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The Goldilocks theory of creativity
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The Goldilocks theory of creativity

10 things worth sharing: the creative process, writing advice, wintering, and more......

Austin Kleon
May 7, 2021
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a cartoon with the title goldlilocks theory of creativity - life is too depressing to work - life is just depressing enough that work is a happy alternative - life is too good to work

Hey y’all,

Here are 10 things I thought were worth sharing this week: 

  1. My Goldilocks theory of creativity.
     

  2. I gobbled up Robert D. Richardson’s short book, First We Read, Then We Write: Emerson on the Creative Process. I’m slowly making my way through his biography, Emerson: The Mind on Fire. (This essay about his life’s work is really good.)
     

  3. I’ve been picking through my wife’s shelf of architecture books. This week I enjoyed The Not So Big House: A Blueprint for the Way We Really Live, which was partly inspired by two of my all-time favorites: How Buildings Learn and A Pattern Language.
     

  4. Advice for writers: Nobody wants to read a book.
     

  5. I heard from so many of you about my post, “I’m not languishing, I’m dormant.” (Way too many to respond to everyone, sorry!) I wrote a followup post on “Wintering and dormancy.” 
     

  6. Eye candy: painter Steve Keene is Kickstartering an art book.
     

  7. Ear candy: I’ve been listening to composer Ludwig Göransson after hearing his Tenet soundtrack — I enjoyed this Song Exploder episodeabout his work on Black Panther. (I dump stuff I’m digging to into my 2021 playlist, which is already 9 hours long.)
     

  8. RIP artist William T. Wiley. 
     

  9. RIP actress Olympia Dukakis. (“No matter what you do, you’re gonna die, just like everybody else.”)
      

  10. More writing advice: I’m a fan of “crummy first drafts,” but advice that works even better for me: “Just make something, anything.”

Thanks for reading. If you like this newsletter, you can help it keep going: forward it to someone who’d like it, read my books, shop for some of my favorite gear (I get a cut), buy a t-shirt, or hire me to speak.

If you’re seeing this newsletter for the first time, you can read previous issues and subscribe here.

xoxo, 

Austin

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