Creative work as an almost spiritual source of pride, set against laziness and consumption.
Where it comes up 11
Within this theme 48
Concepts 10
- The Shadow (Murakami)
In Hard-Boiled Wonderland and The City and Its Uncertain Walls, the separated shadow is the part of the self that reminds you not to lose your passion, creativity and emotions to work.
- Channeling
Receiving information from a source beyond the conscious self, from the Oracle of Delphi to Esther Hicks to musicians who say an album 'came through' them. Tamir and Samantha conclude we…
- Trope-Driven Writing
Logan's critique of young writers who learned storytelling from video games and anime more than literature, then assemble books from trope checklists and even market them that way. The…
- Magical realism
Strange events inserted into recognizable everyday reality rather than a new world; for Salih this is what makes Murakami easy to enter and useful for coping.
- Fusion
Tamir's idea, taken from music remixes, of combining things that 'should not go together' to make something fresh, like an Israeli band playing 1960s-70s Middle Eastern-style music with a…
- Creativity vs Laziness
Grant reframes the human struggle: not good against evil but creativity against laziness, 'the ultimate destroyer', with addiction to consumption as its form.
- Human-made writing as luxury
Tamir's prediction that AI-generated text will be like fast fashion, making handmade human writing a rare luxury, like a tailored suit.
- Perfectionism
Tamir admits waiting until work is perfect; weeks become months become years without output. Grant says get over it: open mics, writing badly every day.
- Genius (ancient concept)
Samantha notes that in antiquity you weren't a genius, your genius came to you: an external spirit that delivered insight. Only later did it become something a person is.
- Pet Rock
A novelty product: a rock in a box with fake grass and care instructions. Colin tells it as the story of a man who ignored everyone calling it stupid and became a multimillionaire by…
Books 5
- Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
The book-club pick that made Tamir think 'I didn't know a book could do that to me' and pulled him into fiction.
- Killing Commendatore
Salih's entry into Murakami: on his 30th birthday in April 2018 he opened it in a bookstore and recognized his own wish to flee the city and paint, then finished it in three or four days…
- Creative Dreaming
A dream-control book Tamir picked up at a random used bookstore in California. He hasn't fully read it, but reads its back cover's big promises: lovemaking with a partner of your choice…
- The Dark Forest
Second book of the Three-Body trilogy. Tamir's favorite example of fusion: it opens like a romance, with a writer inventing and falling for his ideal woman, then turns into an existential…
- The Alexandria Quartet
Four novels (Justine, Balthazar, Mountolive, Clea); Grant's example of a work so inspired it intimidates him as a writer.
People 5
- Haruki Murakami
Japanese novelist and one of Tamir's favourite authors, who brought him back to fiction. Grant thinks he is wildly overrated, 'the Stephen King of Japanese literature', and dislikes his…
- Salih Yayar
German Murakami devotee (a self-described 'Murakamian') from Gütersloh who runs the Haruki Murakami Art YouTube and Instagram channels (mini-documentaries visualizing Murakami's books)…
- Dante Alighieri
Tamir points to statues of Dante in Florence as evidence that Italian culture honored poets and artists alongside warriors, a multifaceted ideal of manhood.
- Liu Cixin
Chinese sci-fi author of The Three-Body Problem trilogy, who blessed the fan-written fourth book The Redemption of Time.
- Lawrence Durrell
British author of The Alexandria Quartet, a work Grant finds so inspired he doubts he could ever write anything like it.
Quotes 6
At the end of the day it's kind of like a paint by numbers. You're creating this picture, but it doesn't really have your signature on it.
The shadow is something that reminds you to not lose yourself into work, losing your passion and creativity, losing your emotions.
Who are we if we don't have any creativity or emotions inside our heads?
Maybe that's it: it's not a battle between good and evil, it's a battle between creativity and laziness.
I read books with such awe. I'm like, wow, I don't even know how you came up with this stuff. I'm just impressed that you were able to put a book together.
