Creativity

Awareness / Choosing/Decision-Making / Creativity / Entrepreneurship / Freedom / Models / Perception / Stories

Do you trap yourself in mental jails?

"Nice guys finish last." Alone, this thought has probably condemned many men and women to abandon being nice. Accurate or not, combined with another belief, that the alternative to being nice is to be a jerk, further condemns people to being jerks. Jerks---people with one type of poor relationship skills---even when materially successful, seem likely to face emptiness in intimacy, what many consider the most important parts of their lives. We don't like jerks around us, so we don't want others to consider us jerks and shun us. But if the alternative of finishing last seems worse, we feel rational in choosing it. Whether nice people finish last or not, you can't much control. After you try your best, competitive outcomes depend on many factors,…

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October 22, 2015
Creativity / Education / Freedom / Stories

Learning to communicate beyond words and talking

I once read that the difference between activities that cool kids do and uncool kids do is that uncool kids' activities tend to be based in rules and cool kids' less so. I don't know how you'd verify the idea, but I found exploring it told me about myself. Uncool kids play chess, which has clear rules. You can count the possible states. Cool kids play football. Football has rules, but loosely describing the boundaries, not the state of play. Football players shine when the strategy falls apart and they have to improvise. Uncool kids dance partner dances with structured rules. Cool kids dance more free style and make things up as they go. A lot of structured partner dances probably emerged from cool kids'…

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July 28, 2015
Creativity / Education / Nature / Stories

The hardest problems I’ve solved

How did it begin? After the first two years of classes in graduate school I had to take Qualifying Exams to continue to research. Columbia's Qualifying Exams are three days of about six hours a day. You get eight problems and have to solve six of your choice. They can cover any physics subject covered in classes to that point. If you remember high school or college physics being difficult, graduate problems are harder. Since they can ask questions on any subject you can't focus on one area. You have to study everything. What was the process? First you read all the questions. Some you can see how to solve right away. Some you can't understand the question. I solved the ones I knew I…

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July 27, 2015
Creativity / Education / Leadership

Summer Teaching Institute Reflections, day 5

I’ve written about inquiry-driven project-based learning and learning leadership and entrepreneurship. It’s a style of teaching that’s one of the main foundations of how I teach and coach leadership. It’s different than lecturing. Here’s why I avoid lecturing when I lead and teach. This week I’m attending Science Leadership Academy’s intensive Summer Teaching Institute. Science Leadership Academy is a school founded on inquiry-driven project-based learning, so it’s one of the best places to learn it. To help reflect and share what I learn, I’m posting daily notes here. Day 5 Presentation Revise vision statement Today we presented our unit plans. Everyone had fifteen minutes to present what they created over the past few days, though we've all taught our courses before. Everyone started with a…

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July 24, 2015
Creativity / Education / Leadership

Summer Teaching Institute Reflections, day 4

I’ve written about inquiry-driven project-based learning and learning leadership and entrepreneurship. It’s a style of teaching that’s one of the main foundations of how I teach and coach leadership. It’s different than lecturing. Here’s why I avoid lecturing when I lead and teach. This week I’m attending Science Leadership Academy’s intensive Summer Teaching Institute. Science Leadership Academy is a school founded on inquiry-driven project-based learning, so it’s one of the best places to learn it. To help reflect and share what I learn, I’m posting daily notes here. Day 4 Agenda Exercise: Make passive course exercises they gave us (like “have the students do a lab”) active by having everyone suggest an idea (like “have the students describe the effect of the discovery on science…

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July 23, 2015
Creativity / Education / Leadership

Summer Teaching Institute Reflections, day 3

Day 3 Today's agenda: Nature versus nurture interactive exercise Unit flow Solo work on unit plan Talk about rubrics Described deliverables: Friday we'll present our unit plans to the group. Tomorrow we'll do some exercises but mostly work on the unit plans More solo work on unit plan Unit flow Do they know what's coming next? If not, maybe you lead them through steps with exercises, materials, data, etc. If so, are they figuring out what to do? You plan stages. Students need a rationale to do it, why should they care? Can work backward from what you want them to learn and create exercises or other way around Useful to break big projects into many checkpoints. How will they get feedback before they submit?…

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July 22, 2015
Creativity / Freedom / Habits / Leadership / Models

