But when I got on Spotify, it became a common thing for me to listen to an album one time, and then never hear it again. I didn’t pour over the lyrics, I didn’t remember the song names, and I quickly forgot about many of them. There wasn’t any investment.

Every social interaction comes with a generally agreed-upon duration. A dinner is a 90-minute engagement, 60-minutes minimum. A picnic is 2 hours. A guest at your house is at least 2 hours, maybe more. But a beer? That’s a beautifully concise, sub 40-minute thing.

This week in the ads review, I’m breaking down State Farm’s “Surprisingly Great Rates” ads. State Farm’s recent ad set, featuring their spokesman Jake from State Farm, is an interesting and successful approach to integrating a tagline in a natural-sounding way.

When I wear this gold ring, it feels so much different than my necklace and my watch, because I know it’s real gold. But if it wasn’t, no one would really know the difference.

Culture is the strongest force in the world. People will do illogical, and sometimes insane things–for better or for worse–because of a culture that inspires them.

I saw a few of my closest friends, some of whom I’ve known for decades, transform from neatly folded up Dockers guys, to shoulders back, glint-in-their-eyes yacht guys.

The clients who really needed me ended up being bad clients. Why? Because they needed results yesterday, and I was the one they were willing to bet on–for a month. The clients who didn’t really need me ended up being great clients.

When I first started my career, I was far too focused on my quality and output (working on projects to the point of greatly diminished returns), and not focused nearly enough on networking. After I had been living in LA and freelancing for a while, my network started to grow. Guess what happened? The projects started to roll in.

I don’t know if it will be difficult, if it will be a breeze, or if it will be wrought with sadness, or if I will be largely happy until the day I die. How can I be ready when I don’t know what it is I’m supposed to be ready for?

Should creatives take inspiration from corporate CEOs? Should creatives take inspiration from tech startups? I’m not so sure.

If you treat your creative vision as a precious treasure to be found, you’re only lying to yourself and exasperating your crew. If you treat your creative vision like a lump of clay, factoring in all of its possibilities and imperfections, and then translate your creative vision to your team in the most compelling way, you’ll get something amazing virtually every time.

If you set your team loose on a project with no respect for the way things usually work, you can expect angry vendors, confused customers, wasted dollars. The series of security breaches, lawsuits, government hearings, and public apologies with Facebook should be a bit concerning to anyone.

I try really hard to bring a positive energy to everyone I work with on set, because that has a profound effect on the final product. If they know I trust them and believe in them, they’ll be empowered to make better creative decisions on the fly.

“Could you be happy now with the wind in your hair and your eyes open wide and your feet going nowhere?” –Copeland

If you’re in a slump, commit a short-term sprint. When we try to commit to long-term resolutions, with no finite deliverables or end date, our inertia is too much to overcome.

“One of the things I know about writing is this: spend it all, shoot it, play it, lose it, all, right away, every time. Do not hoard what seems good for a later place in the book or for another book; give it, give it all, give it now.” –Annie Dillard

Two things that will tank your freelance career are delivering low-quality work, and spending too many hours doing it. So how do you measure a high-quality service or product? And how many hours is too many? Let’s break it down.

Many digital creators have stories of people in their network giving them a shot. But those people didn’t put them on. They merely connected them.

Yikes. That’s a wordy title. Here’s what I mean: Are you able to start and finish projects on your own? Or do you have to rely on other people?

I used to be afraid of marriage and commitment, because I thought it would tie me down and hold me back from my goals. I’m not even married yet, but in the past few months, I’ve been more productive and proactive with this blog than I ever before because I’ve been inspired by this event.