Some new product comes along and you go, I thought of that 10 years ago. Yeah, but what did you do about it?
Insights 5
- Don't trade your emotions for work
Murakami's own life (writing, running, an unscheduled rest of the day) embodies the shadow's message: never lose your creativity or emotions to work; do what you love.
- We are all conduits
Inspiration and insight seem to 'come through' us, as musicians and the ancient idea of the genius suggest. Either we all are conduits or none of us are, whether the source is the depths of…
- Creating is joy; the rest drains it
For Grant the joy is in writing; editing, formatting and submitting tap out the initial fire, so the temptation is always to start something new.
- Creation is close to spiritual
Like a child proudly bringing home a finger painting, making something through time, effort, concentration and persistence brings a pride that is almost spiritual.
- The work behind the idea makes it
Everyone has great ideas, and Gates didn't even invent DOS. What separates success from 'I thought of that ten years ago' is the work you put behind the idea.
Practices 6
- Ask your dreams a question
Before sleep, describe a problem to your dreamer self in detail ('my problem with my business is this; help me see it another way') and set an intention to receive an answer. Asking…
- Build handmade anthologies
How Tyler made Men, Women and Other Adventures for Tamir.
- Go to an open mic
To get over perfectionism, go to amateur poetry readings or sign up for an open mic, read whatever you can, and listen to others who try and are proud of their efforts.
- Murakami's daily routine
Murakami wakes around 4 a.m., writes for several hours, then runs; the rest of the day is unscheduled, and he goes to bed by 8 or 9 p.m.
- Read a lot, write a lot, find your signature
Logan's main advice to young writers: read far more than you do now, especially literature rather than only games and anime, and write a lot. There are only so many stories, so don't chase…
- Write immediately after a strange experience
Tyler wrote his ghost-horse story for three hours straight after losing the tracks, and barely changed it.
Stories 8
- Petrol's origin in Logan's own fear
Peter Riley's starting point, the terror of an ordinary nine-to-five life and the sense of being destined for more, came from Logan at 19. He now calls that view naive, though it felt very…
- Salih finds Killing Commendatore at 30
In April 2018, stressed and just past 30 after years of rushed business travel, Salih used a birthday bookstore voucher from his family. On a bright spring day he opened the prominently…
- The handmade anthology
When Tyler loves a short story, he cuts it from the spine of its book with a carpenter's knife and rebinds his favorites with Bible onion-skin paper, which acts like book glue. He built a…
- Building a channel from old hard drives
Drawings online weren't enough for Salih, a visual person frustrated that so few Murakami novels have been filmed. He went through years of his own footage on his hard drives, combined it…
- Murakami's epiphany at the ballpark
Tamir retells how Murakami, who ran a jazz bar with his wife, had a flash of inspiration at 30 while watching his favorite (and long-losing) baseball team, which went on to win the league…
- The unplanned podcast studio
Ian points out that Tamir never planned the studio they're sitting in. He followed an impulse to set up an office and studio, and it became the most booked-out studio in the city. Tamir…
- Writing the stallion story in one sitting
Tyler walked straight from the forest where he lost the horse's trail back to the cabin and wrote for three hours, something he had never done before. He barely revised it, and everything…
- Film scripts in a Word document
Grant's film scripts were his most purely imaginative work. He entered them in a screenwriting competition, accepted all the feedback when they didn't win, and they now sit in a Word…
Films, music and art 3
- The Lord of the Rings
Source of Gollum, the figure Ian used to personify his grasping, needy shadow.
- Col Gerrard music
Colin has gone back to making music and releases it on Spotify as Col Gerrard. He describes winning over the industry slowly, 'bit by bit'.
- Israeli band with a Japanese singer
Tamir mentions a new Israeli band playing 1960s-70s Middle Eastern-style music that made a whole album with a Japanese singer. He gives it as a musical example of fusion: two things you'd…