Massimo Curatella

Tag: creativity

My 100 Ideas to Write About
I am Massimo Curatella, and this is my DAY 3 Article in the CREAZEE Daily Writing Challenge, and my 138th daily article.
Dear readers, this is my answer to the Write 100 Ideas creative exercise.
1. How to become an independent author.
2. How to reuse the content you have produced to create a product.
3. How to create an online course.
4. How to reuse the format for an online course to apply it to different disciplines.
5. Online course about writing.
6. Online course about creating an online course.
7. Online course about how to become a designer.
8. How to become a facilitator.
9. How to self-develop by writing every day.
10. How to build a habit.
11. How to become a coach.
12. How to facilitate collective intelligence.
13. How to use the Internet and social networks to create your personal brand.
14. How to create a group of professionals collaborating remotely on several projects.
15. How to build a habit to take daily photographs to develop your photography skills.
16. How to become a better learner.
17. How to create your personal knowledge management system.
18. How to read effectively.
19. How to take notes.
20. How to explain complex topics effectively.
21. How to be a better critical thinker.
22. How to improve your memory.
23. How to develop your artistic sensitivity.
24. How to develop your artistic expression with Visual Media.
25. Visual facilitation.
26. Future thinking, how to think about the future.
27. How to manage your time and productivity when you are an independent professional.
28. How to integrate your time management system with your family.
29. Keeping a diary.
30. How to educate people, your family, your children, using games.
31. How to learn to play any musical instrument.
32. Writing poetry.
33. What is the most useful fundamental knowledge every human being should have?
34. Create a collection of the 100 most influential books of all human history.
35. Top 100 films.
36. Top 100 podcasts.
37. Top 100 thinkers in history.
38. 100 places I want to visit and their stories.
39. Make a list of all the people that I know.
40. Find groups of people that I know aggregated by their skills.
41. Find at least ten professional opportunities per month.
42. Prepare a list of topics to write about to position me as an expert in the fields that interest me.
43. Study and share about design.
44. Facilitation.
45. Systems thinking.
46. Critical thinking.
47. Knowledge management.
48. Teaching and education.
49. Learning, understanding memory.
50. Neuroscience.
51. What is the latest theory about life in the universe?
52. What is the theory of mind?
53. What are the basics of artificial intelligence?
54. What is essential in computer science that I can use in my interests.
55. Learn Chinese.
56. Learn to cook.
57. Apply the metaphor of cooking to systems thinking, design, and as a simple project to create, as software to learn and teach about computer science, interaction design, and brain development.
58. What are the most important trends for the future?
59. According to the trends, what can I do today to mitigate risks for the future?
60. How to be healthy.
61. The basic concepts of nutrition.
62. Personal finance, what is important to know to avoid.
63. Is there any kind of investment, financial investment that I can do to have some future revenues?
64. What are the most important things to be done when you have children for every year of their life?
65. Is it important the location where you live? How am I affected by the place where I live?
66. What can I do to get the benefits of having contacts with people around the World?
67. Creates a periodical meeting with creative people to exchange ideas.
68. How would it be to live by always flying up in the air?
69. If I have to go to Mars, what would it bring with me?
70. What is sex?
71. What is the impact of sex on our lives? And how should we behave accordingly?
72. What is change? How do you manage it?
73. How can I create an environment conducive to creativity, health, and wealth for my family and me and my friends?
74. What is the most important thing that I should do every day that would have the highest impact on my life?
75. Who are my best friends?
76. What am I doing to curate my relationship with other people?
77. Can I create rituals, celebrations, and special dates to enjoy life more?
78. What happened if I booked some time per week or per day to do something fun?
79. How can I involve other people in creative, smart regenerating activities without wasting our time?
80. How can I earn a living by having fun and leaving a legacy?
81. What is my legacy? What do I want to leave as a legacy?
82. We cannot live separately, and we are forced to be closed in lockdown. What would I do If I were free to leave?
83. What’s the best place in the world where I would live instead of this one?
84. Who is a person from the past that I would like to meet again?
85. What’s the best place I visited and why?
86. What are my best memories?
87. What are my worst memories and what I have learned from them, That I am applying today?
88. Do I have a daily ritual in which I reflect on the most important things I have listed so far?
89. How can I overlap, intersect and create synergies between the different needs and desires I have, Like working and having fun? Working and meeting people, having fun, and earning money?
