How to become so creative it feels illegal

For those who want to slow the f*ck down and feel alive again

I’ll be honest.

These past few weeks, I’ve felt completely brain-fried.

You know, when you feel like you’re thinking about nothing and everything at the same time.

When you try to think, brainstorm, or have a great idea, and nothing comes to mind, no matter how hard you try.

It’s more of a cognitive burnout than an emotional one. I can keep working, sure, but I don’t feel very human.

It could be stress.

It could be too much AI (I’ve been using cursor quite a bit recently).

It could be falling out of my writing routine (which stems from shifting focus to other companies, which leads to more stress).

Great ideas and writing were a breeze for me just last month. I could sit down and write my heart out and feel like it was quality and close-to-original thinking.

The longer this went on, the more the feeling compounded.

Why can’t I write? Where did all my ideas go? How can I get back?

That’s my primary goal with this letter.

I want to provide both you and me with a guide that helps us return to our most creative state, and that’s very important, as you’ll find.

My secondary goal is to show you that, even if you don’t think you’re a “creative person,” you can enter an incredibly enjoyable state of consciousness. Similar to the flow state, but potentially more potent. You aren’t focused on breezing through a set of tasks. Instead, you’re seeing the world in a completely different way, like a dog who sees grass for the first time.

My tertiary goal is to give you a 7-day protocol. If you follow it to a T, you will go from feeling brain-fried to alive. It will be difficult but well worth it, and the quality of your work will improve drastically.

Because in today’s world, your creativity is the most scarce resource.

Anyone can build anything. Anyone can think anything. Anyone can write anything. The people who will win in business, writing, art, and general quality of life, as always, will be those who can take the most creative path. The path that nobody else considered to take.

I – You don’t have ideas because there’s too much interference.

“I’m not a creative person.”

That unfortunate and often unthought-through statement makes creativity seem like it’s some sort of talent or skill.

In some ways, it is, but at its core, creativity is a natural way of being. It’s a state of consciousness. It’s a capacity that everyone has, but that capacity gets buried as time goes on.

How does it get buried?

With anything that narrows your mind. Creativity is a very open, relaxed state where you see connections, patterns, and possibilities that aren’t immediately obvious. It’s the act of noticing the unnoticed, which is not the same as what most think creativity is: creating something from nothing.

In my eyes, there are Three Narrowers of the Mind:

1) Conditioning is the enemy of wonder.

When you think of creativity, you think of children.

They see the world through such fresh eyes. If a child asked ChatGPT to build a teleportation device so they can take their friends to another galaxy, nobody would bat an eye, but if you did that, people would think you’re just an idiot who doesn’t understand “how the world works.”

Kids haven’t yet received the compounding negative feedback from their parents, teachers, and peers. They haven’t internalized that they have to act a certain way to fit into a broken and boring society.

You must go to school.

You must do your best to get a high-paying job.

You must praise this God, and if you disobey, you’re going to hell.

By the time most people turn 20 years old, they are the same as everyone else. Same thoughts, actions, and types of beliefs. They are going down the life path assigned to them rather than the one they chose to create.

Creativity requires holding beliefs loosely and entertaining an idea without immediately rejecting or demonizing it (as everyone does on social media, where it drives engagement and facilitates groupthink).

2) Productivity as a priority is a losing game.

When the 9-5 job became a thing during industrialization, productivity became the highest value. Everyone became a specialist who only learned how to place one piece of the puzzle, because if they understood how to solve the entire thing, they would be the entrepeneur not the employee.

Today, everyone feels like they’re falling behind (and if you’re being real, you’re never going to catch up in a game you didn’t create. Creativity is the only way out).

You have this perpetual deadline that’s always looming.

A stressed mind only worries about survival, and you can’t see new connections when your nervous system is ruled by deadlines.

If your life isn’t structured around optimization and efficiency (in other words if you aren’t a robot) everyone thinks you’re useless. But that’s exactly what creativity demands. Useless wandering. True boredom. Creating space for the right idea to emerge that will take you much further than the productivity bros stuck in the same race as everyone else.

