The da Vinci Delay

“How to Procrastinate Like Leonardo da Vinci”:

If there is one conclusion to be drawn from the life of Leonardo, it is that procrastination reveals the things at which we are most gifted — the things we truly want to do. Procrastination is a calling away from something that we do against our desires toward something that we do for pleasure, in that joyful state of self-forgetful inspiration that we call genius.

From the February 20 Chronicle of Higher Education

Somewhat related: Elizabeth Gilbert’s excellent TED talk, “A different way to think about creative genius“

Merlin Mann on Patterns

Merlin Mann’s talk at the recent MacWorld conference, “Toward Patterns for Creativity“, hits on several ideas and questions that I’ve been struggling with for a while, in various contexts.

How do we do things? Where do we get stuck? Is creativity something magical, or can we tease out some method/pattern/framework that can help guide and facilitate this sort of work?

There is his usual dry, geek-centric humor, with some useful and relevant self-reflection from this famed (now reformed?) purveyor of Productivity Porn.