Serendipity and Learning

 Found this gem in Lyndon Cerejos - Being Designerly newsletter. That is Stephen Fry reading Nick Caves letter on the creative process and ChatGPT.  Worth every second of those 4 minutes. 

Somebody recommended this book somewhere and as I am wont to do, I bought it. I am a sucker for books on creativity. Especially if it is recommended. By someone I know. Or dont. Or on Amazon. Thus it is that I have a collection of books on Creativity.  Helps that somewhere along the way, I self identify as a creative person. And over the years, I have in my own way understood creativity.  Helps also that I conduct creativity workshops and thus have an insight into creativity.  All said and done, I picked up Rick Rubins book -The creative act. I had no idea who Rick Rubin was - I forgot to google- this was an impulse buy remember. Turns out that he is a creative musician (yes, the book has a lot of references to music).  So, done with all the backstory. Lets get to the book. The book is a master piece of writing on the creative process. Hands down the best book I have ever read that captures the creative process (if you call it capturing, because the whole point of th...

 In a recent train travel, the coffee vendor was saying "If you dont like the taste of the coffee, dont pay, pay only if you like it". And in the return journey, I heard the same thing. Turned out, it wasnt the same vendor,  it was something that the agency running the catering for the train had figured.  Food in Indian trains has never been great. Indeed, bereft of all nostalgia, food has been pathetic. Sure, there are exceptions in some trains, at some railway stations, but it has mostly been low quality. Now if you need to people to try it, there has to be a hook - hence this one.  Cut to the sandwich seller. The vendor (all catering staff) came with the sandwich and repeated the same spiel. And he actually waited till someone tasted one sandwich, said the taste was good before accepting payment. He did that for the dhokla as well.  And he did not stop at that. The bag had a few rose petals on it as well. Mind you this was an evening train. And he said, well,...