People who schedule every hour don’t stumble onto anything

The priorities themselves interfere with the conditions creative thought needs.

3) Infinite input and zero processing time.

Your metabolism can only go so fast.

It’s obvious that if you eat too much food, you start to feel slow and look slow.

Yes, you get fat.

But most people don’t realize this applies to the mind as well.

They feel as if they don’t consume 10 podcasts a week, they won’t be able to “keep up,” even though the opposite is true. Their mental metabolism doesn’t have time to digest the information.

There’s a time for curated information that helps spark more ideas, but if it isn’t kept under tight control, it gets dangerous very quickly.

Creativity is rarely an input problem, but then again, you can only cook with what’s in the fridge. The problem is that most people’s fridges are overflowing with ice cream and soda pop.

Oh, by the way, we’re doing another challenge starting in exactly 2 weeks.

It’s called: Build a 2-Hour Content System In 14 Days.

(It also comes with 14 prompts, one for each day, and no they don’t write content for you. We aren’t that desparate yet.)

It’s intensive challenge that gets your creative juices flowing. By the end you’ll have your unique voice, a batch of non-slop social posts, one polished newsletter you’re proud of, and a skill that AI won’t replace any time soon.

Join here to get in early.

Early bird pricing ends in 3 days.

II – You’re not bored, you’re overstimulated.

“Dan, I’m bored all the time and I’m not creative.”

Being chronically overstimulated and overcaffeinated is not boredom. You’re so fried that you’ve gone all the way off the other end and associate that with boredom because you’re so used to euphoria that it’s become boring. You quite literally can’t go any further, you must come back the other way.

True boredom (after your withdrawal period) does a few things.

1) Boredom provides a gateway to novelty.

Carl Jung, OG psychologist, harped on the importance of shadow work – confronting the uncomfortable aspects of ourselves we typically avoid.

Sitting with boredom does just this.

It activates breakthrough insights when the rational mind stops trying to solve everything.

It reveals our authentic desires beneath external conditioning.

It sets the scene for 3 flow triggers, making you more likely to enter a season of intense learning and building:

• Deep embodiment – being present with discomfort

• Novelty – boredom forces you to seek new, healthier stimulation

• Unpredictability – not knowing what will emerge from the void

If you don’t know what to do in your life, maybe you should do nothing.

Not the default nothing that everyone falls into, but truly nothing.

2) The brain will upregulate dopamine receptors when deprived.

Hedonic adaptation is your psychological thermostat.

No matter how high or low the temperature goes, it always tries to return to the set point.

This creates what psychologists call the “hedonic treadmill.” You’re always running toward the next source of pleasure, but the satisfaction never lasts. Each experience becomes your new normal, requiring more intense stimulation to achieve the same emotional high.

But when you deprive yourself of pleasure, the opposite happens. A hedonic treadmill reversal.

Slowly, then rapidly, simple pleasures become enjoyable again. You experience what Buddhists call the beginner’s mind.

You notice the detail in the sky when you’re on a walk outside. You notice the hint of rosemary in the well-cooked meal. Life becomes electric, as it should be.

3) You don’t need motivation, you need clarity.

All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.

– Naval Ravikant

Boredom creates space for sensemaking. That is, processing and integrating experience. The digestion that most people don’t realize as important.

In the Information Age, modern technology creates a “context collapse.” Our brain is only capable of processing around 50 bits of information per second through our conscious attention.

When you deprive yourself to the point of boredom, you’re almost forced to confront all of the problems that you’ve suppressed over the years.

You need to sit and notice what happens in your mind.

It will be painful, but if you sit with it long enough, you’ll receive a burst of clarity that launches you into a new phase of life.

Through chaos, or a change in perspective of chaos, order emerges.

III – The 7-day protocol to slow the fuck down (how to feel alive again)

Alright you get it.

Creativity is an incredible thing, and you should probably prioritize it more.

But how?

