The day Salvador Dalí refused to pick a job
In 1957, the famous surrealist artist Salvador Dalí appeared on the American TV game show What’s My Line? The premise of the show was simple. A panel asked Yes or No questions to guess a guest’s profession. Usually, it took minutes. Jobs were tidy back then. You were a lawyer, a doctor, a writer and an actor. Dalí broke the game almost immediately.
Why asking ‘why’ can backfire and block creativity and connection
At university and during my early years as a cadet journalist, I was taught one golden rule: always ask why. ‘Why’ was the magic word. It sought deeper answers, sparked emotion, and gave you quotes that leapt off the page.
The web we forget to weave: Lessons from Charlotte, creativity, and my rebel mother-in-law
My beautiful mother-in-law recently gave my daughter a copy of Charlotte’s Web, a book she read as a child herself, and then read to the hundreds of young school children who passed through her classrooms over the years. Lovely and sentimental, right? But the real gold wasn’t the book, it was the handwritten card tucked inside.
Hands down: Why your best ideas start in your fingers
I have two favourite movies, Rocky and Beaches. Don’t judge me. They’re classics in my book, and I won’t waste time convincing you otherwise. In Beaches, there’s a scene that gets everyone right in the emotional feels. The mum is on the beach (fitting, right?) and her daughter runs over, saying, “Mum, look, we have the same hands.”
Forget “to err is human”, I say “to be human is to create”
“Relax!” the masseur gently, but firmly, whispers while lodging an elbow somewhere I didn’t know existed. I get a remedial massage every month, and every time I drive my WWE-wannabe masseur crazy by being too tense. And of course, when someone tells you to “relax” that’s the last thing you do.