The progression of performance-based skills

Any performance-based skill development follows a similar pattern. I'll describe it for playing guitar, but it follows for leading, acting, sports, any other musical instrument, singing, etc. The instrument: First you have to learn the instrument. If you don't know its parts and how it's assembled, you can't do anything with it. Your skill: Next you have to learn how to move your fingers. You can't play music until you know scales or chords. The music: Only when you can take for granted how to move your fingers without thinking about them can you play music. Your feelings: Only when you know the piece you're playing well enough can you express yourself through it. Until now, you're playing mechanically. Now you can express yourself. You…

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April 28, 2015
Creativity / Entrepreneurship

The idea of a lifetime comes once a month

[This post is part of a series on principles to create ideas people want to help you with and creating a helpful, supportive community around you. If you don’t see a Table of Contents to the left, click here to view that series, where you’ll get more value than reading just this post.] Even Thomas Edison, with over a thousand patents, only produced a handful of products that stood the test of time. If one of the greatest inventors of all time succeeded only about a percent of the time, what chance do I have, not coming up with a thousand ideas? If I come up with any idea at all, I better make sure I don't make any mistakes and mess it up. I…

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March 11, 2015
Creativity / Entrepreneurship / Leadership

Better than a great idea is an okay idea plus listening to your market plus flexibility

[This post is part of a series on principles to create ideas people want to help you with and creating a helpful, supportive community around you. If you don’t see a Table of Contents to the left, click here to view that series, where you’ll get more value than reading just this post.] The most common reason I hear from people who want to start projects or companies but don't for why they don't is that they haven't come up with a great idea. I've written about this common myth of entrepreneurship. People look at successful companies and project based around products or services that people love. They assume someone came up with the idea, acted on it, and success followed. Rarely does it happen…

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March 10, 2015
Creativity / Education / Entrepreneurship / Leadership

More important than personality is skills you can learn

[This post is part of a series on principles to create ideas people want to help you with and creating a helpful, supportive community around you. If you don’t see a Table of Contents to the left, click here to view that series, where you’ll get more value than reading just this post.] People with great soft skills seem to dominate many areas in business . I think of leadership and sales first, though also entrepreneurship. People erroneously see people who succeed in those areas as born, not made. Or they at least ask if great leaders or salespeople are born or made. The media propagate this myth because it leads to drama, which sells copy and movie tickets. Unsuccessful people like it because it…

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March 9, 2015
Stand Up For Passion
Creativity / Events

Stand Up For Passion

The more I write and talk about passion, the more passion I find in my life. When I was afraid to talk about it, I didn't have as much of it. Keeping it inside keeps others from seeing your passion and sharing theirs with you. I'm still growing. That's why I'm looking forward to speaking at Stand Up For Passion March 3, and why I recommend attending. Because the more you involve passion in your life, the more you find it, create it, share it, and enjoy it. I know talking about passion makes you feel vulnerable. I felt that way for most of my life. As a speaker preparing to talk about vulnerable times in my life, I'm nervous about inviting people. But the…

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February 20, 2015
Creativity / Fitness / Habits / Tips

Habitualize it

My friend, visiting from overseas, described the difficulty we all feel away from home when we can't do the morning routine we like. Nearly everyone has a morning routine that starts their day right for them. I see a higher-level strategy: if something happens regularly, habitualize it. I love discovering things, but I don't see any benefit in trying to discover a new ordering between showering, eating breakfast, brushing my teeth, and the things I do every morning, or wondering if I should add new elements. I may vary it somewhat based on season, if I'm in a hurry, etc, and I'm open to hearing about things I never knew about, but basically I know what I'm doing. How much mental energy and attention do…

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February 18, 2015
Creativity / Habits / SIDCHAs

Why do readers like the posts I write the fastest so much?

Whenever I'm short for time and have to write a post fast to make sure I post that day, I always get emails commenting that they liked the post. Posting here is a SIDCHA of mine, after all, so I don't miss posting. Sometimes that means posting fast. I haven't been keep track scientifically, but I have casually, and I don't remember a counterexample. I occasionally get emails saying they liked the post when I spend time on one. I hardly got any comments on some of the posts covering what I consider most valuable. But the posts I rattle off quick because I don't have time, people love. The knee-jerk suggestion is that they're more spontaneous or from the gut. I'm skeptical of that…

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February 10, 2015
See me at Stand Up For Passion, March 3 in New York!
Choosing/Decision-Making / Creativity / Events

See me at Stand Up For Passion, March 3 in New York!

