Three Pillars of Creation = Experience + Trends + Intuition

Experience

There really is no substitute for experience. It is a hard-won reference for everything that we do. In fact, every new thing that we learn is born from the womb of our experience. It colors everything we know and do, and there is no way around that.

90% of the email answers I give are to “just make stuff” What we all need is more experience, and the only way to get that is to just do it.

Trends

Trends are an important ingredient in the recipe of creation. Through being aware of trends we have the ability borrow against the collective knowledge and insight of the rest of the world. If a piece of knowledge is solid enough to make it into the general lexicon, we can cautiously assume that the idea has been tested and tried and remains sound overall.

Having said that, be weary of trends. Things are not always popular because they are good ideas. Use your experience and intuition to validate trends. Doing something just because everyone else is, is never a good idea. Have a reason. Always.

Intuition

As new parents in the hospital, my wife and I franticly asked the nurses and doctors about every little detail of infant care. I was so freaked out by this little pink batch of skin and bone that was now my responsibility. Eventually the response came to be “Listen, calm down. Just trust your instincts, you’ll be alright.”

Human intuition is a powerful thing, often when we are creating we make a choice simply because it feels right.

I’m sure you’ve had the experience of having to explain a choice that you made because it just made sense. And now that you are using language to explain it, you see how really brilliant you were in making it. Those are fun moments.

Conclusion

Understanding these pillars – these input sources of creation – will better help us to demystify the act of creation itself. To be a successful creator in the long run we must ever be gathering experience, observing trends, and trusting our intuition.