Category: Creativity
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Fascination with the Mundane
As I watch “The Disciple” – a painfully pessimistic movie in which the protagonist does not go through the typical character arc recommended by most screenplay experts, a friend’s question rings in my ear, “Who wants to read books about losers?”. The protagonist typically follows the character arc of the hero. He is someone who…
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Ring the bells that still can ring
Leonard Cohen crooned, rather perfectly:Ring the bells that still can ringForget your perfect offeringThere is a crack, a crack in everythingThat’s how the light gets in These are the kinds of lines that set you free. Free from the compulsion of producing something perfect. Free from the obligation of creating something that can not be…
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Book Review – Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine
Eleanor Oliphant is an office worker with zero social life. She dreads the weekends, waiting for Monday to arrive. Her colleagues laugh at her; she can not carry out even a single conversation without awkward remarks and has not cut her hair for years. At the beginning of the book, she meets the IT person…
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Are you the drunk searching under the streetlight?
Are you the drunk searching under the streetlight? The streetlight effect is a type of observational bias. It comes from the often-quoted story about the drunk and the streetlight and appears first in Mulla Nasruddin tales. It goes like this: A policeman sees a drunk man searching for something under a streetlight and asks what…
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Neighbourhood Creativity
Kevin Kelly’s article I linked to yesterday made one point which I have been thinking about and telling everyone I meet. The fact that you reading this, a weblog created by a non-entity, non-celebrity, makes that point too. And since you are reading it, you quietly believe in it too. The take-away in bold then…
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Two of my books in Prime Reading
Two of my books, “Brothers Sen Gogh”, and “Whiskey and Suicide” are selected to be a part of “Amazon Prime Reading”. According to their website, Prime Reading is “1,000 carefully curated books, magazines, comics and Kindle Singles”. I am happy for this recognition, and also happy that more readers will find these books. If you…
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Can Flow be a worthwhile goal?
People all over the world report being frustrated with their job. In a report about the office workers in the UK, 97% of people reported frustration with work. When you ask people why they continue to work in the job that causes them to be frustrated, the most common reason is money and security. In…
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The Vast Sea of Ignorance
When one feels overwhelmed and demotivated by looking at someone else’s knowledge or skills, it is a great strategy to put things in a perspective. This strategy is based on reality of individual limitations and capabilities. The sphere of knowledge in the world is vast. One may say infinite, but that may not be true.…
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When was the last time you did something for the first time?
Staying in the comfort zone is … well, comfortable. You do something that you have done many times before, and you do it better. You are comfortable, you have the confidence, and you do it well. Why would anyone try anything new? You try something new because you have to. When your current strategy, current…
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The realities of pleasure and pain that drive the enjoyment of daily life
In this article Mark Manson ruminates about the joys of ordinary life. Some of the examples he gives impart another lesson – pleasure and pain are relative. An ordinary cup of tea on an ordinary morning would taste like the best thing in the world when you have experienced a debilitating illness previously. On the other hand…