The event Stand Up For Passion is a tremendously personal and inspiring event that is growing and growing. Created by entrepreneur/artist/director/comedian/performer Arnaud Collery, each event features seven speakers speaking for seven minutes each on a passionate story or experience in their life. The effect is to create community of people who get close to each other---performers and attendees. I am honored that he invited me to speak at the next event, the evening of Tuesday, March 3, in Manhattan. Unlike many other such events, Arnaud works with the speakers of each event closely, having us practice and directing the event. The effect is more genuine expression and higher quality than many events. It's expanding across the U.S. and to Europe and Asia. It's exciting to…

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February 7, 2015
See Fashion Entrepreneurs Coco and Breezy with Columbia Business School’s Alumni Club
Art / Creativity / Entrepreneurship

See Fashion Entrepreneurs Coco and Breezy with Columbia Business School’s Alumni Club

Coco and Breezy Prince wore their sunglasses -- from his album cover -- on Saturday Night Live. Beyoncé showed them in her video. Vogue labeled them "fashion icons". Rhianna, Serena Williams, and more wear their accessories, sold in twenty countries and growing, as well as at cocoandbreezy.com. Find out how these twins from Minnesota started their brand in their teens ... with a thousand dollars between them. I didn't mention in my last announcement how dynamic, friendly, and open they are as speakers. Their brand is based on themselves, and they put themselves out there -- in social media, in public appearances, and when they spend time with stars. Whether you want to market products, market yourself, or learn to be more open and expressive…

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January 29, 2015
More inspirational SIDCHA videos
Art / Creativity / Freedom / Habits / SIDCHAs

More inspirational SIDCHA videos

[This post is part of a series on the Self-Imposed Daily Challenging Healthy Activity (SIDCHA). If you don’t see a Table of Contents to the left, click here to view the series, where you’ll get more value than reading just this post.] Here are two videos of people who learned to dance by doing it every day. So much more photogenic than burpees and writing here daily. I don't know about you, but watching them brings tears to my eyes. I suggest seeing these videos not about dancing but about freedom and joy achieved through mastery. Recognition from peers and the public comes with it. And about the effectiveness of Self-imposed daily challenging healthy activities (SIDCHAs). This video has almost five million views: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daC2EPUh22w This…

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December 23, 2014
Art / Creativity / Entrepreneurship / Leadership

A reader shares a genius business idea in action

A reader responded to "Another genius business idea: Communities refurbishing their subway platforms" to describe the idea already in action in San Francisco: Hello Joshua, I want to share with you the concept of property and business improvement districts and how one in San Francisco beautified the plaza around the Castro Street subway station. I'm sharing this as a real-world example you might find interesting. The gist is that a group of commercial properties (or even residential ones) vote to form a district, levy an assessment on themselves, and form a board of directors to manage it. The district concept is interesting because it's not a one-off project, but a governing body with a yearly budget that manages and implements any number of projects and…

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November 17, 2014
Choosing/Decision-Making / Creativity / Education / Entrepreneurship / Leadership

The problem determines the solution

"Which is more important as a leader, to work alone or to work in groups?" I heard that question asked of a panel of business leaders last week. The panelists all answered something like "in this day and age you have to be able to work in groups. That's where you get everything done" with some acknowledgment that you had to be able to work solo too sometimes. As soon as the moderator asked the question I thought, "You're asking about solutions in the abstract. The problem determines the solution." You can best solve problems that take solo work to solve solo and problems that take group work to solve by group. We've all seen solutions that were designed by committee that show input from…

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November 10, 2014
Creativity

My current biggest failure

I think I do a lot of things well, at least the things I care about. I've been working on the prologue to a book proposal for months. An agent is working with me, encouraging me, and giving me advice and I've made some progress, but not as much I think I could. If you search for one of my posts on "show, don't tell," you'll see how long I've tried to develop a more showing style of storytelling. I expect my writing to start clicking, but it hasn't yet. I also procrastinate over it a lot. My current failure is having made so little progress over writing this prologue. Nearly everything else I'm working on I'm making more progress on. Failure to me and…

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November 7, 2014
Art / Creativity / Entrepreneurship / Leadership

