Happy fall everybody.
Over the next few months, I’ll not be writing many articles here at Happenchance. Between a pregnant wife, NaNoWriMo, a full-time job, and a couple other little projects, I’m a busy boy. I do have a bigger project here at Happenchance in my someday/maybe folder; I’ll keep you updated as this develops.
Until then, I want to keep providing you with useful content, so I’m going to revive something I used to do: weekly roundups of the best articles on creative work, initiative, time management, motivation, resistance, and other topics I think you’ll find useful.
In short, I’m going to dabble in content curation with the occasional original article. Let’s say for now I’m severing half a finger and putting it on ice for eventual reattachment.
A Novel in a Month? Why not?
Before we get to this week’s links, I’d like to remind you that NaNoWriMo starts in a few days. I’ve completed this the past three years, and against my better judgement 😉 I’m shooting for a fourth. I’ve written about NaNoWriMo before here, here, and here. If you write, this may be one of the best exercises out there for building your fiction chops.
The Roundup
- Ever feel like you know all you need to know but can’t quite execute? This is not an uncommon problem. Here Dragos Roua explains why information is cheap but action is expensive. IMO, taking action, even the wrong action, is better than doing nothing; at least you’ll learn something.
- Related to the last article is this one on initiative from G.I. Jen at Everyday Bright. Without initiative, all you’ve got is bunch of ideas, and ideas without execution are pretty much worthless. To quote Edison: “genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration.” Fortunately, developing the initiative habit is reasonably easy, and once you do you’ll be in possession of an increasing rare and valuable skill.
- Julien Smith explains how our avoidance of risk is frequently based on faulty assumptions and relates this back to the #OWS protests.
- Jonathan Fields (of Career Renegade) has launched a new book on uncertainty, and here Mark from Lateral Action interviews him with an emphasis on the creative/maker aspects of his work. Here’s a gem:
Great work requires decisions and actions in the face of uncertainty. In fact, studies prove a strong and direct relationship between your ability to tolerate ambiguity and uncertainty and creativity
- Your mother probably told you not to talk to strangers, but this article from Psyblog explains you should do exactly that. In my job, I spend most of my day talking to strangers and, frankly, it’s a lot more fun than I expected (though, as an unrepentant introvert, I need to spend some serious time recharging from all the interactions).
- This is from a couple weeks ago, but here Chris at Art of Nonconformity rails against those who demand old school qualifications. This is a great article to read for anyone who has ever asked themselves ‘who am I to do x?’
- Is that feedback you hear? Not the guitar amp kind. When you create something, feedback can be wildly helpful. Check out Matt Garland’s article on creative feedback for more.
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I enjoy these! Good decision!
Thanks JA. I thought you’d be happy about this 🙂