Every morning when we open our office for work, we take a minute to look at this image of artist Lucio Fontana. We love its enduring message.
Read MoreMultiple Discovery is Not Plagiarism, But a Reflection of How Connected We Secretly Are
Did National Geographic steal the idea for its cover or is it an instance of Multiple Discovery? I’ve experienced it many times…
Read MoreWhy You Should Play: It Sparks Creativity and Invention (Steven Berlin Johnson)
In this mind-boggling little film, Steven Berlin Johnson shows how play and pleasure may be as powerful drivers of invention as necessity.
Read MoreHow to Do Almost Nothing on Memorial Day Weekend
Memorial Day weekend is the real start of summer in our minds. And our minds are full of ideas for simple pleasures and ramblings, whether home or away.
Read MoreAmbient Nature Sounds by Irv Teibel: “Like Experiencing Something Great and Sublime”
On a packed subway train I listened to birdsong and felt myself calming down. This was not just any endless-loop “nature sound” tape. This was Irv Teibel’s artful recording from the 70’s, now available as an app that I can’t live without.
Read MoreOpened at Random: Free Play, Improvisation in Life and Art
This morning, we opened Stephen Nachmanovitch’s Free Play: Improvisation in Life and Art to this…
Read MoreAsk This Simple Question to Disarm Your Self-Critical Inner Voice
We found a lovely, simple way to reframe those big existential questions everyone seems to ask themselves about whether they are enough…
Read More10 Ways to Deepen Conversation + the Crap Advice You Should Forget (Celeste Headlee)
We’ve found employing Celeste Headlee’s 10 principles for having a better conversation really DO take the conversation farther. Here they are, including the Crap Advice she advises you forget.
Read MoreWhere to Go with Hope or Anxiety
A Monument for the Anxious and Hopeful at NYC’s Rubin Museum is a powerful interactive display of visitor’s anxieties and hopes. As is this strategy for navigating them.
Read MoreBegin Anywhere, Ideas Will Come (Lucio Fontana, Gary Snyder)
Every morning, we take a minute to look at this image of artist Lucio Fontana approaching a blank canvas. It offers an essential insight about creative work as does this tiny poem by Gary Snyder.
Read MoreWarren Buffett’s 10-Year Bet Yields Essential Lessons in Investing In Unsettling Times
Warren Buffett’s Annual Letter provides timely counsel for the ordinary investor in our unsettling economic times. We’ve learned a lot from it, especially this year’s.
Read MoreComputer Screens are Hurting Our Eyes; Trees Can Heal Them
Computer vision syndrome is the narrowing of vision that reading off flat screens, handhelds and desktops cause without our even realizing it. Here’s a cure.
Read MoreUse Empathy and Observation to Find Simple Solutions (Mileha Soneji)
Designer Mileha Soneji loves to create innovations that aren’t dependent on technology, like the two she created for her uncle with Parkinson’s using a unique approach we can all employ…
Read MoreWhen I Deleted My News Feed My Day Got Longer and Calmer
Inspired by Farhad Manjoo’s revelatory NY Times article, I deleted the news feed on my phone to see if I could “have what Manjoo was having”: more free time, and a clearer head.
Read MoreBirdsong Radio Wakes You UP in the Best Possible Way
How did we forget about the great birdsong.fm, the site that streams only birdsong. Listening to the music of birds first thing in the morning woke us UP in the best way possible. Our friend Josh Eisen described its mighty effect perfectly..
Read MoreSteven Pinker on How to Live a World We Think is in Dire Straits
We are not alone in feeling that things have never been so bad, that the world is in seriously dire straits. Psychologist Steven Pinker offers some clarifying strategies that shift our view.
Read MoreGet Your Financial Act Together with Mr. Money Mustache
We’ve discovered that, even with our very creative, non-linear artist’s brain, we can learn to manage our financial ecosystem IF we have the right teacher. Here’s a good place to start.
Read MoreSlow Thinking is a Revolutionary Act
During a week away where we forgot to check into Improvised Life’s many social media platforms, we discovered “slow thinking”. It is indeed a radical and transformative act.
Read MoreCapture Ideas on Sticky Notes to Make Them Actionable, Kanban Style
A meeting with Design Technologist Joe Fraga taught me a dead-simple method of capturing ideas and making them organizable AND actionable.
Read MoreWe Found a Way to Be Rich By Doing Almost Nothing
We’ve found novelist Ann Patchett’s Times article My Year of No Shopping to be a potent catalyst for creating wealth.
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