Some good tips on how to be respectful when you come from a dominant culture: Tools for White Guys who are Working for Social Change. Good ideas for everyone, really.
And here’s a set of good reminders about [what racial and cultural privilege looks like](http://www.rantcollective.net/article.php?id=74).
[A Technique for Producing Ideas by James Young](https://kindle.amazon.com/work/technique-producing-ideas-ebook/B000AJYAPW)
A good friend and great designer pointed me to this book, a pithy summary of James Young’s learnings from years in advertising. After reading [Steven Johnson’s extended treatise on the subject](http://www.ryskamp.org/brain/?p=4043), this resonated with me personally much more.
*Looking around*
> I venture to suggest that, for the advertising man, one of the best ways to cultivate it is by study in the social sciences. A book like Veblen’s Theory of the Leisure Class or Riesman’s The Lonely Crowd, therefore, becomes a better book about advertising than most books about advertising. – 120
> Gathering raw material in a real way is not as simple as it sounds. It is such a terrible chore that we are constantly trying to dodge it. The time that ought to be spent in material gathering is spent in wool gathering. Instead of working systematically at the job of gathering raw material we sit around hoping for inspiration to strike us. – 129
> This, I suppose, is because a real knowledge of a product, and of people in relation to it, is not easy to come by. Getting it is something like the process which was recommended to De Maupassant as the way to learn to write. “Go out into the streets of Paris,” he was told by an older writer, “and pick out a cab driver. He will look to you very much like every other cab driver. But study him until you can describe him so that he is seen in your description to be an individual, different from every other cab driver in the world.” – 134
> There are some advertisements you just cannot write until you have lived long enough-until, say, you have lived through certain experiences as a spouse, a parent, a businessman, or what not. The cycle of the years does something to fill your reservoir, unless you refuse to live spatially and emotionally. – 227
> The principle of constantly expanding your experience, both personally and vicariously, does matter tremendously in any idea-producing job. – 235
(reminds me of [Steve Job’s quote about diversity and design](http://www.ryskamp.org/brain/?p=3880))
*Combining things*
> With these two general principles in mind-the principle that an idea is a new combination, and the principle that the ability to make new combinations is heightened by an ability to see relationships-with these in mind let us now look at the actual method or procedure by which ideas are produced. – 121
> If the surface differences are not striking we assume that there are no differences. But if we go deeply enough, or far enough, we nearly always find that between every product and some consumers there is an individuality of relationship which may lead to an idea. – 139
> In advertising an idea results from a new combination of specific knowledge about products and people with general knowledge about life and events. – 148
*Stop trying so hard*
> So when you reach this third stage in the production of an idea, drop the problem completely and turn to whatever stimulates your imagination and emotions. Listen to music, go to the theater or movies, read poetry or a detective story. – 188
> This, then, is the whole process or method by which ideas are produced: First, the gathering of raw materials-both the materials of your immediate problem and the materials which come from a constant enrichment of your store of general knowledge. Second, the working over of these materials in your mind. Third, the incubating stage, where you let something beside the conscious mind do the work of synthesis. Fourth, the actual birth of the Idea-the “Eureka! I have it!” stage. And fifth, the final shaping and development of the idea to practical usefulness. – 212
*Follow up*
> The Art of Thought by Graham Wallas.
> Science and Method by H. Poincare.
>The Art of Scientific Investigation by W. I. B. Beveridge.
I’ve long been a proponent of [designing experiences for peak moments](http://www.ryskamp.org/brain/?p=207)–after all, that’s what you’ll remember about them later.
But personally it makes sense to spend some time identifying what your own peak moments have been, in the hope of discovering how to experience more of them. The articles [Peak Moments](http://chrisguillebeau.com/3×5/peak-moments/) and [Peak Creative Moments](http://the99percent.com/tips/6951/peak-creative-moments) suggest 60-second exercises to do just that.
I found several unexpected and valuable traits of my peak moment experiences:
* They are with lots of other people–despite my tendency to work and play alone
* They result from lots of planning and preparation–despite my aversion to both
* Many were not pleasant in the moment (painful, stressful), but very rewarding afterward
* They all involved substantial risk, to my career or myself
Also reminds me of [Peter Drucker’s advice in Managing Oneself](http://www.sld.cu/galerias/pdf/sitios/revsalud/managing_oneself.pdf) that “the only way to discover your strengths is through feedback analysis.”
> One hundred twenty-five astronaut autobiographies, interviews, and oral histories were content analyzed and scored for references to values (Schwartz, 1992). The current study extended methods tested in 2 pilot studies of space veterans from many nations, of both sexes, and with different experiences within the history of human spaceflight. Value references reflected a high degree of concern with individualism, with Achievement, Enjoyment, and Self-direction ranked highest. There were relatively few value differences across demographic categories, demonstrating the impact of the spaceflight experience. After returning, the astronauts showed increased concern with Universalism, Spirituality, and Power (social recognition), a broadened set of references to values oriented toward the collective good.
Elad Gil wrote a great piece on how to benefit from your investors, but I think the advice holds true for getting help from any advisor. I know friends who have a personal “board of advisors”, and others who schedule regular checkins with their mentors.
Sometimes adults need help with this:
> This week thirty of us have promised to keep a daily crayon journal, build a fort or play with bubbles, and go out of our way to notice and welcome any children we see.
> Worry isn’t work. Being stressed out isn’t work. Anxiety isn’t work. Entertaining a sense of impending doom isn’t work. Incessant internal verbal punishment isn’t work. Indulging the great unknown fear in your own mind isn’t work. Hating yourself isn’t work.
> Work is the manifestation of value, and anyone who tells you that a person whose mind is 50% occupied with anxiety is more likely to manifest value is a person who isn’t manifesting much.
That is, addiction in general and information/Internet addiction in particular.
> The world is more addictive than it was 40 years ago. And unless the forms of technological progress that produced these things are subject to different laws than technological progress in general, the world will get more addictive in the next 40 years than it did in the last 40…
> My latest trick is taking long hikes. I used to think running was a better form of exercise than hiking because it took less time. Now the slowness of hiking seems an advantage, because the longer I spend on the trail, the longer I have to think without interruption…
> We’ll increasingly be defined by what we say no to.
Sometimes it feels like you are trapped by your own body–by aches and pains, by sickness, by physical abilities.
But somehow practicing yoga makes it feel like instead of the body’s desires dominating the mind, the mind is able to control the body.
Today I stopped myself from sneezing during yoga by recognizing it was just a false trigger from my body.
I suspect that meditation works similarly, by training the soul to direct the mind instead of the monkey mind trampling the soul. But I’m not quite there yet unfortunately…