a universal idea executed simply, with an element of play, nostalgia or beauty.

Remember it is much easier to critique than to create

At first you will probably have to work nights and weekends, and make certain sacrifices. But eventually, if you do that thing prolifically and beautifully, you will become known as a person who does that thing prolifically and beautifully.

“If you imitate a person you admire, the best you can possibly hope for is to become a bad imitation of the person you admire. What you need to do instead is to locate the same level of inventiveness as the person you admire, and apply it to a new domain.” If you need to copy, copy precisely what you need, do something new with it, make it your own, and move on.

The opposite of city ideas are “natural ideas”, which account for the big leaps forward and often appear to come from nowhere. These ideas come from nature, solitude, and meditation. They’re less concerned with how the world is, and more with how the world could and should be.

They look at what everyone else is doing, and try to figure out how to apply what they see to their own particular endeavor. These conferences lead to what I call “city ideas”

because mystery is what they don’t understand and what they don’t understand scares them

when I could so easily argue both sides

remember Baz’s advice—beginners strive for the easy Wowww!, while masters seek the more difficult Wowww...

you try to run out ahead of society and look back at it so you can get a better view of it and try to say something about it. But as everything started moving faster, it became harder to run out ahead, and I suddenly had to try to understand things from within

people's behavior is largely influenced by the context in which they live. People who live near a ski slope are more likely to ski