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And Nietzsche was not crazy!

And Nietzsche was not crazy!

In his 1878 book Human, All Too Human he wrote:

Artists have a vested interest in our believing in the flash of revelation, the so-called inspiration…shining down from heavens as a ray of grace. In reality, the imagination of the good artist or thinker produces continuously good, mediocre or bad things, but his judgment, trained and sharpened to a fine point, rejects, selects, connects…All great artists and thinkers are great workers, indefatigable not only in inventing, but also in rejecting, sifting, transforming, ordering.

via thinkingalaud.posterous.com

Filed under  //  creativity  
Posted
 

Lose yourself

"Most people don’t form a self and then lead a life. They are called by a problem, and the self is constructed gradually by their calling.

...when you read a biography of someone you admire, it’s rarely the things that made them happy that compel your admiration. It’s the things they did to court unhappiness — the things they did that were arduous and miserable, which sometimes cost them friends and aroused hatred. It’s excellence, not happiness, that we admire most.

...Fulfillment is a byproduct of how people engage their tasks, and can’t be pursued directly. Most of us are egotistical and most are self-concerned most of the time, but it’s nonetheless true that life comes to a point only in those moments when the self dissolves into some task. The purpose in life is not to find yourself. It’s to lose yourself."

via metacool.typepad.com

Filed under  //  words  
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The Rise of the New Groupthink

It was how much privacy, personal workspace and freedom from interruption they enjoyed. Sixty-two percent of the best performers said their workspace was sufficiently private compared with only 19 percent of the worst performers. Seventy-six percent of the worst programmers but only 38 percent of the best said that they were often interrupted needlessly.
via nytimes.com

Filed under  //  workspace  
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How (and why) to make the most of your morning

'Think in the morning, act in the noon, read in the evening, and sleep at night.'
via lifehacker.com

Filed under  //  work  
Posted
 

On Making the Right Choice: The Deliberation-Without-Attention Effect

Contrary to conventional wisdom, it is not always advantageous to engage in thorough conscious deliberation before choosing. On the basis of recent insights into the characteristics of conscious and unconscious thought, we tested the hypothesis that simple choices (such as between different towels or different sets of oven mitts) indeed produce better results after conscious thought, but that choices in complex matters (such as between different houses or different cars) should be left to unconscious thought. Named the “deliberation-without-attention” hypothesis, it was confirmed in four studies on consumer choice, both in the laboratory as well as among actual shoppers, that purchases of complex products were viewed more favorably when decisions had been made in the absence of attentive deliberation.
via sciencemag.org

Filed under  //  feelings  
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How leaders kill meaning at work

The Progress Principle,1 found that of all the events that can deeply engage people in their jobs, the single most important is making progress in meaningful work.

Even incremental steps forward—small wins—boost what we call “inner work life”: the constant flow of emotions, motivations, and perceptions that constitute a person’s reactions to the events of the work day. Beyond affecting the well-being of employees, inner work life affects the bottom line.2 People are more creative, productive, committed, and collegial in their jobs when they have positive inner work lives. But it’s not just any sort of progress in work that matters. The first, and fundamental, requirement is that the work be meaningful to the people doing it.

via mckinseyquarterly.com

Filed under  //  work  
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Douglas on jobs

How do you envisage the future of the job market?
Maybe people should be working less, not more. If the corporate environment has gotten so efficient that it doesn’t need so many of us anymore, we should look for ways to create value outside of the job market. By making things, or doing things. People who think they understand economics say this is insanity, or Marxism. There will still be jobs, but there are not enough of them to go around. Either we can all get a job one day a week, so that everyone can still have one, or we’ve got to find something else to do until we’re allowed to work four, or three, or two days a week instead of five. We’re going to have to find other ways to get the money we need to buy the stuff that people with jobs get.
via blog.gidsy.com

Filed under  //  workspace  
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John Steinbeck on Falling in Love: A 1958 Letter

And don’t worry about losing. If it is right, it happens — The main thing is not to hurry. Nothing good gets away.
via brainpickings.org

Filed under  //  feelings  
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What's an Entrepreneur?

 Entrepreneurship is the pursuit of opportunity without regard to resources currently controlled.
via inc.com

Filed under  //  innovation  
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How Larry Page Changed Meetings At Google

  • Every meeting must have one clear decision maker. If there's no decision maker -- or no decision to be made -- the meeting shouldn't happen.
  • No more than 10 people should attend.
  • Every person should give input, otherwise they shouldn't be there.
  • No decision should ever wait for a meeting. If a meeting absolutely has to happen before a decision should be made, then the meeting should be scheduled immediately.
via businessinsider.com

Filed under  //  productivity  
Posted