Daily Archives: January 13, 2008

Sometimes I have to declare RSS bankruptcy. If I take a week off from reading my news feeds, there are so many built-up posts from Slashdot and BoingBoing that I have to throw my hands up and mark them all as read.There are a few blogs I never skip, though, and one of them is David Wahl’s creativecreativity.com. David creates toys for legendary novelty company Archie McPhee, which would be a good enough hook by itself to get me to check out a blog. But his fascination with how creative people think and the tricks they come up with to take their ideas in unusual directions is what makes his writing so valuable. In one of my favorite posts, David theorizes that finding your arch-nemesis can be a highly productive way to increase your creative output. “Tesla had his Edison, Holmes had his Moriarty and Spielberg has his Lucas,” he writes. Well, why can’t everyone? There’s a lot of humor in David’s posts, but they’re great starting points if you find yourself facing an obstacle and lacking the necessary inspiration. I use old Creativity Creativity posts the way Brian Eno used his Oblique Strategies – choose one at random and try to make it work for you, even if it doesn’t seem like a straightforward solution.I suggested to David a while ago that he should turn his blog entries into a book, for an even handier reference. There’s not enough interest there yet, but if you enjoy it, you should let him know. I’d pre-order a copy right now.