Quotes from Ignore Everybody by Hugh MacLeod
Saturday, February 15, 2014 at 06:34AM
I've been a fan of Hugh MacLeod's Gaping Void blog and cartoons for many years, so I knew I'd enjoy his book Ignore Everybody: And 39 Other Keys to Creativity. Here are a few quotes that resonated with me.
The more original your idea is, the less good advice other people will be able to give you.
… a big idea will change you. Your friends may love you, but they may not want you to change. If you change, then their dynamic with you also changes. They might prefer things the way they are, that’s how they love you - the way you are, not the way you may become.
GOOD IDEAS ALTER THE POWER BALANCE IN RELATIONSHIPS. THAT’S WHY GOOD IDEAS ARE ALWAYS INITIALLY RESISTED.
That’s the thing about publishers. They want 110 percent from you, but they don’t offer to do likewise in return. To them, the artist is just one more noodle in a big bowl of pasta.
Everyone is born creative; everyone is given a box of crayons in kindergarten. Then when you hit puberty they take the crayons away and replace them with dry, uninspiring books on algebra, history, etc. Being suddenly hit years later with the ‘creative bug” is just a wee voice telling you, “I’d like my crayons back, please.”
If you’re creative, if you can think independently, if you can articulate passion, if you can override the fear of being wrong, then your company needs you now more than it ever did. And now your company can no longer afford to pretend that isn’t the case.
There’s no correlation between creativity and equipment ownership. … as the artist … gets more successful, the number of tools tends to go down. She knows what works for her.
We thought being talented would save our asses. We thought working late and on weekends would save our asses. Nope. … In order to navigate the New Realities you have to be creative - not just within your particular profession, but in everything. … this is true for everybody. Janitors, receptionists, and bus drivers, too. The game has just been ratcheted up a notch.
Anyone can be an idealist. Anyone can be a cynic. The hard part lies somewhere in the middle - that is, being human.
Yes, anything worth doing takes a lot of practice. Adventures included.
Reader Comments (2)
Doug,
I loved the quote "We thought being talented would save our asses. We thought working late and on weekends would save our asses. Nope. … In order to navigate the New Realities you have to be creative - not just within your particular profession, but in everything. … this is true for everybody. Janitors, receptionists, and bus drivers, too. The game has just been ratcheted up a notch.".
I have just read an article by Marc Prensky on adopting/adapting technology for the classroom. We really do need to think outside the box, to be creative, in our use of tech. By sharing ideas and experimenting for ourselves we can really move forwards.
Thanks, Jennifer. I appreciate the link. Prensky's thoughts resemble the SAMR model our district has adopted.
Doug