I think I lost my job...

How to be creative

So you want to be more creative, in art, in business, whatever. Here are some tips that have worked for me over the years:

1. Ignore everybody.

2. The idea doesn't have to be big. It just has to change the world.

3. Put the hours in.

4. If your biz plan depends on you suddenly being "discovered" by some big shot, your plan will probably fail.

5. You are responsible for your own experience.

6. Everyone is born creative; everyone is given a box of crayons in kindergarten.

7. Keep your day job.

8. Companies that squelch creativity can no longer compete with companies that champion creativity.

9. Everybody has their own private Mount Everest they were put on this earth to climb.

10. The more talented somebody is, the less they need the props.

11. Don't try to stand out from the crowd; avoid crowds altogether.

12. If you accept the pain, it cannot hurt you.

13. Never compare your inside with somebody else's outside.

14. Dying young is overrated.

15. The most important thing a creative person can learn professionally is where to draw the red line that separates what you are willing to do, and what you are not.

16. The world is changing.

17. Merit can be bought. Passion can't.

18. Avoid the Watercooler Gang.

19. Sing in your own voice.

20. The choice of media is irrelevant.

21. Selling out is harder than it looks.

22. Nobody cares. Do it for yourself.

23. Worrying about "Commercial vs. Artistic" is a complete waste of time.

24. Don't worry about finding inspiration. It comes eventually.

25. You have to find your own schtick.

26. Write from the heart.

27. The best way to get approval is not to need it.

28. Power is never given. Power is taken.

29. Whatever choice you make, The Devil gets his due eventually.

30. The hardest part of being creative is getting used to it.

31. Remain frugal.



Source: http://www.gapingvoid.com/Moveable_Type/archives/000932.html

Amazing Southeast Asia, here I go!

Hello!

I finally bought my tickets to Southeast Asia! Oh yes! As soon as I finish work in Sydney (21st of September), I head to Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia, diving in the probably most exciting trip of my live!

I’m going to have 6 weeks and a half by myself to explore culture, history and nature, in order to – hopefully – understand the world and myself a little bit better.

Besides the normal backpacker’s itinerary, I’m looking at doing something a little bit different. Ideas involve visiting a refugee camp in the Burmese border, taking a scuba diving course in Phuket, doing some development work in a Cambodian NGO and doing a meditation retreat in a Thai Buddhist centre. Let’s see what turns out!

See what’s waiting for me:

Global Compact volunteer collaborative initiative

The Global Compact (world's largest voluntary Corporate Citizenship initiative, led by the United Nations) is calling volunteers to review more than 2,000 Communication on Progress Reports (COPs), submitted by its signers from all across the world.

I started doing my part reviewing my first COP this morning. It's really cool to get know what companies are doing, while contributing to an important global initiative.

If you're interested, click here to learn more and join.

Air Tragedy

Last night, a TAM airbus had difficulties landing in Congonhas, SP, Brazil, crossed a highway and crashed into an administrative building and a petrol station. The resulting explosion didn’t allow time for any of the passengers and some of the ground workers to leave. Around 200 people lost their lives, amongst whom Congressman Julio Redecker and my friend Henry’s brother Richard Salles Canfield. Gustavo Rodrigues (Curralinho) was in the building and hasn't been found yet. My thoughts are with the families in this inexplicable moment.

BBC coverage

Exciting times!

Last week was my best at work since I arrived. 3 full days of workshops with clients, quite a lot of thinking, good conversation with the directors and interesting perspectives for the next month. Unfortunately I cannot reveal details about the projects and findings about the clients (confidentiality).

Exciting times!

Guns, Germs and Steel

I recently read a book by Jared Diamond called Guns, Germs and Steel. It intends to explain the world we live today through the humankind’s history in the last 13.000 years. Although it’s quite environmentally deterministic, there are some things that might deserve our attention:

- Colonies ended up being dominated because of the technologically advanced guns and fatal diseases carried by the Europeans, consequences of the centralised power and animals’ domestication respectively, as well as large population. All this factors, however, were only possible because of agriculture, which permitted work specialisation;

- In the evolution of human gathering from band to tribe to chiefdom to state (always growing bigger, more centralised and more complex), important problems we have nowadays, especially wealth concentration, hyper exploration of natural resources, violence and lack of “humanity feeling”, all started in the chiefdom phase, 7,500 years ago. Then, population gathering achieved thousands, decisions making was centralised and people didn’t know everybody else anymore (if a New Guinean happened to encounter an unfamiliar New Guinean while both were away from their villages, the two engaged in a long discussion of their relatives, in an attempt to establish some relationship and hence some reason why the two should not try to kill each other). If the population size of evolution is controlled, is nowadays complexity actually inverting the centralisation aspect

- Why would an elite gain popular support while maintaining a more comfortable life than commoners? Kleptocrats have resourted to a mixture of four solutions:
1. Disarm the population and arm the elite
2. Make the masses happy by distributing much of the tribute received in popular ways
3. Use the monopoly of force to maintain public order, curb violence and therefore promote happiness
4. Construct an ideology or religion justifying kleptocracy

- Early government centralisation (221 B.C.) helped China to lead numerous technology advancement, amongst which sit gunpowder, the wheel, a writing system and the ship industry. On the other hand, due to political disputed in the 15th century, many advancements – notably the naval industry – were discontinued. In that case, centralisation was pretty bad. So the lesson seems to be a little bit of everything in moderation, i.e. government to organise consensual big projects, but not to stop the entrepreneurial endeavours of inventors and adventurous.

I haven’t yet organised many other thoughts in my mind...

Another way of looking at the world

Through a reference in Brett's blog, I found World Mapper, an amazing website that visually disturbs us about the world's current state.

Wealth Distribution

Living over US$ 200 per day

Living up to US$ 10 per day

War Deaths

Mortality 1-4 Years Old

Environment

Biocapacity

Forest Loss

Species Extinct

Gender issues

Female Managers

Girls not at primary school