Advice from the successful radio host on ‘making independent media. Making it, and making it your job.’

“Two quick points. Not every idea is going to work. Know that going in. Ideas tend to follow the path of least resistance and more often than not that path is the one where you find yourself talking an idea to death, by getting hung up on the ‘what ifs.’ So you need to actively push ideas out and embrace failure. Fail spectacularly whenever possible.

“Secondly, every single person I have ever met or corresponded with about leaving the work-for-hire world and trying to create something of their own, something that they really care about, says exactly the same thing. Win, lose or draw they always express the same thought and most of the time they say it in exactly these words.

“What they say is, ‘I should have done this sooner.’”

“RSS is dead. Blogs are dead. The web is dead. Good. Dead means that they are no longer interesting to the drive-by technorati. Dead means that the curiousity factor has been satisfied, that people have gotten the joke.”

Why we need fiction, and why we pretend.

So if people are naturally creative or not, to what degree does 'encouraging' creativity even work? And do we understand this enough to know what aspects of creativity we are encouraging, or rather I should say: do we know how to encourage the 'good' parts of being creative and not make people into schizophrenics/sociopaths?

Great, of course.

Playful and ironic photos and little installations.

Another one of these "How to Be Productive and Creative" lists, but they're good as inspiration/affirmations.

Cute and well-done.

One of the best episodes ever.

Stressing the importance of actively engaging everything that you take in and the way that you take it in, so you can synthesize and maximize and!

From the guys who brought you the Diet Coke and Mentos experiment.

Ten characteristics of creative people. (Basically, they're a beautiful mess of contradictions.)

"Nick Veasey uses x-ray technology to create mesmerizing and intriguing art. In a world obsessed with superficial appearance it is a refreshing change to be able to look beyond the surface."

"This is the best invention of all and I can’t even hardly believe someone has finally taken the time to invent this. You’ve probably seen this at any local pizzeria located within an audioanimatronic aviary."

"Scenius is like genius, only embedded in a scene rather than in genes. Brian Eno suggested the word to convey the extreme creativity that groups, places or 'scenes' can occasionally generate."

On the "cognitive surplus" we're going through, and how interesting and valuable all this new engagement and experimentation with technology is.

Explanatory stills from (and a link to) the fantastic new Spoon video.

Andy Rutlege on the difference between creativity and self-expression, and the importance of a professional approach to creativity in design.

An interview with Apple's brilliant product designer, who possesses a "fanatical care beyond the obvious stuff."

Andrew Keen's "The Cult of the Amateur" says the internet is destroying culture, but he himself built this book without any of the professional skills he claims are so important. On the Colbert Report, said there was nothing wrong with elitism.

An awesome collective of creative/design types. A great "About" page.

An interview with James Victore. "Yes. I’m afraid of everything. I am. But I do them anyway. This is my dharma. This is what I was meant to do. I just want to do a good job."

Excellent videos!

About creativity, the importance of keeping at it, and "morphological synthesis."

Creative assignments. "You can do any of the assignments, in any order."