He recently found a way to blend them together by volunteering to take photos of local tennis clubs and tournaments.

He could probably get paid a small fee, of course, but then he would be taking on a client. He would feel obligated to take on their suggestions.

Instead, he’s giving his time and energy as a gift. In exchange, he gets the freedom to practice his craft how he likes.

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For different reasons, OpenAI also shut down its video model Sora, even after its viral campaign mimicking Studio Ghibli’s signature images and signing a billion-dollar deal with Disney, because it wasn’t financially viable.

These are just a couple of bets that OpenAI have folded on. It has many other irons in the fire. There’s ChatGPT and Codex. 

There’s also the multi-billion dollar acquisition of Jony Ive’s io, to make a hardware product.

There’s the multi-hundred-billion dollar bet on Stargate, which it partnered with a bunch of other tech companies on. Both of them are running into headwinds; the day before I typed this, Apple is suing OpenAI for stealing trade secrets, and they seem to be having trouble executing on Stargate.

A couple of months ago, I read a phrase in an article about Stargate that caught my eye, “From core technology to partnerships, the company places overlapping bets and abandons all but the most expedient. The approach owes much to chief executive Sam Altman’s ‘venture mindset’, said one person close to the company.” 

I used the word “Bets” earlier, and I like the phrase, “Venture mindset.” It reminds me of all the products that companies like Amazon and Google discontinued, as well as the idea of small bets (though OpenAI’s are not so small). These products are effectively livestock; OpenAI starts or acquires many of them, and only sustains the ones with the most momentum.

OpenAI is often compared with Anthropic, which I see as much more focused. I don’t know Anthropic for much more than Claude, Claude Code, and Claude CoWork, as well as more recently Mythos and Fable. It’s pulling ahead on enterprise sales. It’s renting space from SpaceX instead of building its own. I’m sure there are setbacks, of course, but publicity for Anthropic seems more tightly buttoned up.

The paradigms driving these two director competitors feel different. It’ll be interesting to see how things turn out.

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For example, when I showed a friend an early version of The Consistency Journal, he noticed that the paper was rougher than he was used to. His favorite notebooks, from Kokuyo, had smooth paper.

Even though I’d published Creative Doing already, I’d never really paid much attention to the paper. Now that my customers would be the ones writing in the book, I needed to make sure the paper encouraged them to keep coming back.

Another occasion, also paper related: as I prepared to ship the first copy out, I also wanted to write a thank you note. I must have walked by Laywine’s dozens of times; I finally had a good reason to visit. I stepped out with my first purchase of Original Crown Mill. 

I also saw AJOTO’s 10th anniversary poster hanging on the wall at Laywine’s, which reminded me of In the Air, on the Ground, under the Sea by Drawing Architecture Studio (which I spent over an hour with). I learned about another detail, that the poster was made by screen printing nine colors. (More details here.)

Now, when I shop for notebooks, I appreciate all the details as well. In getting to know the product better, there is a sense of the magic fading away. The enthusiasm is still there though, and with the new expertise, the relationship is much deeper than before. 

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In the release notes, you’ll find a 10-page original manga, hand drawn by graphic designer Melanie Schmidt. She writes, “Every line was refined digitally before I switched to analogue for the shading, because apparently I enjoy making my life unnecessarily difficult.”

Going beyond requirements is a gamble. While it can feel tough in the moment, you’ll at least have a three dimensional business card you can point to. And sometimes, like this time, it really works. 

Remember, as Hank Green says, “You aren’t just working on the thing you’re making right now, you’re also working on everything you will ever make in the future.” The reward for doing this work well is more of this type of work.

If you’re a manager, giving your team the freedom to be extra creative is a very simple way to make them feel fulfilled and to get some extra attention for the business.

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Each of these projects are special to someone; and each of those people need to accept the rejection of that project, in order to harness their energy and focus it on a few key projects. That’s creative focus: you’ll know you’re doing it right when it hurts.

