That One Brutal Question Everyone Asks

That One Brutal Question Everyone Asks

Over the years, I’ve put out a lot of creative work: three books, five business ventures, a PhD dissertation, tons of paintings and digital art, university courses, countless articles, interviews, websites, blog posts, etc. On and on. Yet despite this output, I’ve been plagued with a question for as long as I can remember. It’s […]

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I’m Going to Write a Bunch of Articles to Promote My New Book, if You Don’t Steal Them First

I’m Going to Write a Bunch of Articles to Promote My New Book, if You Don’t Steal Them First

When I worked as a sales guy for the now-defunct Canadian retail chain Future Shop, my colleagues and I were constantly at each other’s throats for “scooping” customers. It was survival of the fittest — a limited number of sales to go around on any given day. In that environment, lack of ethics was a […]

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Doing away with Okay in Writing (and Life)

Doing away with Okay in Writing (and Life)

I cracked the psychology of a character in my forthcoming novella Clickbait today. This guy, Bryan, has been just kind of sitting there, nestled in between the book’s other 5 characters, being a bit of a bore. He wasn’t really on my radar because his story just kind of fit with everything else without being […]

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The Thing We Get Wrong about Resolutions (and How to Fix It)

The Thing We Get Wrong about Resolutions (and How to Fix It)

If you’re over 25 and you’ve never failed on a New Year’s resolution then you can probably disregard this post and revel in your mastery of life. If, however, you’ve gotten to that cynical point so many people do, and begun to suspect *gasp* that New Year’s resolutions are all a sham, please allow me […]

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Archillect: When Data Comes to Life

Archillect: When Data Comes to Life

Last week I interviewed Murat Pak, the creator of @Archillect, an artificial (or synthetic) intelligence that curates online images. As people’s reactions started to pour in, one pattern above all caught my eye. Certain people were stunned when they realized for the first time that their favourite curator of beautiful, inspiring images was not, in […]

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Murat Pak: Designing the Mind of an Online Curator

Murat Pak: Designing the Mind of an Online Curator

Each day Archillect peruses her favourite sites for new images that she thinks her 160K followers will appreciate, and the sheer size of her fan base suggests she’s very good at what she does. A quick glance at her Twitter or Facebook feeds shows a keen eye for stark, striking images and a remarkable breadth […]

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The Morning Purge… I Mean Pages

The Morning Purge… I Mean Pages

I’ve been working through a great book called The Artist’s Way for about five months now, which provides a self-directed course on breaking through artistic blocks and cultivating creativity. One of the most useful ideas is the “morning pages,” which consist of a daily, three-page word dump, wherein you write out anything and everything that […]

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