The Status Game
Will Storr
Not directly about creativity, but useful background for how identity, status and social systems shape behaviour and creative life.
Consuming nowBought / owned
Inspiration
What’s feeding the work
Books, music, films, comics, websites and other things I’ve been reading, watching, listening to or carrying around.
A record of influences, references and recommendations behind the work.
Current
Currently chewing
Things I’m reading, listening to, watching or spending time with right now.
Favourites
Long-term favourites / deep influences
Things I keep returning to, or that have shaped the way I think and make.
Dinotopia
James Gurney
A long-running worldbuilding/illustration reference: believable invented cultures presented through observational art and artifacts.
Finished / recently consumedBought / owned★ favourite
Waking Life
Richard Linklater
The constant-state-of-departure / always-arriving idea has already found its way into your creative material. Useful for thresholds, dreaming and reflective…
Finished / recently consumed★ favourite
The Fragile
Nine Inch Nails
Strong reference for layered texture, repetition, abrasion, atmosphere and making polished work feel damaged/alive.
Finished / recently consumedBought / owned★ favourite
Paramore
Paramore
Ongoing songwriting reference for balancing emotional directness with strong hooks and energetic arrangement.
Finished / recently consumed★ favourite
Metric
Metric
Ongoing reference for angular indie/synth rock, memorable melodic phrasing and intelligent pop structure.
Finished / recently consumed★ favourite
Run the Jewels
Run the Jewels
Reference for dense phrasing, rhythmic aggression, humour and political/social teeth.
Finished / recently consumed★ favourite
Das Racist
Das Racist
Reference for associative wordplay, cultural-reference overload and intelligent stupidity.
Finished / recently consumed★ favourite
Tommy Cash
Tommy Cash
Reference for committing completely to bizarre visual/music concepts without explaining the joke away.
Finished / recently consumed★ favourite
More from the shelfRecommendations, finished things and recent traces
On the radar
On the menu
Things I’ve been recommended, picked up, borrowed or saved for later.
Slow Productivity
Cal Newport
Useful later-stage counterpoint around doing fewer things and respecting natural pace.
On the menuWant / wishlist
The Dip
Seth Godin
Useful for deciding when something should continue, incubate or be recycled rather than endlessly carried.
On the menuWant / wishlist
The Practice
Seth Godin
Starts later in the metabolism than your framework but is relevant to Make, Express and Release.
On the menuWant / wishlist
Finish
Jon Acuff
Addresses one symptom — finishing — rather than the whole input-to-release metabolism. Useful comparison.
On the menuWant / wishlist
Getting Things Done
David Allen
Useful boundary-marker: GTD gets tasks and commitments out of your head; Creative Metabolism asks what deserves to stay in your…
On the menuWant / wishlist
Wired to Create
Scott Barry Kaufman; Carolyn Gregoire
Research scaffolding around traits and practices associated with creative lives. Particularly relevant to Forage, Digest and Incubate.
On the menuBought / owned
The Extended Mind
Annie Murphy Paul
Useful research territory for thinking with bodies, spaces, people, drawing and movement rather than treating creativity as brain-only.
On the menuWant / wishlist
Building a Second Brain
Tiago Forte
The major conceptual neighbour to differentiate from. Capture and organisation are not the same things as digestion, absorption and transformation.
On the menuBought / owned
Browse the whole archiveSearch and filter everything gathered here
Archive
Browse the whole shelf
Search or filter the books, music, films, comics, links and other references gathered here.
Kill Six Billion Demons
Tom Parkinson-Morgan
A major visual/worldbuilding reference: dense cosmology, expressive drawing, strange metaphysics and maximal imaginative commitment.
Finished / recently consumedBought / owned
The Sketchnote Handbook
Mike Rohde
Useful reference for how drawing can be thinking rather than decoration.
Finished / recently consumedBought / owned
Flight of the Conchords
Flight of the Conchords
Reference for comedy that works because the musical craft and emotional awkwardness are both taken seriously.
Finished / recently consumed★ favourite
Tommy Cash
Tommy Cash
Reference for committing completely to bizarre visual/music concepts without explaining the joke away.
Finished / recently consumed★ favourite
Das Racist
Das Racist
Reference for associative wordplay, cultural-reference overload and intelligent stupidity.
Finished / recently consumed★ favourite
Run the Jewels
Run the Jewels
Reference for dense phrasing, rhythmic aggression, humour and political/social teeth.
Finished / recently consumed★ favourite
Metric
Metric
Ongoing reference for angular indie/synth rock, memorable melodic phrasing and intelligent pop structure.
Finished / recently consumed★ favourite
Paramore
Paramore
Ongoing songwriting reference for balancing emotional directness with strong hooks and energetic arrangement.
Finished / recently consumed★ favourite
Being Cool
Kimya Dawson
Strong reference for weird plainness, sincerity, humour and not polishing the life out of the writing.
Finished / recently consumed
Poor Song
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Reference for raw, small-scale vulnerability and keeping a song emotionally plain rather than overworked.
Finished / recently consumed
Tell Your Girlfriend
Robyn
Reference for direct relationship writing inside sharp pop form.
Finished / recently consumed
Dancing on My Own
Robyn
Strong example of putting emotional isolation against propulsive pop structure.
Finished / recently consumed
Wet Dream
Wet Leg
Reference for awkward, funny, direct delivery and deceptively simple hooks.
Finished / recently consumed
Cooperate
Emma Dilemma
One of the references around the direct/funny/abrasive songwriting lane.
Finished / recently consumed
Dancer
IDLES
Reference for physical, repetitive, direct songwriting and energy.
Finished / recently consumed
The Fragile
Nine Inch Nails
Strong reference for layered texture, repetition, abrasion, atmosphere and making polished work feel damaged/alive.
Finished / recently consumedBought / owned★ favourite
Fight Club
David Fincher
A recurring cultural reference, including the ending quotation used in your playlist project.
Finished / recently consumed
Waking Life
Richard Linklater
The constant-state-of-departure / always-arriving idea has already found its way into your creative material. Useful for thresholds, dreaming and reflective…
Finished / recently consumed★ favourite
Dinotopia
James Gurney
A long-running worldbuilding/illustration reference: believable invented cultures presented through observational art and artifacts.
Finished / recently consumedBought / owned★ favourite
John Cleese on Creativity
John Cleese
His ideas about play, protected space, time and creative companions are useful particularly for Digest and Incubate.
On the menu
The Status Game
Will Storr
Not directly about creativity, but useful background for how identity, status and social systems shape behaviour and creative life.
Consuming nowBought / owned
Creative Confidence
Tom Kelley; David Kelley
Extended-family creative-process reference, especially around prototyping and permission to make.
On the menuWant / wishlist
The Extended Mind
Annie Murphy Paul
Useful research territory for thinking with bodies, spaces, people, drawing and movement rather than treating creativity as brain-only.
On the menuWant / wishlist
Getting Things Done
David Allen
Useful boundary-marker: GTD gets tasks and commitments out of your head; Creative Metabolism asks what deserves to stay in your…
On the menuWant / wishlist
