July 21, 2025

🦋 Smash that butterfly

Time to take that idea and turn it into something tangible.

Hello! This is issue #1 of Note to Self by Gina Trapani. I'm a recovering achiever writing about creativity over productivity. Once a month I round up the 10 best posts from my blog Note to Self in this newsletter.

1. Blogging is fun, so I’ve started again. Winnie the Pooh said, “I always get to where I am going by walking away from where I have been.” What I’m doing here now has a lot to do with where I have been.
2. What's the blog about? Creativity over productivity is the most succinct way to describe how I'm reprioritizing my life's work as I kick off my second half.
3. Author Ann Patchett describes whatever idea she has for her next book as a beautiful, wild butterfly that flutters around her mind. To write it, she has to smash the butterfly onto her desk to pin it down into a flat, broken, poorly-reassembled version of itself. Making Note to Self felt like this.
4. Sarah Snook discusses bringing The Picture of Dorian Gray to Broadway: "One thing the director said on the first day of rehearsals was: you can only eat an elephant one spoonful at a time. I was like, okay yeah sure. I’ll do it that way. Now I’ve got to eat the Broadway part of the elephant." Snook won the Tony Award for Best Leading Actress for her performance in the one-woman show, in which she plays 26 characters. Here’s my review.
5. Erika Hall painted a truckload of delightful chicken portraits while she was supposed to be writing a book. The work one does while avoiding something else is some of the best work.
6. I started lifting weights about 6 months ago as a complete beginner. On a few occasions I’ve had to miss a week or two. Every time, I was sure I lost all my progress and was starting again from scratch. I was wrong. When it comes to strength training, you get stronger after a break.
7. Reminder: "Chatbots–LLMs–are not designed to be able to accurately answer factual questions. They are designed to find and mimic patterns of words, probabilistically. When they’re 'right' it’s because correct things are often written down, so those patterns are frequent. That’s all."
8. Jo Hay's series of portraits with the wonderful name Persisters are stunning. Looking at any one of them feels like making eye contact with a wise old friend.
9. Martha Beck: "Your true self is intensely interested in your real life’s work—but it could give a rat’s ass about anything else. When you pursue a career that pulls you away from your true self, your talent and enthusiasm will quit on you like a bored intern." I’ll forever think about my talent, enthusiasm, and energy like interns I can give interesting work they’ll enjoy and grow doing, or anything else that will make them quit on me.
10. "The trick to being truly creative is to be completely unselfconscious. To resist the urge to self-censor. To not-give-a-shit what anybody thinks. That’s why children are so good at it. And why people with Volkswagens, and mortgages, Personal Equity Plans and matching Louis Vuitton luggage are not." Every few years I revisit Linds Reddings' viral essay on creativity and his life in advertising and it takes my breath away.

Thanks for reading. I'd love to hear from you. Reply to this email to let me know what you think.

– Gina