#creativity

If, as Marx argued, capital is dead labor, then the products of large language models might best be understood as dead speech. Just as factory workers produce, with their “living labor,” machines and other forms of physical capital that are then used, as “dead labor,” to produce more physical commodities, so human expressions of thought and creativity—“living speech” in the forms of writing, art, photography, and music—become raw materials used to produce “dead speech” in those same forms. LLMs, to continue with Marx’s horror-story metaphor, feed “vampire-like” on human culture. Without our words and pictures and songs, they would cease to function. They would become as silent as a corpse in a casket.

Tarot isn’t just for divination—it’s also a great way to connect to your creativity. Discover how tarot can help you stay inspired and make your best work with this practical guidebook.

Nobody wants to read your shit. Let me repeat that. Nobody–not even your dog or your mother–has the slightest interest in your commercial for Rice Krispies or Delco batteries or Preparation H. Nor does anybody care about your one-act play, your Facebook page or your new sesame chicken joint at Canal and Tchopotoulis. It isn’t that people are mean or cruel. They’re just busy.

Nobody wants to read your shit. Let me repeat that. Nobody–not even your dog or your mother–has the slightest interest in your commercial for Rice Krispies or Delco batteries or Preparation H. Nor does anybody care about your one-act play, your Facebook page or your new sesame chicken joint at Canal and Tchopotoulis. It isn’t that people are mean or cruel. They’re just busy.

Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.

"As readers, we consume. As authors, we create. Our society is changing from consumers to creators."

"Now, more than ever, science and reason must prevail. The scale of the challenge is hard to overstate, but New Scientist is optimistic that we can succeed: our boundless doomsaying is more than matched by our boundless creativity and our ability to, eventually, do the right thing."

"You can still do the other goals, but put them off for a month or two. Focus on one goal for at least a month … and turn it into a habit. So if you want to run a marathon, create the habit of running each day. If you want to write a novel, create the habit of writing each morning. If you want to create a successful blog, create the habit of writing insanely useful posts each day. Once your first goal becomes a habit and is on autopilot, turn to the next goal — you don’t have to worry as much about the first goal because it has become automatic."

"You’re never just a blogger, or a podcaster, or a YouTube Director. If we mentally adhere to these labels, we willfully paint ourselves into creative corners. If the fumes don’t kill you, the frustration will."

"In the future, the web should be able to connect people's ideas in such a way that one person could store his partly formed ideas and leave a trail of his thinking for other people trying to solve the same problem, he said."

"Now, you’re not an actor. You’re not a movie director. But you’re more than capable of creating creative, compelling, “authentic” content, because you are a creative, compelling, authentic individual. Be confident in your abilities. I have abso

"I don't know the actual true number, but I think a dedicated artist could cultivate 1,000 True Fans, and by their direct support using new technology, make an honest living. I'd love to hear from anyone who might have settled on such a path."

"Part of a close creator/consumer relationship is about treating the people who appreciate what you’re creating with the utmost respect."

"From framed spit balls to baby dolls driven by lollipop licks, Yahoo had college artists from as far as Britain and Brazil on display to inspire its engineers."

"One thing that must scare the wigs off of media moguls is that many writers and other content creators will work for free, because it's so intrinsically enjoyable."

"Our personal worlds are vastly larger than at any previous time in human history. Our population is much higher, and we are exposed to the best of the best of this huge pool of talent. This can be hard on one's self-esteem."

"Card sorting is a great, reliable, inexpensive method for finding patterns in how users would expect to find content or functionality."

"Buffering your creative output is one way to bridge the world of creative endeavors and the linear expectations of the world that wants to manage creativity."

I think I need to start carrying a batch of index cards around