How I tick
[Soundbyte: OlliS is on a roll. Right after The River of Chill comes the 4th installment in his Melancholic Thoughts series. I think this is my favorite one yet. Immaculate programming and flow, this is a builder that ramps up later into the set. Comes with a wicked cover too.]
On the way home today, the old Chinese medicinal hall was gone, inexplicably replaced by a brightly Technicolor store selling perfumes, cheap.
At the train station, a bespectacled lady in office attire, arms akimbo, stout, right between the train doors, refusing to budge. She stared ahead, resolute, ignoring all. I wanted to walk into her face.
Standing all the way back from the door, behind the crowd, I looked up from my book and notice a girl engrossed in The Craft of Copywriting. I was intrigued. Still reading as she stepped out at the stop before mine. She had a nice nose.
At home, tried a recipe for lamb loin chops. Bit of orange juice, white vinegar, rosemary, thyme, black pepper. Pan fried, dribbled some of the marinade in on low heat, let the chops glaze over. Served with a bit too much mint jelly. It was a light marinade, slightly sweet and tangy, different.
Caught up on shows. I'm spending less time in front of the computer when home, it's too tiring and draining dealing with so much information. Finally finished watching (after pausing and bookmarking twice) the season opener for ReGenesis. Also watched the 20th episode of Shakugan no Shana Second--light, brain dead entertainment. And then put on this week's episode of Breaking Bad. Wow, badass.
Trying to finish my Esquire so I can pass it on to Andy. As usual, packed with information and great writing. Thanks to its review, I'm gonna check out The Diving Bell and the Butterfly--real story of French Elle's ex-editor who became paralyzed into the rare Locked-In Syndrome; in which the mind is fully alert and functional in a completely inert body, except for one left eye. He wrote the book of which the film is based. Using that sole left eye, many blinks.
Also racing through Accelerando. Loving the writing and the ideas. Ironically, I only began reading about reputation as a commodity this year, and Chris 'Long Tail' Anderson is releasing his new book on free economics soon. But Charles Stross was already tackling these ideas--and more--in 2005. It was Carl who was so insistent that I read this book, when he came to visit for NYE. Trying to get hold of him now because there is no one else who would appreciate Accelerando, and no one else I can rave to, because I'm honestly excited. I'm actually reading the book with a frowning concentration on the train, trying to assimilate.
Here's a case of synchronicity, I swear. I was thinking recently, about what I do, how I do what I do, or how my thought process works that seem to be so suited for my line of work, brainstorming, coming up with ideas, trend-spotting, strategizing. Because I think I'm beginning to notice a pattern to how I tick. I like absorbing information, hunting for new stuff, being stimulated. But that's just superficial and is essentially useless, tiring. It's after these stimuli sink in and float around in the background like static, and I'm faced with a task. My mind begins to take stock of what's required, and somehow, extends out feelers, pulls signal out of the noise, see if they fit, see if they can be transformed, married, applied, integrated.
I had this look at my thought process because, well out of the blue, it was beginning to dawn on me that I might not be an original thinker, am not the origin of the ideas and stuff in my head. Everything is a mashup of things I've assimilated, twisted and applied through my own lens. I wasn't particularly freaked out, I mean, in this line of work, 'original' and 'creative' are overrated cliches. However I'm doing it, seems to be working. So maybe I'm not 'original' or 'creative,' the stuff I come up with are more like creative applications of 'original' and 'creative.'
And today, I read this article on A List Apart:
Creativity has nothing at all to do with self-expression or flamboyancy. Aside from the simple ability to create things, the most important feature of creativity is a highly developed perception filter that is somewhat less common than we’re led to believe.
Creativity is technical and analytical, not expressive (as in self-expression). It is a filter through which perception and output pass, not a receptor or an infusion (as in the case of inspiration).
Creativity is an inborn capacity for thinking differently than most, seeing differently, and making connections and perceiving relationships others miss. But most importantly, it is the ability to then extrapolate contextually useful ways of employing that data: to create something that meets a specific challenge. By this definition, creativity is merely a tool; it does not convey skill. For a dedicated few, though, this inborn capacity is then further augmented by certain disciplines, including:
And the stuff I've been thinking about, fell into place as I read the article. It felt right. So that's how I tick.
