The Craft: Exploring the Creative Process

In this episode of The Craft, Carter and Colby discuss building a second brain. They begin the conversation by describing what is a “second brain” and its place within the broader realm of knowledge management. They emphasize the importance of saving and organizing information, making your work searchable in the future. Additionally, they discuss Forte’s P.A.R.A. method of digital organization and how it can be a powerful tool. Carter and Colby also discuss the various knowledge management tools they already use, exploring how their second brains might be dispersed rather than consolidated.

Forte Labs

Building a Second Brain

Building a Second Brain Podcast 

Notion

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Cover art was designed by Elizabeth Newell. Learn more about her work at elizabethnewelldesign.com or on Instagram @elizabethisadesigner.

In this episode of The Craft, Carter and Colby discuss the role of practice - specifically creative drills - in the pursuit of excellence. They begin by discussing the potential dangers of overemphasizing immediate action and/or publishing. The conversation complicates when considering build-in-public and behind-the-scenes projects. As the issue clarifies, they specifically address the fear of creative stagnation (paradoxically) through continual production, ie. making the same mistakes again and again. Additionally, Colby discusses the importance of cultivating both isolated (drill) and integrated (project) skills. This conversation moves toward practical techniques for practice, including imitating creative influences and expanding specific areas of knowledge. Finally, they end the discussion by emphasizing that not all practice is equal. Creatives need to cultivate practice habits that stretch their limits. 

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Cover art was designed by Elizabeth Newell. Learn more about her work at elizabethnewelldesign.com or on Instagram @elizabethisadesigner.

In this episode of The Craft, Carter and Colby do an end-of-the-year-review. They discuss the development of their crafts by answering four questions: What went well? What went poorly? What did you learn? What inspired you? They also briefly discuss the future of The Craft.

Here is a beefy list of works they mention (in no particular order):

• Songmaps
• Dune
• Leonardo Da Vinci by Walter Isaacson
• Deep Work by Cal Newport
• Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport
• A World Without Email by Cal Newport
• Hans Zimmer Making Dune
• “Quantum Mechanics and ‘Song of Myself’: Getting a Grip on Reality” by Robert M. Schaible
• Physics and Philosophy: The Revolution in Modern Science by Werner Heisenberg
• On Certainty by Ludwig Wittgenstein
• Visualizing Crowd Sizes
• Effortless: Make it Easier to Do What Matters Most by Greg McKeown
• Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies by Jim Collins
• Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don’t by Jim Collins
• Bird By Bird by Anne LaMotte
• Dialectic of Enlightenment by Max Horkheimer and Theodore Adorno
• The Hunter Gracchus by Guy Davenport
• A Really Big Lunch: The Roving Gourmand of Food and Life by Jim Harrison

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Cover art was designed by Elizabeth Newell. Learn more about her work at elizabethnewelldesign.com or on Instagram @elizabethisadesigner.

In this episode of The Craft, Carter and Colby discuss the artist's "subject," a conversation that was spurred by Steven Pressfield's formulation in The Artist's Journey. They parse the differences and similarities between subjects and topics, theorizing about how such subject "threads" develop over time. As an exercise, both Carter and Colby identify and trace subjects, constellations of artistic interest, across several of the artists that they admire. Finally, they engage alternative approaches to the advice, "write what you know."

Works Cited

The Artist's Journey, Steven Pressfield

Jon Bellion

Justin Bieber

John Steinbeck

Cormac McCarthy

Roger Scruton

Writers on "Writing what you Know"

Build, Tony Fadell

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Cover art was designed by Elizabeth Newell. Learn more about her work at elizabethnewelldesign.com or on Instagram @elizabethisadesigner.

In this episode of The Craft, Carter and Colby explore artistic concerns that arise around the issue of style. We are often concerned that we don't have a unique style or that our style is too derivative. However, sometimes these anxieties are more exaggerated in our minds than in reality. We don't create in a vacuum, so we shouldn't expect to create art that is disconnected from a broader tradition. Carter and Colby finish the conversation by discussing some ways we can avoid falling into these sometimes paralyzing anxieties.

"Style is a product of your limitations" - Johnny Cash

"The ugly fact is books are made out of books" - Cormac McCarthy

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Cover art was designed by Elizabeth Newell. Learn more about her work at elizabethnewelldesign.com or on Instagram @elizabethisadesigner.

