Chapter 5
Creativity and Productivity
Creativity and productivity: making new stuff and getting work done go hand-in-hand. You can even use your creativity to make stuff that will help you get work done more productively (Hack 28, “Turn a Job Into a Game,” and Hack 29, “Scrumble for Glory”). The worker and the artist should be friends.
That said, because there are already so many productivity tips in Chapter 4, “Time Management,” this chapter tilts a bit toward the creativity side. You'll learn how to write a revolutionary manifesto for fun and prophecy (Hack 25, “Manifest Yourself”), find inspiration from the past (Hack 30, “Salvage a Vintage Hack”) and from possible futures (Hack 31, “Mine the Future”), dare to be creative (Hack 34, “Don't Know What You're Doing”), and why it's OK if the result is weird (Hack 26, “Woo the Muse of the Odd”) or even downright bad (Hack 27, “Seek Bad Examples,” and Hack 33, “Make Happy Mistakes”).
We had a lot of fun with this chapter. It's hard to be creative without having fun, so we hope you have at least as much fun with these hacks, and we hope you'll import some of that creative zest to wherever you need to get work done.
Hack 25: Manifest Yourself
Writing a manifesto—yes, like the Communist Manifesto, the Cluetrain Manifesto, or the Surrealist Manifesto—can crystallize your intentions about a creative project and light its fuse. Stop trying so hard to be cool, and get fired up.
A manifesto is a person or group's statement of their philosophy, ...