90. What is the role of animals in our lives? How can we live more and better with them?
91. What would it be to live near the sea? Or in the countryside?
92. What are behaviors that are part of my character that I could change?
93. What experiment can I do to see what happens if I behave differently from what I’ve been doing so far?
94. How can I learn from books and past experiences that can be useful for my life without being myself in the first person to experiment?
95. I want to fly. What would it be to be able to fly?
96. Why don’t we create virtual worlds to express our desires to be free from our bodies? Like being able to fly?
97. What about learning and teaching about painting, sculpting, and creating 3d worlds and video games or environments to explore and interact with and live different lives.
98. What’s the meaning of life? If it is giving sense to others, what purpose am I giving to others?
99. How do I want to be remembered?
100. If being happy means knowing that I did it and doing that thought as the last thought that I think while being alive, what would I be to have done it?
Will They Shine?
3 April 2021
My 12 Favorite Problems
1. How to stay healthy
2. How to take care of my family
3. How to be a better thinker
4. How to educate children
5. How to be sustainable
6. How to create networks of networks of changemakers creating a positive impact on people and the planet
7. How to make my life meaningful, worthwhile
8. How can I leave a legacy that will make me remembered in a positive way
9. How to spend more quality time with quality people
10. How to improve the ecosystem’s health
11. How to relieve suffering
12. How to know more about what is unknown
What are your favorite 12 problems?
See a new iteration of this article: My 12 Favorite Problems, Version 2
The problem with problems.
24 March 2021
Write 100 Ideas, Now
In preparing my CREAZEE Challenge for the upcoming cohort, I’ve come up with a shock-therapy: if you want to join, create 100 ideas and share them with me.
It worked in an experiment I did with a wannabe artist who found his idea in just two days by doing what I’ve suggested to him: write down 100 ideas in one day, then select The One. It worked fantastically! And that’s another story I will share with you in the future.
Just by pure coincidence, somebody sent a YouTube video to me talking about “The 101 Desires Techniques”. Well, you won’t believe it, but it is incredibly similar to the approach I invented. That’s what I want to share with you today.
The 101 Desires Technique by Igor Sibaldi
Are you able to say what you want in a clear way? Many people cannot. This exercise helps you to rediscover the skill of being able to state your desires.
This exercise affects your personality and how you live your life because you discover capabilities and talents you would not have imagined. Not only within yourself but also around you. You become a better observer. We’re accustomed to seeing the world of others by being outsiders. Changing, we appreciate to desire and want other things because we become aware of the world. We become full of questions.
How to write the desires
1. Every desire always starts with “I want…”
2. Do not use negations like “I do not…” or “I want to be immune,” instead write, “I want to be perfectly healthy.
3. ” Do not ask for money because money is a means, not an objective. Money is about the “must,” not the “want.” Instead, ask for something tangible, like “I want a castle” and not “I want to have the money to buy a castle”.
4. Only verifiable desires, no abstractions like “I want to be very generous.”
5. Avoid comparisons like “I want to be as good as…”
6. You cannot ask something for somebody else. You cannot say, “I want that person to heal.” You can only say, “I want to be able to help that person so that they can heal”.
7. No serial desires. You cannot have multiple similar desires: “I want a house in Paris,” “I want to have a house in New York,” it induces obsessive desires. Every desire must be unique and a discovery.
8. No diminutives or vezzeggiatives. Be brave and precise with your desires.
9. Each desire should be 14 words at the maximum. That is “I want” plus 12 words. Each desire should be in a breath. And we need to be concise to be more determined. If you want something, you need to state it concisely. ( “If you know something, you can express it clearly”).
10. Do not ask for sex or a love affair with specific persons because it’s like dishonestly forcing somebody else. Instead, ask, “I want to have reciprocal love.”
You need to write 150 desires to choose 101 from them. You will review them every day for one year, and you will write off the ones achieved so you will replace them with the remaining ones.
Usually, the most absurd desires get realized. Those who surprised you when you created them.
The desires not realized are the most important because they hide something crucial about you. You should investigate why they did not materialize. The more you study them, the more you will make them possible.
After writing the first ten and then 50, you will completely change your attitude in writing your desires. You will grow, and you will reconsider what you were wanting. You will pass from being selfish to higher purposes. From “having a luxurious house” to “making art to share.”
