Writing & Fighting: how losing a battle can help you win

A jolly good hello to you. I hope you've been healthy and happy since I last wrote to you. I'm currently fighting off a head cold that my father generously donated to me when I visited him at the weekend. Thanks, Dad!

My LinkedIn Learning course on prompt engineering has exploded since it launched last month. It's currently attracting about 1,000 new learners a day. If you've been one of them, thank you. If you've not, what are you doing?! Everyone's overtaking you!

Right, here's this week's tale of creative experimentation.

Accidentally succeeding by failing

I tend to get excited by new shiny things. Which means I tend to dive into pieces of software that I think might open up fresh creative opportunities. And that's exactly what I did when Apple released iBooks Author in 2012. I wanted to see if I could create an interactive book.

I started by collecting some popular cheat sheets I'd written for advertising creatives. These had been downloaded thousands of times from my website and I'd had great feedback about them. I collected some case study videos and imagery that showed the techniques in practice. And I started wrestling with the software. It wasn't the most elegant Apple experience (hello, spinning beachball of doom) but I persevered and created an interactive book in under a week.

I was really happy with it. It had started as a tinkering experiment but had ended up as a really nice finished product. So I went to publish it.

I waded through all the admin to get it up in the store before being hit with a final request: it needed my US bank account details and IRS tax reference.

I live in the UK. I don't have these things. So I contacted Apple's support to find a way around it. There wasn't one.

I'd hit a roadblock and I was mad as hell!

So in a big f$%^ you to Apple and this new-fangled technology, I decided to bring my creation out in analogue format. I spent a couple of days reformatting it into a printed book and uploaded it to a self-publishing site called Lulu. And then I carried on with my life.

But that book took on a life of its own. Over the years it's made its way onto the recommended reading lists of dozens of universities and colleges. It's led to speaking engagements. And training gigs. It's what started me on my journey to becoming a real author. Without that experiment, my life would probably be quite different.

So here are the obligatory learnings:

You don't need a reason to start an experiment

Most people won't start an experiment unless they know how they can benefit. However, I usually discover the real benefit after I've finished the experiment. And I can't think of any that haven't been beneficial in some way.

Turn negatives into positives

What drove me to create the printed book was a f$%^ you attitude. I was pissed off. But I used that negative energy to create a positive outcome. That's how many of the best musicians got started too.

Build on what you already have

I started the book with something I'd already written. I ended up rewriting it all in the process - but it was a great way to start. I've now built on it all again by creating a second edition of the book with 50% more tips and tricks.

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So I guess I've just launched the second edition of A User Guide To The Creative Mind. I really couldn't have done it with less of a fanfare, could I? (Insert a tuneless tah-dah played on a kazoo here.)

You should probably go and grab a copy from Amazon.

Pick up A User Guide To The Creative Mind (2nd edition) here

This week's gift

I've just finished another web tool with the assistance of ChatGPT. This one is for encouraging a group of strangers to talk to each other. Like at a conference. Or as a warm-up exercise at the beginning of a workshop. It's quite simple.

• The app randomly gives you 6 attributes (out of a list of 50)
• You mingle, looking for people who have the attributes.
• When you find an attribute, you tap the corresponding box
• The first person to discover all 6 is a legend

Visit this link on your mobile , give it a go and bookmark it for later. Oh - and share it with other people who might find it interesting too.

Can you tell if this is AI generated?

You may have seen an article this week about an AI photo winning the open category of the Sony World Photography Awards. (The artist - a self-confessed cheeky monkey - handed back the prize.)

So let's see if you can differentiate AI photos from the real thing. This little game shows you an image and asks you if it was AI-generated or not.

I did spectacularly badly. Let's see how you get on.

Check out aigeneratedornot.com

This article is part of the?Experiments in Creativity?newsletter,?which examines the frontiers of creative thinking and creative work. Often that involves a bit of science or technology. If you want more of this kind of thing, you can?subscribe?to get notified when a new article posts .

If you want to learn more about what I talk about, check out my courses on?LinkedIn Learning ?and?davebirss.com. ?If you haven't signed up already, it's a good idea to start with my?FREE Creative Bootcamp course .

If you'd like to book me for a talk or training session, send an email to?[email protected]