Creativity vs. Productivity 🥊

I saved this from a post by Tobias van Schneider, which has now been deleted. Spot on, though.

Links are break quicker these days, which is just one more reason I need to create more of these link-sharing posts. Feel free to send me any that you think I should highlight in the future.

Thanks! – CJ

Creators are identifying more as hobbyists.
This was a welcomed surprise from ConvertKit’s State of the Creator Economy Report 2023. The number of creators who consider themselves hobbyists jumped from 10% last year to 19% this year. I’ve always believed the most interesting, innovative creations come from hobbyists. It’s just more fun to create and consume for the love of the game.

Text shows how much you care.
Via my friend and yours, Patrick Rhone, comes this list of text-only and minimalist news sites. This is the ultimate in respect for the reader. My favorite of these is usually CNN Lite. Maybe you can be an HTMinimaList nut too.

Chalk another one up for guerrilla marketing.
I’m a sucker for these elbow-grease and shoe-leather stories of marketing. Here, a husband and wife team spend $200 in chalk and get $500K in revenue. As an introvert, the times in my life where I’ve pounded the pavement to ask for businesses have been the most lucrative. You just have to really want it.

From the no-sh@t files: Programmatic ads suck.
When AI-generated content meets the ad model of content delivery…well, we all knew what the results would be. But for those who run their creativity-based business through nothing but Excel or Google Sheets, maybe it was harder to predict that garbage content feeding garbage ads would have a garbage result. Again, it’s all about respect — for yourself and the reader. This is actually great news for creators of good content.

How inspiration really works in the brain.
I’ll forgive the imprecise nature of the terms used in this article, because it’s a great introduction to what really helps us be more “creative.” This doesn't just happen on its own, of course. Inspiration is scheduled.

P.S. “Creativity happens when other variables are predictable.” — Michael Lopp