005. How to Be More Creative: This Mental Shift Might Surprise You

Most creators love doing creative things, but many of us hate the mental baggage that comes along with creativity... including figuring what it actually is, and how to actually do new, original things, which is HARD.
Today Jeff talks about what creativity is and some surprising mental shifts to help you get rid of the mental baggage and get more creativity in your content and in your life.
RESOURCES
The Art of Asking: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Let People Help, by Amanda Palmer https://amzn.to/2ZStSawAmanda Palmer via The Marginalian, formerly Brain Pickings by Maria Popova https://www.themarginalian.org/2013/05/28/amanda-palmer-on-creativity-online

Story Greenlight with Jeff Bartsch, Ep 003 – What is a Greenlight, and Why it Matters
https://www.storygreenlight.com/podcastRange: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World, by David Epstein https://amzn.to/3wHf76n

SHOW NOTES

1:09 The need for creativity

1:46 Jeff’s rant against dictionaries

3:04 Wikipedia and why it’s so hard to define creativity

6:29 Blank pages and the difficulty of being original

7:38 Creativity is relative

7:59 Case study: how email went from novel to digital junk mail

11:23 Labeling something “new” or “original” is not up to us

11:54 How to appear more creative by changing your audience

13:50 On Amanda Palmer and her journey

14:25 The Art of Asking: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Let People Help, by Amanda Palmer https://amzn.to/2ZStSaw

16:05 Amanda Palmer’s more practical definition of creativity

17:50 Amanda Palmer on why it’s so important to share our creativity

18:58 Steve Jobs on mental connections driving creativity

20:01 What is a Greenlight – See Story Greenlight Episode 003 for more discussion on this

20:28 Why sharing our creativity and mental connections can be terrifying, but so important to create human connections with your audience

22:42 Nihilist, existential, and faith-based reasoning for creativity

23:53 How to be more creative: expand your inputs

24:08 Steve Jobs on the importance of broader creative inputs

25:01 Going beyond YouTube videos about making videos... your extra layers of knowledge and life experience matter

26:10 How to be more creative: don’t worry whether it’s already been done, because nobody makes the same connections of dots in the same way that you do

26:45 How to be more creative: embrace being a generalist, not just a specialist

27:43 Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World, by David Epstein https://amzn.to/3wHf76n

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