Well, we look at the problem (being overstimulated, overcommited, mentally bloated) and design a system that results in the alleviation of those things. That’s what you do when something isn’t going well, but when you’re stuck in this narrow-minded state, it’s hard to first identify what your problem is, and even harder to change your behavior. That’s why a letter like this can be helpful. It shines a light of awareness (you can’t ask ChatGPT what you don’t think to ask).

Now, we don’t need a full “dopamine detox” here, but we do need to commit.

If it helps, get upset with how you feel, and use that negative energy to pursue these next 7 days full force:

Day 1-2: Reduce The Input Fast

This is the equivalent of doing intermittent fasting, but for the mind.

All of this is important, it’s okay if it doesn’t feel right.

• Impose strict timeblocks on your workday. If you can, limit work to 4 hours a day for this week. If you can’t, that’s fine. Set an alarm that marks the end. When it goes off, you’re done. No “one last task.” Your job is to not think about work or productivity when you’re not working. You’re practicing the skill of letting something feel unfinished without anxiety.

• Cut out your primary input source. Like the junk food in the cabinet at night, pick the one source you reach for the most mindlessly. This could be the podcast on the commute, the scroll before bed, or the news in the morning. Replace it with nothing. Sit in silence. Listen for an idea.

• Go on a walk. Not because it will do anything magical, but because ideas are caught in motion. No headphones. Hell, even leave your phone at home. This walk won’t do much for you since it may be your first time, but trust the process.

That’s it. Three simple changes.

Psychologically, removing constant input allows your brain’s default mode network (the brain’s “wandering” system) to fire. This is the network responsible for random insight, self-reflection, and imagining the future.

It cannot be active while you’re consuming.

For those who don’t know, I love experimenting with nootropics that help faciliate productivity, learning, or creativity in the brain.

My buddy is a genius level biochemist (seriously, he’s just fun to have a conversation with). He recently put together an assessment + custom formulations for this exact reason.

There’s beginner and advanced formulations for those who like that kind of stuff.

Day 3-4: Digest What’s Already There

Now that you’ve created space, things will start surfacing.

Unfinished thoughts, suppressed feelings, random connections, and ideas you forgot existed. Your mind finally has time to break down what it’s been collecting but doing nothing with.

During this phase (and while maintaining what you did in days 1 and 2), we’re going to practice noticing deeper layers of reality.

• Read one chapter of a book slowly. You aren’t trying to finish it or learn something, but simply trying to notice when a sentence makes you stop and think. When it does, put the book down. Sit with why that line hit you. In my eyes, this is the best way to read. Don’t try to quickly finish a book, just get what you need and put it down. That one idea will impact you more than the entire book.

• Sit with nothing for 10 minutes. You can call it meditation, sure, but I don’t want you to use a meditation app or any guided breathing technique. Just sit somewhere and let your mind do whatever it wants. It will be chaotic at first, but that’s the digestion happening. Don’t do anything with it. Just sit.

• Keep going on a walk. Same rules, no headphones or any stimulation. But this time, try to actually see things. You’ve passed by these things a hundred times, but have you noticed the detail in the sidewalk, the structure of the tree’s branches, or the vastness of the sky? I bet you didn’t even look up the last walk.

What we’re trying to do is release your grip on your subconscious (the thing responsible for working in the background and surfacing “aha” moments). Stepping away from task-oriented work is the best way to do this.

And if those moments of insight lead to an idea that allows you to do better, higher-leverage work, then are you not getting more done by not working?

Day 5-6: Become Interested In Life Again

Something I think about often:

When people say they “don’t find anything interesting,” I wonder if they’ve actually looked around. Everything is interesting.

Your mind is just so occupied with meaningless shit that you don’t notice it.

By now, your mental fog should be lifting. You feel a bit sharper, colors are more vivid, conversations are more interesting, and small things feel meaningful again. You walk outside and finally just enjoy a breath of fresh air again.

• Trust that ideas will come back. Resist the urge to take notes on everything. If it’s important, it will find its way to you. When you have an interesting thought, let it play out. Stay in that stream of consciousness. Don’t reach for your phone. In a world where people don’t trust their own minds, learn to trust yours.

