You can't use up creativity
“Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.” - Vincent Van Gogh
Introduction
Happy Friday, friends. This week, I’m focusing on sharing ideas and tools that will help stir your creative juices.
10 Things Worth Sharing
Teacherbot.io - As the AI wars in education continue, I came across a new tool called Teacherbot. This one is geared towards teachers and planning classroom activities. Using a combination of Teacherbot, Midjourney, and D-ID, I generated this video to share with a group of 3rd graders the basic steps in developing a mobile app. I shared the process on Twitter, and you can check the thread below:
If you need some artistic inspiration for a great story, I’d recommend checking out The Charles Dickens Illustrated Gallery
Speaking of Dickens, I just finished up a great audio dramatization of Oliver Twist featuring Succession’s Brian Cox as Fagin. Brilliant work by all, and the production is spectacular. Whenever I listen to an audio production like this, I think about old-time radio productions and all the work that goes into creating the “theatre of the mind” and how students can create something similar. I had a conversation this week with one of my teachers about her 3rd graders starting a class podcast, which is a great project. Audio creation has a far lower barrier to entry than video production and, in some ways, is ever so much cooler. What could your students create as a podcast or audio program?
I’m playing around with another AI tool, this one specifically for creating presentations. Tome has a few pre-made templates, but you can also enter a topic, and it will generate text and images for each slide. It’s free to try right now. (They just launched EDU accounts here.)
To be creative, you have to accept that you will make mistakes. It’s all part of the experience. Seth Godin reminds us that there are no stupid mistakes.
Here’s a cool way to kickstart your ideas: writing a bedtime story with AI. I tried this out myself, thinking about my own kiddo’s struggle with a fear of dogs. Here’s the story.
It’s been 40 years since Apple’s great exercise in
futilitycreativity, the Lisa. Take a look at the computer that brought graphical user interfaces to everyone.
Here are some good conversations with legendary music producer Rick Rubin, first with Tyler Cowen and then with Tim Ferriss.
Check out Jonathan Mehring’s short documentary Walls Cannot Keep Us From Flying, about two young Palestinians who have found freedom in skateboarding.
What do I feel when I skate? What do I imagine? I imagine there’s no occupation, there’s no wall. I feel freedom.
With every new trick, it’s like you become aware of a new life, new ideas. It’s not something that I can describe, it’s something you feel in your heart. It’s like when something has been missing and you’re looking for it and slowly you find it.
RIP David Crosby. Here’s a good read on Crosby’s creativity, why he and Graham Nash couldn’t get along, and another on his 10 greatest recordings.
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