Content tagged with “creativity” under “My Library”

“This book tries to answer the question: will AI ever be able to emulate human creativity? It never really answers the question, but it’s still very, very interesting. Each chapter covers a different type of creativity: writing, music, art, etc. It’s full of examples and anecdotes about the advances…”

“This is a pretty simple book. It tells short, chapter-length biographies of 12 people (plus one bonus person). It tries to get at the source of what made each of them special. Some examples: Shirley Temple had a strong bond with her mother who managed her career. She avoided Hollywood child actor…”

“To be clear, this is a course in thinking. And it’s five days. It should be clear from the title, of course, but I wasn’t quite ready for it. There are actually three five-day courses. This isn’t really mentioned anywhere, but it’s clear in the table of contents. The first one is called ‘Insight…”

“Note: I did a much deeper re-read of this book a few years after my first reading. Scroll past the initial review for that deeper dive. This is the story of Pixar, from one of the founders. It reads like a standard business history until the second part, where he gets into some of the specific…”

“Tiago Forte has been selling an online class with the same title as this book for years. I’ve always wanted to take it, but it was expensive and there’s always a waiting list. So, I was happy to get this book. Now, it’s a good book, but, honestly, this is ‘Getting Things Done’ by another name. And…”

“A lovely analysis of why stories matter so much to us. the book dissects the concept of ‘story’ into these areas: Author Audience Journey Character World Detail Voice Platform Immersion The author provides lots of examples of each, from both the creative arts and the business world. I’m having…”

“This is one of those motivational/inspirational type books. It doesn’t really present a lot of new information, and it’s formatted all funky with weird fonts and colors and stuff (a la Tom Peters), and it’s really short – you can read it in 30 minutes. The goal is to impress upon you that it’s okay…”

“The title is accurate: this is a meditation (an ‘observation’) about making art. It’s not a practical book, it’s just a series of thoughts about the struggle of people who make at to do it in spite of their fears. This is the source of the anecdote about two groups in a pottery class that were…”

“This book is kind of pointless, but I’m still giving it four stars because it’s fun to read. It’s about Hollywood, and stars, and Ron Howard, etc. etc. The author’s point is that he’s been really curious his whole life. He has conversations with famous people, just out of curiosity, which I…”

“An absolutely lovely little book detailing 131 interesting and sometimes absurd ways to notice more things. Exercises like coming up with a script for random video footage you’re watching, interviewing an inanimate object, calculating the exact halfway point between you and a friend and meeting…”

“Mixed bag here. The book is equal parts (1) practical techniques, and (2) motivational speaking. A big part of it is that the author wants you to know that you can be creative. If you already know this, then a lot of the book will be lost on you. It’s better when he talks about some practical…”

“This is sort of a ‘Devotional’ about the art of creating anything. The chapters are very short (1-2 pages), and they’re written in a lyrical style, center-aligned down the middle of the page. Some of them are almost poem-like. It’s main focus is to try to get you (1) to understand the subconscious…”

“An interesting book – more of a scrapbook or workbook, really. It’s 300 pages…but really like 100. There’s 2-3 blank pages for your own ‘ideas,’ then a page of motivation/inspiration that gives you an exercise for thinking differently. They’re genuinely quite good, and I think this would be a handy…”

“I really wanted to ‘get’ this book…but I didn’t. The text didn’t live up to the title – I came away from it no more prepared to create a ‘thing that matters.’ The author purports to explain ‘aesthetic creation,’ which sounds great, but it never really got explained. A lot of the book was examples…”

“ Fascinating, but a bit of a slog to get through. Gets tedious towards the end. Key takeaway: you’re not good at thinking, you’re just good at thinking that you’re good at thinking. ”

“A tiny book – not even sure it was actually a book. An essay? It was written by an advertising executive in the …40s? 50s? It’s a wonderful method for coming up with ideas in five steps. There’s no magic to it, and it’s almost comical in its simplicity, but it vibes with most of the things I’ve…”