Writers’ Rough Drafts – Episode #53 With Scott Barry Kaufman

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Scott Barry Kaufman, Ph.D., is a cognitive scientist interested in the development of intelligence, creativity, and personality. He is an author with multiple titles on his bookshelf, including Ungifted: Intelligence Redefined; Twice Exceptional: Supporting and Educating Bright and Creative Students with Learning Difficulties; Mating Intelligence Unleashed: The Role of the Mind in Sex, Dating, and Love; The Psychology of Creative Writing; and my personal favorite, Wired to Create: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Creative Mind. In addition to conducting research, lecturing as a professor, and writing or editing over half a dozen books in the past decade, he is also a prolific essayist at publications and websites like Scientific American, Psychology Today, The Atlantic, and Neurohacker Collective.

Though much of his work is often characterized by redefining and understanding intelligence, he staunchly advocates for doing this in a way that also celebrates the creative and innovative. Through his work as the scientific director of The Imagination Institute in the Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania and his leadership in co-founding The Creativity Post, among the many projects he advises on or leads, he is constantly looking for new and interesting ways that intelligence, creativity, and personality complement and align in ways that can lead to meaning and even some happiness.

How To Reverse Your Unproductive Mind as an Entrepreneur

I know … I get it. So many ideas, so many dreams, yet not enough time. Not true!

For the life of me, I can’t remember where I first heard the saying “You do have time to do that; it’s just not important enough to you right now.” This really resonated with me and is something I’ve applied to most areas of my life since my gray matter soaked it up.

Thinking this way is a big game-changer, purely in the sense that none of us realize how much time we do have during a day, and conversely how much of that is soaked up by unproductiveness.

As an entrepreneur and professional writer myself, I know exactly how hard it is to get into a groove and to feel like I’m on top of my game.

I’ve tried countless tools, read what feels like thousands of self-development books, and smashed my eardrums into oblivion with podcasts, yet my productivity levels remained stagnant and lacking.

How did I make the change to a more productive me?

How a Hans Zimmer Playlist Helps Me Write More Creatively

Writing is something I am passionate about. But much like any other intense job, it can become a little taxing at times. And it did for me at the beginning of my career as a writer.

As a full-time writer, my performance levels were dropping to below par and my creativity “mojo”’ hit somewhat of a slump.

Occasionally, I’d lose that swagger—and as those deadlines drew closer, it felt like there was just not enough gas left in the tank to see the job through, so to speak.

Writers’ Rough Drafts – Episode #52 With Shakira Pressley

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Shakira Pressley is a screenwriter, producer, and actress with a specialty in and love for all things animated. With a bachelor’s degree in digital filmmaking and video, she has written for such television shows as “Keller Nation” and Cartoon Network’s “Craig of the Creek.” In addition to TV work, she has also worked on CMF at Cannes’ award-winning short films like “4H,” “Margaret Mage,” and “Rainbow Roller Rink.”

Like most writers in Hollywood, when she isn’t creating storylines and plot twists, she’s acting or providing voice talent to get her work out to audiences. As she notes on her website, she’s “just a person attempting to do adult things so that I can have a job that allows me to do kid things.”