I found this TED Talk to be inspiring and compassionate. Alain de Botton acknowledges that it takes more than individual human will to be successful and therefore failure has a very different meaning. His idea about Greek tragedies being insights into human error was also perceptive. And he has a good sense of humor. Tweet

Jason Fried’s TED talk dovetails with my last post about creative people needing to understand ourselves well enough to know what environments encourage our creativity. Fried has some interesting ideas about how to get work done in an office environment. I agree that employees should be allowed to manage their workflow but doubt that managers [...]

@brainpicker hipped me to Steven Johnson. He and creative thinker Kevin Kelly have published new books which discuss technology. Johnson’s focus is looking at the elements which foster creativity and innovation. I am really interested in this subject because of my involvement in creative collectives. I agree with Johnson’s premise that creativity is more than [...]

I really enjoyed this TED talk by Elizabeth Gilbert. I am also tired of the myth of suffering being the primary food of creative genius. Artists/ creative people are not crazy because of our creativity but because of our ineffective strategies for dealing with the same issues which every human being must face and then [...]

The nature of genius has been on my mind this week. I watched Elizabeth Gilbert’s TED talk on creativity (which inspired a draft of a serious post.) and started thinking about “everyday genius.” I used the phrase in the upcoming post so I decided to Google the term and see what was on the internet. [...]

Seth Godin is one of my mentors. I have never met the man but reading his books have inspired me in numerous ways. I understand marketing and storytelling in a different way because of his body of work. I finished reading his audiobook, Small Is the New Big, which I plan to discuss in a [...]

“Creativity is as important as literacy.” says Ken Robinson in this TED talk. Ken Robinson is a funny guy: he had me laughing while dropping serious insights about our need to rethink education and its relationship to creativity. Joshua Davis used one of Robinson’s quotes in his presentation at OFFF so I looked up Robinson. [...]

Ray Kurzweil TED talk from Feb 2005. I think we are transforming ourselves through the technology we are developing. The collective will of nature and humanity is pushing this technological evolution. Technology is our medium as are paints, notes, words, thoughts, and institutions. The conversation about gene manipulation is fascinating to me but my limited [...]

Kevin Kelly TED talk from Feb 2005. The ideas are still vibrant and engaging. I love the idea of biological organisms hacking life: some serious creativity there. The idea of technological systems being eternal made me think about social problems such as racism, sexism, poverty, and war. The belief that all technology continues to exist [...]

I Googled creativity and flow to see what was in cybersapce under those categories. This wonderful TED talk video featuring Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi was the find of the day. I especially like the findings about the relationship between money and fulfillment. Click on the link below and Enjoy :-) Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi: Creativity, fulfillment and flow TED [...]