A few of these projects are experiments. Many of these projects make up the foundation of Apple’s product portfolio. 

Balancing this is the art of creative focus. (Someone recently wrote about Figma’s product strategy.)

For me, after having dealt with (and still working through) many creative fevers, I think my brain is finally starting to appreciate the power of creative focus.

You’ll never have enough time and energy to work on every single idea you’re inspired by. Plus, even if you did (and you won’t), you wouldn’t enjoy it because you wouldn’t be able to put enough of yourself into each one. 

The process of exploring and choosing the ideas to focus on is, also, its own art. Will Larson wrote a great line about this, “Leadership is getting to the correct place quickly, it’s not necessarily about walking in the straightest line. Gleefully skipping down a haphazard path is often faster than purposeful trudging.”

Creative focus, which leads to creative abundance, starts with prioritizing. In deciding you can’t do everything, you can do anything. 

Creative focus starts with asking yourself, “What if that’s what it takes?” 

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Creative Doing was an experiment. I started interesting conversations with it. While I continue to promote it, it’s transitioned into being a part of my foundation. I’m making more experiments with the raw materials from it, including my speech at CreativeMornings and using it to connect with readers and discover new challenges.

My business writing services are a key part of my foundation. I’ve built a marketing career with them, including working full-time at Figma, and I can serve clients with these skills. It helps pay the bills. 

“Improving your foundation always pays off. And being bold with your experimental list is easier once you call it an experiment,” Seth Godin writes.

This blog is a practice that energizes both my foundation and experiments. Viewed from a different lens, it’s both; every day, I reinforce my writing skills and reinvigorate my energy, and I also publish a new, very small, experiment.

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This passage came to mind to me today as I went to renew my Canadian passport just outside of downtown Toronto. I usually walk, but today I took a streetcar. I enjoyed the sights and sounds and being a part of the commute; it was a highlight of the day. It’s a pretty literal application of the saying, “The journey is the destination.”

Along the ride, I found my mind contemplating all sorts of different ideas and memories. It was very energizing from a creative perspective.

The way Shahnaz describes the bus reminds me of how streetwear fans learn to appreciate being in line.

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Inverting this is useful: only buy things you need, with money you have, to impress people you like. Remember, anything you don’t buy, treat it like a 100% off discount.

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It can be brief, like being the only person not drinking at a party because you want to wake up without a hangover. When your friends all egg each other on, and you decline and say, “I’m not drinking tonight,” or “I don’t drink,” expect peer pressure.

It can involve a different multi-year commitment, like renting a property when most of the people you know have taken on a mortgage because you like the flexibility and want to do something else with the cash.

It can mean resetting an expectation for yourself, because life has asked something different of you. This often comes in the form of a setback. Maybe your friends all got offered jobs and you didn’t, or you experienced an injury and need time to heal.

If there was an opposite to peer pressure, it’s self approval. If you want to get better at dealing with peer pressure, and living a life that’s real to you, figuring out how to earn your own approval—and being accountable to yourself, showing pride when you behave in line with your values even if you look silly to your friends—is a step in the right direction.

Moving in line with self approval doesn’t necessarily get easier, but like everything else, you improve with practice. You also feel the early wins, which make practicing more rewarding. Giving into peer pressure feels gratifying in the moment, but usually worse over time.

The more people you try to impress, the less yourself you can be. Impress as few people as possible.

When you cave into peer pressure, you condition your friends to push you; when you align with self approval, you condition your friends to respect you. You may lose some friends along the way.

The people you want around you are the ones who want you to win at being you, and aren’t afraid to win at being themselves.

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In writing this one, I came up with the phrase “creative stupidity,” which was a riff on “productively stupid,” that has caught my attention. 

If you’re not feeling creatively stupid every so often—as well as experiencing the self-doubt that comes with it—then you’re not taking enough risk in your work. Developing a tolerance for difficult emotions is part of getting better at your craft.

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