• Have one real conversation. No “catching up” for 5 minutes before your next meeting. No “networking” to form a business connection. We’re trying not to perform here. Listen to other people’s perspectives and attempt to be as present as possible. Your brain may just light up.

• Extend the walk. You might find that you don’t want to stop.

During this phase, your dopamine receptors are resensitizing. You start doing something because it’s inherently interesting, which is a massive predictor for creative output, and leads perfectly into day 7.

Day 7: Create With What’s Emerged

Most people try to create from a state of depletion and then wonder why everything feels forced.

I know this feeling well. I’ve written a newsletter almost every week for the past 5 years. But this last month, I couldn’t find what to write about. It felt forced. I’d fallen out of the creative way of life.

Now that we’ve spent six days making space, processing, and letting connections form, you can create from abundance rather than obligation.

• Make something with no plan. Write, draw, record a 20-minute voice note, or cook without a recipe. The only rule is no rules. No strategic thinking or trying to find the perfect angle. Start a thread and follow it.

• Don’t share it. I know this is antithetical to what I preach, but we need to remember what it’s like to not have silent opinions influencing your direction. Notice how it feels to have made something that’s yours.

After at least 24 hours, if you want to return to it and post it somewhere, be my guest.

If you don’t know what to post or create, again, the writing / content system challenge starts soon.

What we are doing here is separating generative thinking (producing novel ideas) from evaluative thinking (judging and editing them). It’s typical for people to try to do both at the same time, but by doing so, you suppress the generative’s potential.

IV – To be creative, you need something to create.

Remember how we used to take spelling tests in grade school?

Whenever I learned a new word, I would start to hear that word everywhere.

The same happens when I see a car I’ve never seen before. I see it once, then I see it everywhere.

The same happened when exposed to certain business opportunities. I didn’t even know they existed, because I was made to believe that a 9-5 was the end-all be-all, and once I started exploring, I noticed them everywhere.

This is the reticular activating system in our brains.

It filters the millions of inputs we receive and surfaces the ones that match what you’ve told it matters.

This is exactly what we need to be more creative.

You need a meaningful project to work on. You need a problem to solve. You need a business to build. You need to create. An essay, a design, whatever.

You’re creating a lens by which you reprogram your mind.

Because if you are the culmination of the ideas you’ve accepted into your head, and the ideas you accept are based on what you deem important, and the only things that were important to you were the school, job, and retirement that industrial culture permeated into your parents, teachers, and peers, then the primary way to pursue a rare life is to simply question and choose what is important to you.

When you have something important - a project, design, product - even a conversation you overhear on the street becomes creative fuel. You read a book and a sentence pops out at you, but when another person reads it, they don’t get the same effect.

Without a project, your mind is a boat drifting in open water.

The 7 day protocol we went through calmed the storm, but even with a calm sea, if you don’t have a direction you’re just floating. It’s nice, but at some point you’ll want to do something.

So what makes a good frame?

What makes a project worth creating?

• It has to be something unsolved for you. It doesn’t have to be completely original or novel, but it must be a challenge. There must be something you don’t know the answer to yet, which allows your subconscious to become a magnet for relevant and useful ideas.

• It has to matter to you. Your pattern recognition is powered by emotional investment. A project you chose because it “looks good on paper” - like a high paying degree that you don’t actually care about - won’t activate the same radar as the one that genuinely keeps you up at night.

• It has to be shareable. In other words, it has to take some form. It has to exist in reality. It can be words, visuals, code, a conversation, a business, or a meal. You have to take the abstract thoughts in your head, ground them in reality, and test their worth. We aren’t just imagining things we can’t do here.

That begs the final question...

How do you find this meaningful project?

Well, it takes a bit of floundering, which is unpleasant, but it helps if you flip the problem on it’s head.

You think deeply about all of the meaningless projects, tasks, and activities you currently tolerate to fill your time, because if you aren’t engaged in something meaningful, where do you think your life will end up?

If you cultivate this deep awareness of what you don’t want in life, that starts to create your frame. You start to see it everywhere. And once you see it, it’s much easier to start moving in the opposite direction.

– Dan

If you want to continue reading here’s more letters: