NEXTNESS VISUAL DIARY.

"We should have felt it to be not merely wrong, but unpleasant not to work every morning for seven..."

Fri, 17 May 2013 19:03:59 +1000

“We should have felt it to be not merely wrong, but unpleasant not to work every morning for seven days a week and for about eleven months a year. Every morning, therefore, at about 9:30 after breakfast each of us, as if moved by a law of unquestioned nature, went off and “worked” until lunch at 1. It is surprising how much one can produce in a year, whether of buns or books or pots or pictures, if one works hard and professionally for three and a half hours every day for 330 days.”

- Leonard Woolf, in the fourth volume of his autobiography, quoted in Janet Malcolm’s Forty-One False Starts: Essays on Artists and Writers.
(via somethingchanged)

"…the nicer a corporate office looks, and the more features it offers employees, the less..."

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 04:06:26 +1000

“…the nicer a corporate office looks, and the more features it offers employees, the less likely it is that you’ll ever leave the premises for things as mundane as a well-rounded personal life”

- The PA Report - LucasArts’ eulogy reminds us of the inhuman cost of game development

explore-blog: Betty Friedan, reconstructionist.

Tue, 19 Feb 2013 10:06:49 +1100

explore-blog:

Betty Friedan, reconstructionist.

You’ll Never Forget Your Twenties, Because That’s...

Mon, 21 Jan 2013 09:00:55 +1100

You’ll Never Forget Your Twenties, Because That’s When You Become Who You Are.

Inspired by Choire, Here’s a helpful test to work out if you’re...

Mon, 21 Jan 2013 01:01:38 +1100

Inspired by Choire, Here’s a helpful test to work out if you’re wasting your time.

It used to be so easy to be interesting.

Mon, 10 Dec 2012 05:32:51 +1100

It used to be so easy to be interesting.

“It is the artist’s responsibility to balance mystical communication and the labour of creation.”...

Sat, 01 Dec 2012 02:11:31 +1100

“It is the artist’s responsibility to balance mystical communication and the labour of creation.” Lessons for creatives from Patti Smith.

“Often stepping back you see more, don’t you?” Lessons for creatives from David Hockney.

“There is no ‘properly.’ There’s just how you feel about it.” Lessons for creatives from Keith Richards.

“Being self-conscious doesn’t help you at all when you’re alone and trying to create something new. It does nothing.” Lessons for creatives from Miranda July.

“It never occurred to me that I could be a showrunner and it never occurred to me that I could be a person who was on television.” Lessons for creatives from Lena Dunham.

“And what I did was turn that negative into a positive. I started embracing it like, “Yeah, I’m based.” I made it mine.” Lessons for creatives from the world’s best rappers.

“Hell, no. I can’t fall off my hustle”: lessons for creatives from the world’s biggest rappers. | NEXTNESS

Tue, 20 Nov 2012 02:45:27 +1100

“Hell, no. I can’t fall off my hustle”: lessons for creatives from the world’s biggest rappers. | NEXTNESS

I wrote about being a copywriter over at Nextness

Tue, 06 Nov 2012 02:06:44 +1100

I wrote about being a copywriter over at Nextness

The day after yesterday: the need for brand sensitivity in times of crisis.

Wed, 31 Oct 2012 04:18:39 +1100

The day after yesterday: the need for brand sensitivity in times of crisis.

14 year old Lena Dunham fills out a Millennium survey about the...

Mon, 29 Oct 2012 03:09:45 +1100

14 year old Lena Dunham fills out a Millennium survey about the year 2000. (Lessons for creatives from Lena Dunham.)

“These are all the awful parts of me”: 10 lessons for creatives from Lena Dunham.

Mon, 29 Oct 2012 02:25:59 +1100

“These are all the awful parts of me”: 10 lessons for creatives from Lena Dunham.

WINKY SMILEY COPY ;)

Mon, 08 Oct 2012 16:23:20 +1100

WINKY SMILEY COPY ;)

"We are here to witness the creation and abet it. We are here to notice each thing so each thing gets..."

Wed, 19 Sep 2012 04:30:03 +1000

“

We are here to witness the creation and abet it. We are here to notice each thing so each thing gets noticed. Together we notice not only each mountain shadow and each stone on the beach but, especially, we notice the beautiful faces and complex natures of each other. We are here to bring to consciousness the beauty and power that are around us and to praise the people who are here with us. We witness our generation and our times. We watch the weather. Otherwise, creation would be playing to an empty house.

According to the second law of thermodynamics, things fall apart. Structures disintegrate. Buckminster Fuller hinted at a reason we are here: By creating things, by thinking up new combinations, we counteract this flow of entropy. We make new structures, new wholeness, so the universe comes out even. A shepherd on a hilltop who looks at a mess of stars and thinks, ‘There’s a hunter, a plow, a fish,’ is making mental connections that have as much real force in the universe as the very fires in those stars themselves.

”

- Annie Dillard on the meaning of life (via explore-blog)

Narcissism and personal data: a future of less sleep and more sex.

Wed, 19 Sep 2012 01:04:34 +1000

Narcissism and personal data: a future of less sleep and more sex.

The internet IS real life!

Wed, 22 Aug 2012 04:17:28 +1000

The internet IS real life!

Photo

Mon, 06 Aug 2012 20:24:40 +1000

Getting paid to take the piss out of brands.

Wed, 01 Aug 2012 00:47:35 +1000

Getting paid to take the piss out of brands.

The best of Linkness | Self help edition.

Sat, 30 Jun 2012 01:22:31 +1000

At Nextness, we believe that content doesn’t have to be new to be meaningful. So for the next few weeks, we’re going to go back through more than a year’s worth of Linkness reading round-up posts and pull some out when we think they still have relevance. The first one we’ve named “self-help.” It’s tongue-in-cheek, but as our popular side-project WHY? showed, working in communications and the creative industry can be hard. Here’s our favourite advice for how to get out of a slump.

You’re overworked.

Bring back the 40-hour work week (it’s actually unproductive to work more than that) | Salon.com
Are you as busy as you think? | WSJ.com
“The things that are meant to make you feel more connected today often turn out to be insubstantial time sinks – empty, programmatic encouragements to groom and refine your personality while sitting alone at a screen.” Better | The classic essay by Merlin Mann
The magic of doing one thing at a time | Harvard Business Review
A resolution: saying no to crap | Canalside View

You wonder if you’re good enough.

On doing what scares you: Show me a confident writer, and in all likelihood you will also be showing me work that falls short of originality or greatness | Dani Shapiro
The “urge to be appealing is a terrible encumbrance to the creative spirit” | Schmutzie.com
Declare something “finished.” | The Happiness Project
I am ashamed of my greatest failing-but at last I am beating it | Wrestling Possums
Leo Babauta from Zen Habits’ guide to overcoming self doubt | uncluttered white spaces
Motivational jiu-jitsu: staying positive in the face of negativity and indifference | The 99 Percent
There goes the fear: on feeling it, and doing it anyway | a cat in a tree

You don’t know why you do what you do.

How to do what you love (classic post from 2006) | Paul Graham
How to be happier at work: start something | Harvard Business Review
How to love what you do | Ground Glass
Create a meaningful life through meaningful work | Umair Haque, Harvard Business Review

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alexjcampbell: Taken on Craig Rd in Singapore a few weeks ago

Fri, 15 Jun 2012 01:50:15 +1000

alexjcampbell:

Taken on Craig Rd in Singapore a few weeks ago