1: Steven Kotler was ill. It was the end of the road.
“All I would be from this point forward was a burden to my family and friends,” he writes in The Art of Impossible: A Peak Performance Primer.
“I had a sizable collection of barbiturates in the bathroom, a couple of bottles of whiskey in the kitchen. Suicide became a very real possibility. It was no longer a … continue reading
1: Many people are naturally “Either/or.”
“Either extroverts or introverts, competitive or cooperative, smart or naïve,” Steven Kotler writes in The Art of Impossible: A Peak Performance Primer.
However, people with long-term careers requiring creativity are not built this way.
Creatives are often “Both/and.”
“Creative people show tendencies of thought and action that in most people are segregated,” psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi writes in his masterwork, creativity. “They contain … continue reading
1: Sir Ken Robinson had the opportunity to interview George Lucas.
“Hey, George,” he asked, “why do you keep remaking all those Star Wars movies?”
“In this particular universe,” George responded, “I’m God. And God isn’t satisfied,”
Sir Ken is one of the leading proponents for creativity. “His TED Talk on the subject remains the most watched of all time,” Steven Kotler writes in The Art of Impossible: A Peak … continue reading
1: Author Steven Kotler starts his writing sessions each morning at 4 AM.
Why so early?
“‘Non-time’ is my term for it,” he writes in The Art of Impossible: A Peak Performance Primer: “That vast stretch of emptiness between 4:00 AM, when I start my morning writing session, and 7:30 AM, when the rest of the world wakes up.
“This is non-time, a pitch blackness that belongs to no … continue reading
1: No matter our role or position, the ability to think creatively is a key driver of our success.
This week we are exploring strategies to boost our creativity as outlined by Steven Kotler in his powerful book The Art of Impossible: A Peak Performance Primer.
Yesterday, we looked at the impact our mood has on our creativity. A good mood provides a necessary starting point. A bad … continue reading
1: The answer is simpler than we think.
“When researchers talk about creativity,” Steven Kotler writes in The Art of Impossible: A Peak Performance Primer, “one of the most frequent topics of conversation is the phenomenon is known as insight.”
So what exactly is insight?
“The experience of sudden comprehension,” he writes, “that aha moment when we get a joke, solve a puzzle, or resolve an ambiguous situation.”
The … continue reading
1: Author Steven Kotler has spent over thirty years as a journalist.
One of the job requirements? Become a “semi-expert” on new topics. Fast.
This week we are doing a deep dive into learning.
Over the years, Steven has developed “Five Not-So-Easy Steps” for learning almost anything.
Yesterday, we looked at step one: Read five books.
“Once we’re done reading those five books, our notebooks should be filled with … continue reading
1: “When do I feel like I know enough about a subject to write about that subject for a major magazine or newspaper?” was the question author and journalist Steven Kotler was asked by a college student while riding a mountain biking chairlift in northern New Mexico.
In Steven’s case, he had worked for over a hundred different publications over the past thirty years. He’s covered “everything from hard science … continue reading
1: Nearly a quarter of American adults (23%) haven’t read a book in whole or in part in the past year, whether in print, electronic or audio form, a Pew Research Center found.
“According to the National Endowment for the Arts, most adults spend an average of seven minutes a day reading for pleasure,” Steven Kotler writes in The Art of Impossible: A Peak Performance Primer.
This is bad … continue reading
1: “Consistent peak performance requires constant learning,” Steven Kotler writes in The Art of Impossible: A Peak Performance Primer.
Our goal? Learn how to learn faster.
But how?
“Learning is an invisible skill,” Steven writes. “For the most part, we’re bad until we’re better.”
Of course, we can decide to learn something and then double down and demonstrate the grit and persistence to stay with it.
But how do … continue reading
