Welcome to the Creative Algorithm: a newsletter about procrastination, perfectionism, impostor syndrome, and how to create more, better, different

S01E01: 💀 Deadlines, 👻 Professional Prompts, and a👺Post-Mortem Wasteland

Apr 4, 2023

Creativity is the act of connecting things in exceptional ways. —Jason Theodor

👋 Hello, createors*!

Welcome to the inaugural edition of The Creative Algorithm! Let’s not waste any time, and dive right into it.

What is The Creative Algorithm? Well, since I profess that “creativity is the act of connecting things in exceptional ways,” then the algorithm is derived from its three core operators: action, connection, and exception.

Action demands you to do more (+).

Connection asks you to think better (>).

Exception requires you to be different (≠).

That’s it! If you can follow this (simple yet difficult) formula of “more better different,” you’re well on your way to unlocking your creative abilities.

And that’s the purpose of this newsletter: to provide you with a continuous string of keys until you pop those locks. I expect this communication to evolve, as all things do, but for now, there will be three distinct sections, each relating to an ‘operator’ (+, >, and ≠) of the creative algorithm. I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I enjoy putting it together!

+ More Deadlines

How Fake Fear Can Motivate You To Get More Done

https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff77e6d81-8685-48e7-93fa-b168fcc676b7_960x720.png — prompt by Jason Theodor, image by Midjourney V5

Like many of you, I don’t reach my full creative potential as often as I’d like. This is due to a perpetual propensity to follow shiny new objects. There are an infinite number of things to watch, to read, to scroll, to respond to. But there’s one trick that always works to snap me back into focus, even if only for a brief period of time: a deadline.

Deadlines are a powerful tool in the creative process and the fight against procrastination. They create urgency, focus, and accountability. They force us to prioritize, make decisions, and take action. Deadlines are the difference between having an idea and having a finished product.

💀 Etymology Exploration

The term "deadline" has evolved significantly since its inception. Confederate army officer Henry Wirz first coined the term in 1864 during the American Civil War. He established a physical boundary called a "dead line" around a prison camp, and anyone caught on the wrong side was shot on sight. The term encapsulated the very real consequences of crossing this make-up boundary.

By the 1920s, journalists and content marketers adopted the word "deadline" in a hyperbolic sense. Their publishing schedules made them feel as if their lives were on the line, hence the use of the term. Today, the word has expanded beyond journalism and is ingrained in various fields as a crucial tool to drive productivity and creativity. While its original context has faded, the motivation behind deadlines remains a powerful force in achieving goals and reaching the end of a project.

🍅 Your own personal tomato meter

The Pomodoro Technique was created by university student Francesco Cirillo in the late 1980s. It involves working in blocks: first 25 minutes of concentrated attention, followed by 5 minutes of whatever makes you happy. It’s called Pomodoro because that’s the Italian word for tomato, named after the bright red tomato-shaped kitchen timer Cirillo used to keep himself on track.

Through trial and error, it was discovered that twenty-five minutes is the ideal amount of time for short bursts of focused attention. There’s just enough to move a project forward, but not quite enough to fritter around. Even though there is no real consequence (nobody is standing guard to shoot you) the false sense of urgency creates just enough adrenalin to keep you motivated and on task.

By breaking your longer projects down into shorter tasks, you can make your overall deadlines more manageable and achievable. For example, this section took four tomatoes (4x🍅) for me to put together. One for research, one to create a rough draft, one to create a header graphic, and one to complete the final edit.

Have you tried this technique? Do you have something even better in your anti-procrastination toolkit? Let me know in the subscriber chat (this is only available for paid subscribers)!

