Nicholas Rider

Every creator should pin Orson Welles' definition of style on their desk: “Style is knowing who you are, what you want to say, and not giving a damn.” Know your vision—and your warts. Know the feeling you want to leave your audience with. And then forget about the thousand details that don't matter. Style exists at the border of caring and not caring. To be stylish is to care obsessively about what matters—and not at all about what does not. Nail the essentials, bail on the rest. That's style.

Your greatest work happens at the confluence of your unconnected obsessions. Tolkien's college tutors were in "despair" over his random hobbies: writing verse, constructing new languages, and dragon tales. But without them, he would've never written Lord of the Rings. @david_perell: "Surrender to your nature." And to your authentic interests. Wherever your attention organically goes, you must follow. Your creative output is nothing but the line connecting the dots you've collected. The more varied the dots, the better.