Why re-reading our desire list every day? Because we have to get accustomed to the beauty of what we have written. It’s a way to jumpstart your mind in thinking differently.
This technique is coming from ancient Buddhist practices. We live in a river of opportunities and inspirations at different levels. We’ve been accustomed and educated to look at what we have as everything we will ever be able to have. This technique pushes you to look at the higher level of this opportunity river, where there are big things for us we can desire. If we are aware of that, we have the chance to grab them. Otherwise, they will pass by without any impact on our lives.
How to use this technique to be creative?
I am amazed at the popularity of Sibaldi’s technique. I’ve never heard about it. I have several doubts about his version’s spiritual and mystical aspects, and I don’t feel attracted to those themes. I will try to apply the best insights in my “Write 100 Ideas, Now!” to coach, train, and facilitate my CREAZEE friends to create a daily habit. Join us!
What if you could realize just one of your 100 ideas?
20 March 2021
Start to create, now
What was the most critical event determining my 117 daily articles written and published in a row?
Starting.
I faced any possible struggle, pain, boredom, unsatisfaction, and uncertainty while trying to find the will and the time to write for almost four months, every single day. I stretched my creativity to the limits. I had to overcome the fear of failure, looking stupid, saying something wrong, being inadequate, uncomfortable, or not up to the standard—every day for 17 weeks. No exceptions, no day skipped, no holidays, no pauses.
That was nothing compared to the single most important action I could do precisely on the 15th of November 2020.
Starting.
We are living in our self-built creative cages.
- One day I will open a blog.
- If only I could write that article.
- I really admire who can create frequently.
- I have so many ideas, but I don’t have the time.
- I would never expose myself to the public without carefully check what I have to say.
- What if somebody who I care about reads something I wrote and got offended?
- What will my clients think about what I have to say about my professional field?
- Will I lose my job?
- Will I betray my friends?
- Who will ever read what I want to write?
- Why would somebody want to waste their time with my opinions?
And this is how you self-sabotage. This is how you have prevented yourself from the joy of experimenting and exploring the infinite meanders of creativity.
Writing is not my job. I am not a professional writer. I am not “published”. I am not selling my writings. But if only I could make you feel the joy and the satisfaction of letting words flowing out of my fingers and getting shared, now, right here, with you. It’s the most beautiful sensation in the world.
Do you want to create?
Start now.
Enjoy the story told by my friend, David Orban, about how I’ve shared my enthusiasm in starting with one of his group, Emil.

The Context S03E25 Taking The First Step
13 March 2021
Storytelling by abstraction
I want to tell you a technique to write about a specific experience that you had without mentioning in the context the people involved or particular details that maybe are supposed to be private or confidential.
You can use the technique of abstraction.
In an abstraction, you’re supposed to extract only the meaningful details of your experience to share valuable knowledge or the lessons learned.
This is useful because somebody who will read your article will learn something. But at the same time, you didn’t betray your friends or the people involved with the story, so they wouldn’t feel attacked or disappointed because you have been discreet.
You have to be careful. You have to change the names, change the context. You have to tell the critical concept of what you have learned because all the rest is irrelevant, or maybe you cannot tell it.
Changing the context would help. Set your story in a different setting. Change the time as well.
Instead of yesterday, for example, it happened five years ago. And instead of your closest cousins, it was a distant friend from the other part of the world. Instead of happening online, it happened in real life. Although we are in pandemic times, and you’re not supposed to meet anybody.
So be careful not to betray any recognizable detail. But in the end, it would be helpful to save usable knowledge that you gained and you think that you cannot share.
That’s another smart writing prompt to add to your creative toolbox.
A green dog runs on purple dreams
3 March 2021
Instructions for living a creative life
“Instructions for living a life.
Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it.”
―Mary Oliver, (2008). Red bird. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.
Pay attention.
Create about what you notice. If you do it consistently, you’ll discover patterns you would have never imagined. Unless you are Jason Bourne.
Be astonished.
Escaping the daily routine by diving into a creative world of exploration and discovery is an infinite well of positive feelings.
Tell about it.
Creating, you become an interesting person with stimulating questions, engaging stories to tell. Even if you are not sharing your creations, your thoughts increase in clarity, structure, and solidity. Think about the possibility of sharing the best of them: can you imagine the potential.
