In other's words: Elizabeth Gilbert

I've been meaning to post this little gem for quite some time now.   What I love the most is how valiantly and sincerely Elizabeth talks about genius spirits and the incredible notion that our creativity may be coming from a source outside ourselves.  It is a very brave speech and she somehow pulls it off without sounding New Age-y or Eccentric Artist-y.   I am very thankful for this woman and her honesty.

In other's words: Walter Russell

In 1953, author Glenn Clark wrote a book describing a man who he claimed to have found the secret to life and living.   The book is titled The Man Who Tapped the Secrets of the Universe, and it is very short but very rich.   I read it for the first time about a year ago and just recently returned to it.   It always helps me feel reinvigorated and purposeful.   It is always a relief to find just one person whom I can consider a wise and worthy forerunner.

I really love how Walter Russell talks about using time, productivity and his personal experience of "living five lifetimes at once."  I am constantly tormented by the feeling that I am not living to my fullest potential.  I have this incessant itch to be better, do better, do more.  Walter's lifestyle demonstrates that I don't need to be tormented by this; instead, I can simply take action and just do everything I want to do. 

You can read the entire work here.

In other's words: Murray Gell-Mann

 

Listening to a speech by a Nobel Prize winner in Physics was the last place I expected to be inspired as a designer, but there was this one phrase:

"A theory appears to be beautiful or elegant (or simple if you prefer) when it can be expressed concisely in terms of mathematics we already have."

...in terms of mathematics we already have.  I think this is really significant.  I can't quite put it together yet, but here's what I have discovered:  the better solution is always ridiculously simple and once you reach the best solution, you will realize that you knew it all along.    I suspect it has something to do with returning to your source of inspiration.

That seems to be all that I can articulate at the moment, but I promise that I will return to these topics of  beauty and simplicity, since to me they are interchangeable and essential for the creative process.