Another genius business idea: Communities refurbishing their subway platforms

Here’s another post in my Genius Business Idea series. My goal in this series is to show how entrepreneurial opportunities are everywhere, contrary to the common myth people who say they want to start a venture but don't: that they haven't found a great idea yet. This project is challenging, more for bureaucratic reasons than technical, but there is ample precedent of people overcoming similar challenges in New York. Read below for a list of examples. If you don't live here, I expect you'd have an easier time than we would. This one came from talking to a city employee tasked with improving neighborhoods in New York. While bureaucratic approval would be difficult, there is plenty of precedent for beautifying many shared public spaces, especially…

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October 27, 2014
Art / Creativity / Leadership

Dustin Hoffman on feeling understood about a passion and how it helps a leader

This clip wonderfully shows the effects of feeling understood about a passion---that is, a powerful emotion. You see how cathartic it feels for the person sharing the passion and how important it is for someone leading the person. Context: In a long interview, Dustin Hoffman is talking about the challenges of growing up under a stern father and how he escaped through movies, which evolved into acting. He starts to talk about how his exploring and understanding his relationship with his father and unexpectedly realizes he is revealing something deeply personal about his preparation for that role. What to look for: When he realizes the depth of what he's revealed, try to gauge his emotion. Would you say he more likes or dislikes the feeling?…

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October 3, 2014
Creativity / Education

Why I don’t think much of TED talks

Do you watch TED talks? Many people seem to love them. Here's why I don't think much of them: When I ask people if they find TED talks inspirational, most people who watch them say yes. When I ask people to point out specific changes to their lives---that is, to describe what the talks inspired them to do---almost nobody can name action they've taken. Most changes people have taken have seemed minor to negligible. I'm sure many people have acted on their feelings of inspiration, I just suspect a small fraction of the number who watch. I've concluded TED talks give the feeling of inspiration without actually inspiring. I don't fault the talks or the speakers. I find many of them impressive. The format is…

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September 1, 2014
See Joshua Spodek at Cole Haan, Flavorpill, and General Assembly’s Inspiration Workshop, September 6
Art / Awareness / Creativity / Education / Events / Exercises / Leadership

See Joshua Spodek at Cole Haan, Flavorpill, and General Assembly’s Inspiration Workshop, September 6

Post-event update: see a write-up and video of the event here -- http://flavorwire.com/477424/history-begins-here-starting-a-legacy-in-nyc. Everybody who attended it seemed to love it. My event had a packed room with enthusiastic participants. I made several great connections at my event and the others I attended. I hope to see you next time. See me next weekend The event is free and there's lots more than just me presenting on leadership. My part is next Saturday, September 6, 12:30pm-2:30pm. I'll talk on leadership and lead attendees through some exercises to develop leadership skills. People describe more workshops as inspiring and I teach others to inspire (though you have to practice). Click on the image to RSVP and for all the logistics.  

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August 29, 2014
Art / Creativity / Freedom / Humor

Thoughts on reading Steve Martin’s memoir, “Born Standing Up”

I read and recommend Steve Martin's memoir, "Born Standing Up." He writes honestly and concisely. He persevered through a challenging life. Unlike many people we admire, he didn't overcome obstacles that befell him. My list of inspirations on my "Resources and Inspirations" page includes three big ones for me who overcame outside challenges that they couldn't have foreseen and have to handle---Victor Frankl, Jean-Dominique Bauby, and Mark Zupan. Overcoming challenges is hard and brings out the best in some people. Steve Martin's challenges came from inside. He lived his passion without compromise---as challenging a task as overcoming an injury. As a comedian, that meant playing five to ten shows a week for years to empty rooms, handling hecklers, and barely making ends meet. It meant…

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June 14, 2014
Art / Awareness / Creativity

Two posts by others I recommend

Two great posts by others force me to break my pattern of sticking to original work. The first is that if you know me you know I love Calvin and Hobbes. The first new work by Bill Watterson in a long time appears here -- "Ever Wished That Calvin and Hobbes Creator Bill Watterson Would Return to the Comics Page? Well, He Just Did." The second is one of the best pieces on meditation I've read -- "My journey with meditation. And, why you should do it too." It's simple, just talks about the practice without needlessly referring to the supernatural or religion, and connected it to life. The 'should' in the title got me to read it so I could find flaws in it, since…

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June 7, 2014

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