30 January 2021
Writing is combining
Why writing?
If you think better when you write, you need to write a lot to write well. So, to feel less lonely, albeit creative, lower your ambitions to keep being consistent. Do it small to do it better.
Writing brings a lot of benefits to your life because writing:
Writing is like drinking coffee, and it makes you creative and happy.
Transcribe your thoughts to become an effective communicator. Write daily to become a better manager.
Writing is a process, so it’s essential to automate repetitive tasks, publish the text as digital text, not images, and back up your work not to lose it.
If only I could be ten, again, I would write daily to build a habit, but I need to be smart, so I will let it go.
28 January 2021
Is your idea new?
A few decades ago, a friend asked me about creating a startup in the 3D Computer Graphics field. He pitched me the idea, and for every aspect of this software, I provided an example of something already existing.
While the execution makes the difference and nobody prevents you from starting any type of venture, you are at risk even if somebody else already did it. You could waste time, money, and resources by creating something existing or that nobody would buy.
A signal that the time has come for an idea is when you receive pitches or requests for advice about that idea from different fronts. It means that many people are thinking about it, either independently or because it went mainstream. It’s in the air. You can sense it.
In addition to a thorough market and competition research, it would help to study history. What did already solve our problem? Did it work? How did they have success? Is there space for innovation?
That’s why studying and researching your field of interest could give you an advantage. Or, if you think about it, you could even package your knowledge and make a product out of it.
History could save you a lot of time or could make you earn a lot of money.
How much do you know about history?
26 January 2021
Reflecting on my current Personal Knowledge Management Workflow
I am not making fair use of my Personal Knowledge Management system. I capture too much information. I organize it just superficially. I reflect on it too little. I am not leveraging on connections to have new ideas.
This very article, right now, I am writing it spontaneously. I could look into my Zettelkasten and see a list of drafts I have prepared. Or browsing the ideas to write about I’ve been collecting. Or even getting inspired by the open questions I’ve been accumulating.
Top-down and bottom-up: where’s the balance?
Going bottom-up allowed me to build a collection of notes that resemble a pile more than a system. The impetus of grabbing something interesting is always prevailing on the intention to research a topic. The top-down approach is suffering. I am subject to too much inertia leading me to fall into the Collector’s Fallacy. I am dedicating too little intention and planning to develop thoughts instead of collecting them.
Yes, I’ve expressed this annoying lack in my workflow two or three times already. I am using this space, again, to complain rather than react constructively.
Why is that so?
Because I’ve become too fluid in transcribing my thoughts, so the mental effort of researching, writing, drafting, and reviewing is something already far in my memory. What’s the most extended and researched essay that I wrote recently? I am suffering from the syndrome of checking the box: did I write and publish? Yes. And that’s it.
But, of course, I am not satisfied. While I am proud of keeping the consistency of writing daily, I feel the freshness and the relevancy of my posts to go lower and softer.
What to do, then?
I need to plan my writing time differently. There should be more reviewing of the information captured and identifying meaningful topics developed in useful threads.
Writing free-flowing daily is still essential, but it’s like playing scales to learn piano.
I need to prepare for a concert.
Stop collecting. Start connecting.
23 January 2021
The Most Basic Form of Mind Control is Repetition
The Most Basic Form of Mind Control is Repetition.
The Most Basic Form of Mind Control is Repetition.
The Most Basic Form of Mind Control is Repetition.
The Most Basic Form of Mind Control is Repetition.
The Most Basic Form of Mind Control is Repetition.
The Most Basic Form of Mind Control is Repetition.
The Most Basic Form of Mind Control is Repetition.
The Most Basic Form of Mind Control is Repetition.
The Most Basic Form of Mind Control is Repetition.
The Most Basic Form of Mind Control is Repetition.
The Most Basic Form of Mind Control is Repetition.
The Most Basic Form of Mind Control is Repetition.
The Most Basic Form of Mind Control is Repetition.
The Most Basic Form of Mind Control is Repetition.
The Most Basic Form of Mind Control is Repetition.
The Most Basic Form of Mind Control is Repetition.
The Most Basic Form of Mind Control is Repetition.
The Most Basic Form of Mind Control is Repetition.
The Most Basic Form of Mind Control is Repetition.
The Most Basic Form of Mind Control is Repetition.
The Most Basic Form of Mind Control is Repetition.
22 January 2021