In this episode of The Craft, Carter and Colby discuss artistic taste. The conversation begins by considering how taste is involved in the revision process. We often have a sense that something “works,” but what is that feeling? Perhaps it’s the dictates of taste. The conversation then considers how the concept of taste differs from mere preference. After this groundwork, they engage how creatives can cultivate their artistic taste, emphasizing the importance of experiencing (or consuming) work within your discipline. By increasing the number of creative encounters, we begin to glean the language and references to produce substantial revisions.  

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Cover art was designed by Elizabeth Newell. Learn more about her work at elizabethnewelldesign.com or on Instagram @elizabethisadesigner.

In this episode of The Craft, Carter and Colby finish a series of book reviews on the work of Cal Newport; Colby reviews A World Without Email. Previously, they discussed Newport’s Deep Work (Ep. 13) and Digital Minimalism (Ep.14). They explore points of friction that arise with digital communication and conceptualize how these issues negatively affect our lives. The conversation also engages how email, as a mode of communication, is socially potent; in other words, it affects how we relate to each other and influences expectations for responsiveness. Then, they discuss how to best manage the aspects of communication that we tend to neglect. This includes building out thoughtful systems for how and when you communicate. Newport’s central ambition, as Colby emphasizes, is not attacking email but helping readers make space for meaningful work. 

Links Mentioned:

• A World Without Email by Cal Newport
• Calnewport.com
• Deep Questions with Cal Newport (Podcast)
• Alienation and Acceleration: Towards a Critical Theory of Late-Modern Temporality by Hartmut Rosa

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Cover art was designed by Elizabeth Newell. Learn more about her work at elizabethnewelldesign.com or on Instagram @elizabethisadesigner.

In this episode of The Craft, Carter and Colby discuss the principle of compound interest. They outline how this mathematical phenomenon - often relegated to the financial realm - can have drastic implications for creative work. Colby begins the conversation by summarizing a number of thinkers who have engaged this theme, emphasizing the principle’s interdisciplinary range. Then, they shift toward application, discussing practical ways to lock in growth and leverage our very limited efforts. They specifically explore the idea of building systems and habits, as outlined in McKeown’s work. Finally, they consider how compound effort is not always quantifiable but is perhaps necessary for meaningful work.

Links mentioned:

• “This is pointless” tweet by @Jackbutcher
• Effortless by Greg McKeown
• The Almanack of Naval Ravikant
• The Kaizen Method (Art of Manliness)
• Zero to One by Peter Thiel
• Colby’s Music Production Checklists (Free)

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Cover art was designed by Elizabeth Newell. Learn more about her work at elizabethnewelldesign.com or on Instagram @elizabethisadesigner.

In this episode of The Craft, Carter and Colby discuss the artist’s journey in relation to the hero’s journey. Their conversation combines Steven Pressfield’s The Artist’s Journey with Joseph Campbell’s theory of the monomyth, which Campbell outlines in his predominant book, The Hero With a Thousand Faces. This juxtaposition considers the comparative mythology of Campbell alongside the potential application of such a theory to creative projects and careers. During the conversation, they consider the necessity of creative descents in producing meaningful work. Additionally, Carter and Colby explore how artists repeatedly oscillate between the abstract and the concrete, using Pressfields’ adaption of Nietzsche as a guide.

Links mentioned:

The Artist’s Journey by Steven Pressfield

Building a Story Brand by Donald Miller

Austin Kleon: The Life of a project

The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell

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Cover art was designed by Elizabeth Newell. Learn more about her work at elizabethnewelldesign.com or on Instagram @elizabethisadesigner.

The summer is often a time that provides more margin for creative projects, reading, and inspiring experiences. Colby and Carter reflect on their creative life this summer, share books they read, creative projects completed, and what they hope to get done in their creative lives over the next six months.

Links mentioned in this episode:

• Deep Work by Cal Newport
• A World Without Email by Cal Newport
• Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport
• Effortless by Greg McKeown
• Inspired by Marty Cagan
• Build by Tony Fadell
• Tony Fadell of iPod, iPhone, and Nest Fame — Stories of Steve Jobs on “Vacation,” Product Design and Team Building… (The Tim Ferris Show)
• Songmaps.co (Deconstructing pop songs for producers and songwriters)
• A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
• Green Hills of Africa by Ernest Hemingway
• Martin Eden by Jack London
• The Valley of the Moon by Jack London
• The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon
• A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway
• Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner
• Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
• Absolom, Absolom! by William Faulkner
• The Road by Cormac McCarthy
• “A River Runs Through It” by Norman Maclean

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Send feedback or topics to [email protected].

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Cover art was designed by Elizabeth Newell. Learn more about her work at elizabethnewelldesign.com or on Instagram @elizabethisadesigner.