On the way home today, the old Chinese medicinal hall was gone, inexplicably replaced by a brightly Technicolor store selling perfumes, cheap.
At the train station, a bespectacled lady in office attire, arms akimbo, stout, right between the train doors, refusing to budge. She stared ahead, resolute, ignoring all. I wanted to walk into her face.
Standing all the way back from the door, behind the crowd, I looked up from my book and notice a girl engrossed in The Craft of Copywriting. I was intrigued. Still reading as she stepped out at the stop before mine. She had a nice nose.
At home, tried a recipe for lamb loin chops. Bit of orange juice, white vinegar, rosemary, thyme, black pepper. Pan fried, dribbled some of the marinade in on low heat, let the chops glaze over. Served with a bit too much mint jelly. It was a light marinade, slightly sweet and tangy, different.
Caught up on shows. I'm spending less time in front of the computer when home, it's too tiring and draining dealing with so much information. Finally finished watching (after pausing and bookmarking twice) the season opener for ReGenesis. Also watched the 20th episode of Shakugan no Shana Second--light, brain dead entertainment. And then put on this week's episode of Breaking Bad. Wow, badass.
Trying to finish my Esquire so I can pass it on to Andy. As usual, packed with information and great writing. Thanks to its review, I'm gonna check out The Diving Bell and the Butterfly--real story of French Elle's ex-editor who became paralyzed into the rare Locked-In Syndrome; in which the mind is fully alert and functional in a completely inert body, except for one left eye. He wrote the book of which the film is based. Using that sole left eye, many blinks.
Also racing through Accelerando. Loving the writing and the ideas. Ironically, I only began reading about reputation as a commodity this year, and Chris 'Long Tail' Anderson is releasing his new book on free economics soon. But Charles Stross was already tackling these ideas--and more--in 2005. It was Carl who was so insistent that I read this book, when he came to visit for NYE. Trying to get hold of him now because there is no one else who would appreciate Accelerando, and no one else I can rave to, because I'm honestly excited. I'm actually reading the book with a frowning concentration on the train, trying to assimilate.
Here's a case of synchronicity, I swear. I was thinking recently, about what I do, how I do what I do, or how my thought process works that seem to be so suited for my line of work, brainstorming, coming up with ideas, trend-spotting, strategizing. Because I think I'm beginning to notice a pattern to how I tick. I like absorbing information, hunting for new stuff, being stimulated. But that's just superficial and is essentially useless, tiring. It's after these stimuli sink in and float around in the background like static, and I'm faced with a task. My mind begins to take stock of what's required, and somehow, extends out feelers, pulls signal out of the noise, see if they fit, see if they can be transformed, married, applied, integrated.
I had this look at my thought process because, well out of the blue, it was beginning to dawn on me that I might not be an original thinker, am not the origin of the ideas and stuff in my head. Everything is a mashup of things I've assimilated, twisted and applied through my own lens. I wasn't particularly freaked out, I mean, in this line of work, 'original' and 'creative' are overrated cliches. However I'm doing it, seems to be working. So maybe I'm not 'original' or 'creative,' the stuff I come up with are more like creative applications of 'original' and 'creative.'
And today, I read this article on A List Apart:
Creativity has nothing at all to do with self-expression or flamboyancy. Aside from the simple ability to create things, the most important feature of creativity is a highly developed perception filter that is somewhat less common than we’re led to believe.
Creativity is technical and analytical, not expressive (as in self-expression). It is a filter through which perception and output pass, not a receptor or an infusion (as in the case of inspiration).
Creativity is an inborn capacity for thinking differently than most, seeing differently, and making connections and perceiving relationships others miss. But most importantly, it is the ability to then extrapolate contextually useful ways of employing that data: to create something that meets a specific challenge. By this definition, creativity is merely a tool; it does not convey skill. For a dedicated few, though, this inborn capacity is then further augmented by certain disciplines, including:
- ongoing curiosity,
- the desire and habit of looking more deeply into things than others care to,
- the habit of comparing stimulus with result, and
- a habit for qualitative discrimination.
And the stuff I've been thinking about, fell into place as I read the article. It felt right. So that's how I tick.