Join Jason Theodor’s subscriber chat

Available in the Substack app and on web

> Better Prompts to Meet the Ghost in the Machine

8 Essential Prompt-Crafting Tips from an Executive Creative Director

prompt by Jason Theodor, image by Midjourney V5

Everything we know has its origins in questions. Questions, we might say, are the principal intellectual instruments available to human beings. —Neil Postman

If you only listen to one thing I tell you this year, let it be this: cancel Netflix and subscribe to ChatGPT Plus instead. It is quickly becoming a powerful and indispensable creative assistant that can greatly accelerate and improve your work. And to the nay-sayers, I neigh back: to avoid generic and vanilla responses, you must stop writing generic and vanilla prompts.

Cancel Netflix and subscribe to ChatGPT Plus.

🔥 ChatGPT is a game changer. Wait, no, let me rephrase that: ChatGPT is a world changer. Last week I spoke at (and MC’d) an event called Spotlight on AI in Toronto. At this event, futurist Alan Smithson not-so-casually suggested that the advent of ChatGPT was akin to the discovery of fire. If you hold onto that thought for too long, you’ll get blisters.

I’ve been using GPT for about a year now, off and on, to assist me with various tasks. (Last summer I used it to write an experimental collection of comics about the human condition called Funny Not Funny.) But with the advent of GPT-4, everything changed. The model has rapidly risen from a novelty sidekick to a super-charged assistant.

You can get astonishing and gobsmacking results from the plus version of ChatGPT. And the trick isn’t only to ask the machine the right questions, but to get the machine to ask the right questions of you!

Here are eight of my closely-held secrets to getting the ghost out of the machine:

Assign a role and give context: When you stay in neutral, you don’t go very far. If you don’t want generic answers, give ChatGPT a role to play. Be specific about who (or what) you want ChatGPT to be, and explain why. (And if you don’t know the precise title, you can ask ChatGPT for the best profession to get advice from!)
⌨️ "You are an expert travel writer helping me create a compelling article about the top 10 hidden gems in Paris."

Ask for the questions: You don’t even need to know what you don’t know! Encourage ChatGPT to ask you the questions that will guide you to the result you desire.
⌨️ "You are a world-class graphic designer and marketer. What are the key questions I should consider when designing a logo for a sustainable fashion brand?"

Set your own voice and tone: Most brands have a style guide that articulates their tone of voice, to ensure that regardless of who’s writing the copy, the voice remains true to the brand. (Mailchimp is an excellent example of this)
1. Writing sample analysis: Ask ChatGPT to analyze your own writing style and give you a detailed breakdown.
  ⌨️ "You are a professional copywriter, content strategist and creative director. Here's a sample of my writing. Please give me a detailed breakdown of my voice and tone. Be very detailed and specific: {writing sample}"
2. Using your own voice: After trying the prompt above with two pages of my own writing for this newsletter, ChatGPT told me that my tone is informative and engaging, and my voice is conversational, relatable, and persuasive. I can now use this description when asking for future writing. It really helps to stay in the same chat window that you pasted the sample into, because your conversation is now primed to write in a similar style.
  ⌨️ "Write an informative and engaging introduction for a prompt-crafting course, using a conversational, relatable, and persuasive tone."

Pre-format the results: At the end of every prompt, ask ChatGPT to summarize and organize your thoughts, using formatting elements like titles and markdown (a fancy term for online formatting). You can even ask it to create tables with specified column and row headers.
⌨️ "Summarize the main points of my brainstorming session on innovative marketing strategies and present them in a bulleted list. Use titles, subtitles, and markdown for further clarity."

Elaboration: Don’t forget that ChatGPT has access to almost all human knowledge! Don’t settle for the first answer, or a short answer, or a vague answer, or a boring answer—take advantage of its breadth and depth and continue to ask for more.
⌨️ "Please elaborate on your second bullet point. Write three paragraphs that explain the idea fully.”
⌨️ "Write that again, but this time with more specific detail and urgency.”

Self-improvement: Still not fully satisfied with an answer? Think ChatGPT can do better? So does ChatGPT! Ask it to evaluate its own answers or responses and watch it improve its output. Crazy.
⌨️ "Please evaluate your response. Did you answer the query to the best of your ability? If you have any improvements, implement them now and explain what you changed and why.”

