Video: Merlin's Talk, "Toward Patterns for Creativity" | 43 Folders
http://www.43folders.com/2009/01/27/creativity-patterns
Daring Fireball: Obsession Times Voice
http://daringfireball.net/2009/03/obsession_times_voice

Merlin Mann talk about making money to do more art

We don’t make movies to make money, we make money to make more movies

"My muse for the session was this quote from Walt Disney: “We don’t make movies to make money, we make money to make more movies.” To me, that’s it. That’s the thing. / [...] / No one gets into something like this without an obsession, but if your obsession is with the money, and your revenue is directly correlated to page views, then rather than write or produce anything with any actual merit or integrity, you’ll dance like a monkey and split your articles across multiple “pages” and spend more time ginning up sensational Digg-bait headlines than writing the articles themselves. It’s thievery — not of money, but of readers’ attention." / [...] / The entire quote-unquote “pro blogging” industry — which exists as the sort of pimply teenage brother to the shirt-and-tie SEO industry — is predicated on the notion that blogging is a meaningful verb. It is not. The verb is writing. The format and medium are new, but the craft is ancient."

"There is an easy formula for doing it wrong: publish attention-getting bullshit and pull stunts to generate mindless traffic. The entire quote-unquote “pro blogging” industry — which exists as the sort of pimply teenage brother to the shirt-and-tie SEO industry — is predicated on the notion that blogging is a meaningful verb. It is not. The verb is writing. The format and medium are new, but the craft is ancient. Obsession times voice is a pretty good stab at a simple formula for doing it right."

"Because, at that level, your entire career is defined by the unbelievably great ideas that you reject. Painfully giant, wonderful, terrific opportunities that you simply don’t have the capacity to address without screwing up the real priority."

"True priorities are like arms; if you think you have more than a couple, you're either lying or crazy."

Kind of unique. Sort of pregnant. “High” priority.

A priority is observed, not manufactured or assigned. Making something a #1 PRIORITY in a list changes nothing. If it were really important, it’d already be done. When most people say, “prioritize,” I think they really mean to say, “force-rank”.

It’s difficult to talk about how to get started with a project without addressing why it can feel so difficult to get started in the first place. And, as I said in the talk, I think this often comes down to perceived barriers. Barriers to even the most modest kind of starting. Barriers that seem entirely real, external, and immovable...

Merlin Mann on how to get yourself on task with creative side projects and not rationalize against them using "Real-Life Obligations."

"It’s difficult to talk about how to get started with a project without addressing why it can feel so difficult to get started in the first place"

MaxFunCon: Merlin Mann on Doing Creative Work (via TSoYA) Here’s the audio from a short talk I presented a few weeks ago at Jesse Thorn’s awesome1 MaxFunCon in Lake Arrowhead, CA. The talk is subtitled, “With All Due Respect

by Merlin Mann

Great talk about overcoming creative barriers and getting stuff accomplished.

"Remember now, we’re not talking about finishing a project or even making something that you know will be the greatest thing ever made. Just starting. What’s the barrier for you?"

An excellent excellent podcast.

"...a bunch of good writing on weblogs, creative work, and online media."

"Merlin Mann has been on a tear lately. He's been rethinking what he wants to do with 43 Folders -- a site he started four years ago to think in public about Getting Things Done (and other stuff) -- which rethinking has resulted in a bunch of good writing on weblogs, creative work, and online media. Some links and excerpts follow."