Creative Energy and Mac Settings
Hey friends,
It's peak cucumber season! If you have friends with gardens trying to get rid of cucumbers, try making tzatziki sauce!
(For this reason, I will never turn down cucumbers...)
Thinking Too Hard 🤔
I'm still thinking about creativity over here. If creativity starts with a mindset, the follow-through requires creative energy. There have been many moments when I'm in the right mindset but the energy isn't there... Why?
As a kid, I spent hours drawing and dreaming. Creating imaginary space ships, writing terrible comic strips, painting alien landscapes — it felt like I had unlimited creative energy. Fast-forward to my first real design job out of school and creating felt like WORK. I couldn't bring myself to create in my free time. My drawing and painting supplies got stored in boxes that rarely saw the light of day.
I believe that we have a limited energy potential in a single day. Each creative act drains a little from that tank. Your responsibilities? Your job? Your obligations? They all sip up a little of that creative energy. Every email you write, each high-stakes conversation you formulate and respond to, they take energy.
Those things aren't bad, it's what you're paid for, after all, but there are categories of energy sinks that are 'creative parasites'. Things that draw energy without any tangible benefit. Doomscrolling, worry (dwelling on problems you cannot fix), unhelpful internal competition, unrealistic expectations... They can punch holes in that tank.
When I reach that low-energy state I grasp for things that FEEL like they'll help me recharge. Often though, those things further fritter my attention and energy. Mindless algorithm-driven videos, stressful or frustrating video games, vapid entertainment that temporarily soothes but never fills. They're designed to string us out and lead us on but mostly don't offer much in return.
I believe part of creativity is an energy management problem. Creating while adulting highlights this because we have so many things that make demands of us.
So what's drawing your creative energy? Is it providing benefits, or is it a parasite? Is your recharge activity actually recharging you, or subtly scattering your attention? If our energy is a limited resource, what are you doing to protect it?
Interesting Web Bits 🍜
Web Stuff
- Two interests collide! Julia Evans has released a zine on the Secret Rules of the Terminal.
- NNGroup recommends saving scroll position when users are likely to do comparisons in a long list. As someone with thousands of miles of thumb scrolling I can agree it's pretty frustrating to return to the top of a big list.
- Heydon Pickering revisits the Every Layout Sidebar approach with the use of the
:has()selector. - Devon describes some pitfalls in scope hoisting.
- Lydia Cho talks about managing the state of all your promises. This does not include the promise you made to pick up milk at the store.
Other Stuff
- A fascinating look at the history of Mac settings complete with functional emulators embedded into the page, with interactive tasks as you poke around these old interfaces. 🤯
- Not sure how you build a cube of $1 million dollars, and then put too much money in it?
- "If this is a way of living and working that’s available to all of us, why do we fetishize the white-knuckling and pain?" Fame is overrated, creation doesn't have to be misery.