite web development podcasts. Web dev veterans Chris Coyier and Dave Rupert host the show each week as they discuss what's happening in the world of web development, projects that they're working on, issues they've encountered, and more.

Episode 516 was a standout episode for me. The subject of shipping creative work and "Twitter-driven development" inspired a slew of thoughts. I captured these in a Twitter thread which you can read by clicking the tweet below or checking out the essay on this Typefully post.

How am I impacted by shipping creations and not shipping creations?

Podcast: The Growth Equation — Doing real things, satisfaction, practices, and momentum

Another podcast I enjoy is The Growth Equation, hosted by Brad Stulberg and Steve Magness. Each episode features these two talking about personal performance and sustainable success.

This episode struck a chord as I began thinking about the importance of doing "real things" in the world. I captured these in a Twitter thread, which you can read by clicking the Tweet below. You can also read the full essay on this Typefully post.

Regularly engaging in activities that provide a definitive path towards completion, provide tangible outcomes, and allow us to feel a sense of growth and accomplishment is crucial for staying grounded.