hi, it’s been a while.

anyway, nolen royalty.

nolen just did a presentation at recurse center. here’s the video, please go watch it.

anyway, nolen.

yes yes, another ode to nolen. you can deal with it.

he’s a creative guy, man. he comes up with a lot of ideas, he executes a lot of things. and the technical virtuosity is one thing (he codes well), and the prolificness is another (he ships a lot). but the creativity is what is kind of at “play” here.

i may, play. exactly. those feelings of joy (our joy in consuming/participating in his projects, his joy in making them), those feelings of fleeting absurdities (why checkboxes, why pacman, why anything). all feelings he evokes on/upon/under/at us.

but ok, right. the question that was the most delicate and hard - i think - after nolen’s localhost was “where do you get the inspiration”.

“how are you so creative” or rather “what are steps to be creative” (and also how do you get over shipping/the fear of shipping/the embarassement of shipping).

i’d tell you exactly how he does it.

but i have no idea.

to peer into nolen’s soul - to discover what his mind is up to in the month of january in the year of this year, is one thing. that’s not given to me, maybe god1 or god2 knows.

but to be creative, to seek creativity, i will definitely muse on that.

why? honestly, i feel a bit feverish right now and i feel like that’s good “inspiration”. see - i’m using something weird and stinky (fever - also last night’s wordle, so weird..) and turning it into something else - a blog post. yay. hashtag creativity.

but more seriously, of course, who can really talk to creativity and “teach” it? i mean art professors i suppose. or maybe other inspiring figures in your community. your family. that funny uncle, the really funny one, that isn’t a comedian but is. that inspiration you get from birds. that electric spark you get when meeting someone “out there”.

what i’m trying to say is that i would invite you, a person 9 paragraphs in, to “”””"”get out of your head””” (boring! sorry). and mostly also not stare at a problem and tell yourself ““i gotta be creative i gotta be creative”. has that ever worked for anyone? i tried it once, and you can see how that went

i don’t know what works. i don’t know if anyone knows, but maybe someone.

but i will say this (finally), i’ve found some solace in the following things, which will, if applied directly to the forehead, let you be as creative (if not more! haha – joke) as my dear friend nolen royalty:

  • go on a walk
  • take hot or cold showers especially if you hate them (move the dial incrementally day by day or use my trick: shock yourself in the direction you want to go, then be like omg, then dial it back a little bit. it will feel “better”.)
  • read, travel, but also stare at grass for more than 20 minutes.
  • read/do the artist’s way, maybe
  • read art & fear, absolutely
  • you don’t have to do improv, but it’s not the worse thing (you could go to a show though - i recommend this)
  • improv games are deliriously fun. read the list, click a random one. try it with friends. i’ve rarely lost a “game” of “bunny” - although winning is not the point, i am unreasonably competitive about it.
  • the comfortable zone is the boring zone, unfortunately, yes. it does mean you need to seek out and try uyghur cuisine, things that should be spicy but aren’t, sticky sweet things, etc. easier said than done, but growth, man.
  • i think the spa and cold plunges are transformational but i don’t want to get political here.

does nolen do all of this? some of this? i don’t know. i mean, it is pretty weird to write this whole article that doesn’t have that much to do with him - really, using nolen as a creative prompt??? but hey… creative prompts can be powerful…

also, brian eno, oblique strategies. a classic of the genre. just reload a few times. and don’t apply it to your forehead, nor anyone’s forehead. apply it to you, your life, your dreams. a project.

ok and absolutely final thing. writing workshops help open up your everything, the best one in the world is claire titelman’s and you really have no idea how extraordinary that class is. it changes lives.

no the actual final thing is: write every thing that goes through your mind. all of your ideas are “good”. “good” is not the “criteria” here. write first, edit maybe… or never really. we are in the idea phase of life, man. always. we are always just juggling with ideas. so write them down and come back to them… and more ideas will spring out of you too. and some you won’t be able to let go of. those ones you keep obsessing about are the things you should do. maybe!

that’s it. nolen, i hope you’re happy! (i really don’t know what i’m saying - i do hope you’re happy!)

bye all xx