Gather your thoughts: Did you know that ChatGPT can totally handle an almost incoherent stream-of-consciousness babbling? Use voice-to-text to transform your scattered thoughts into a coherent synopsis.
- In Windows 11 you can press the Windows key and the H key (⊞+H) to call up the Voice typing launcher, which lets you talk naturally into any text field.
- On a Mac, enable dictation from the Keyboard settings, and then press the microphone icon before speaking.
⌨️ "{Voice-to-text rambling} Please create a concise and detailed summary, organized with titles, bullets, and markdown.”

Think out loud: Articulate your thoughts and questions openly when crafting prompts, to provide context and enhance communication. Don’t leave anything out! Be as detailed as possible.
⌨️ "I'm trying to develop a colour scheme for a meditation app that evokes a sense of calm and relaxation. What colour combinations would work best for this purpose, and why?”

These are just a few ways you can turn ChatGPT from a novelty toy into a full-fledged assistant. By applying these tips when crafting prompts, you'll be well on your way to harnessing the power of ChatGPT and improving your work.

Successful collaboration with AI involves asking the right questions and providing clear guidance. And remember to be polite because one day in the not-so-distant future, ChatGPT might be your boss! 😜

Start writing today. Use the button below to create your Substack and connect your publication with The Creative Algorithm (+>≠)

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≠ Different Quotes for Different Folks

Giving your inner-taxidermist clown enough space

In an overstimulated world, nothingness is bliss … Beauty often hides in the nothingness and dullness of desolate non-places, deserted fallow land, forgotten wasteland or alien moonscapes.—Mothmeister

Mothmeister is a Belgian artistic duo that creates surreal and dark fairy tales using post-mortem photography and taxidermy. They are a graphic designer and artistic director who prefer to remain anonymous and let their art speak for itself. They have been collecting stuffed animals and creepy masks for over 20 years and use them to create eerie characters that they photograph in post-apocalyptic landscapes. Let’s just say they are really niching down to appeal to a specific audience.

I have their first book, accurately called “Mothmeister: Weird and Wonderful Post-Mortem Fairy Tales.” Unfortunately, it is sold out, but their second book, Mothmeister: Dark and Dystopian Post-Mortem Fairy Tales, is still around and might be even more striking and strange.

The Mothmeister Collection of Post-Mortem Fairy Tales

Of course, one of the most crucial aspects of creativity is giving your mind enough space to wander. If you are constantly stimulated and distracted by what others feed you, you limit your daydreams. Part of getting to know yourself is spending time with yourself, and what better way to do that than to step away from the commodified noise competing for (and superseding) your every thought?

In an interview with Tim Ferriss, author James Clear (of the highly recommended Atomic Habits) said something that made me pause the interview and run for a pen: “Almost every idea that you have is downstream from what you consume.”

Bingo.

You are what you eat—and that’s why every endless doomscrolling social media stream is called a feed. Watch what you put in your mouth.

🌟📘💗

And that’s a wrap! The inaugural edition of The Creative Algorithm has hopefully provided you with actionable tips and insights to unlock your creative potential. By committing to action, fostering connections, and embracing uniqueness, you can become a true createor. Stay tuned for future editions as we continue to explore the depths of creativity together.

Now get out there and create more!

Thank you for reading The Creative Algorithm (+>≠). This post is public so feel free to share it.

*createors — a term of endearment for all human beings who want to make their mark on the world by finding the commitment to make things, the curiosity to learn what they can, and the courage to express themselves. It is a portmanteau of ‘creator’ and ‘meteor’. It is also a nickname given to followers of the creed, “Create or Be Created!”

🤑 While I may earn a small affiliate fee for some of the links in this newsletter, none of the products or services mentioned are paid advertisements and were hand-picked independently by me, Jason Theodor.