(Video link here.) Several times during the past week, we heard several very creative people we know say “Sometimes I wonder if I’m crazy” meaning…crazy to be doing this…or that…or whatever uncharted path they’ve embarked upon that is not THE NORM.

In honor of them, and to antidote the feeling that “crazy” is bad, we thought we’d reprise this  great 1997 Apple ad that salutes “the rebels, trouble makers, the ones who see things differently...the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.”

As our assistant Dese’Rae L Stage, who stumbled on the great ad summed it up: “the ones who get shit done, basically.”

We’re thinking “Here’s to the rebels, trouble makers, the ones who see things differently….” would make a great Thanksgiving toast.

After we posted this, Jody Lotito Levine, sent us this poem on the subject by Tyler Knott (another brilliant soul feeling ‘crazy’) :

Related posts: tyler knott gregson’s analog art
creative process: doing this-or-that ‘in your head’
pablo neruda on the creative process
junot diaz on having a slow ‘creative metabolism’
are you a ‘garage’ inventor?
theo jansen’s new forms of life

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4 replies on “revise: ‘here’s to the crazy ones’ via apple + tyler knott

  1. One of my favorite quotes of Vonnegut’s is “I want to stand as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can’t see from the center.”

  2. This just in from Lynne Rosetto Kasper (originally posted to Tina Fey’s 4 1/2 Rules in 4 Minutes):

    Sally, Your observation today about Lehrer’s damning brainstorming brought back a project I did in high school. We were 17 and wanted to change the way classes were taught so we could be studying the same era in all of our courses.

    Our teachers turned it into a learning experience by helping us research how a curriculum is changed.

    In the course of the research we found a definition of teaching. It was pretty sketchy, but helping an idea blossom in another’s brain is a throw of the dice. It was, “Teaching is creating a situation where an experience might happen that could lead to learning.”

    What you said about how you see creatively comes about is the same thing. Another word for what you described is “learning.” Tina Fey has nailed it down to the fine points, but Jonathan has missed the mark (and the point) entirely.

    Thanks again for making my day better (and more creative), Lynne

  3. “…a situation where an experience might happen that could lead to learning.”!!!!!! Perfect. It IS about learning, and being willing to entertain ideas, and maybe not have them be quite right, but letting them lead. I hadn’t thought of it that way
    Thanks so much for the expanded view. — S

  4. THAT IS SO GREAT!!!! Thanks a million!

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