Sunday, April 21, 2013

Louis C.K. on Creative Work

An interesting bit on the value of struggle during the creative process from comedian Louis C.K. (from the 4/25/13 Rolling Stone):

"When it's time to write, I have one computer that has no ability to get on the Internet.  Because the ability to just move your finger less than a millimeter and be looking straight into someone's #*$^ or at a new Porsche, or a whole movie - To Kill a Mockingbird, let's just sit here and watch the whole thing! - it's too much.  So if you put a couple of moves between you and that, you've got a fighting chance. 
When I hit a stopping moment in what I'm writing, a moment of agitation - that itch always leads to a brand new thing, to inspiration.  But if you bail out and buy a product online, you're robbing yourself.  It's terrible, so I sit there: "F*ck, f*ck."  The worst thing happening to this generation is that they're taking discomfort away from themselves."

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Lawrence Lessig's Grand Plan to Recover the Republic

Lawrence Lessig does it again with a stunningly compelling call to arms for fixing the growing issues within our government that simply cannot be ignored and must be reformed.

Crazy facts (3:00) :

  • .26% of American gave $200 or more to any federal candidate.
  • .05% gave the maximum amount to any federal candidate.
  • .01% (1% of the 1%) gave $10,000 or more to federal candidates.
  • In the last election cycle, .000042% (that's 132 Americans) gave 60% of the Super PAC money spent.

Something's gotta give...

Hard?  Perhaps.  But what's the alternative?

(then again, maybe it's not so tough... "a single statute... for small dollar-funded elections" (11:30))