Tough Room

This is an old “This American Life” about the writing room at The Onion. I was reminded of it the other day at work. It is an excellent example of the creative process at work and a pretty funny behind-the-scenes look at one of the most consistently funny publications in the country.

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Two Ways to Be Great

As far as I know, there are really two paths to doing great work:

1. Be great at what you do.
2. Surround yourself with people who are great at what they do.

In my experience, most people (but not all) who pick Path #1 end up coming across as prima donnas, douches, and tyrants. People who follow Path #2 (and genuinely try to contribute) seem to have more fun, more opportunities, and produce the best work. Ultimately, they end up in the place the Path #1-ers wanted to be anyway.

Collaboration

Here’s a 9-minute talk from Pixar’s Randy Nelson on collaboration.

He says Pixar runs on two core principles of improv:

1. Accept every offer.

2. Make your partner look good.

Not bad rules for creative teams in an agency either.

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