Why Formulas Don’t Fix Creative Work
(Even though you still need them)
After refusing to touch the platform for 12 months, I’ve spent 10 days in a row on LinkedIn.
It started as a challenge from my friend Tim Denning. We’re building a LinkedIn course together. I’m the on-screen student, asking questions, taking notes. He’s the expert.
During lesson 5, I saw a note that was particularly cringe-worthy.
I smirked at that. Just toss a “work word” in the post somewhere?? Surely it couldn’t be so simple.
It is.
Since I’ve been following his instructions, I published a post that is over 10,000 views and 200 likes. It’s like somebody gave me the keys to the bank vault, then turned around and closed their eyes. No George Clooney-style heist necessary.
The whole experience has me thinking about formulas. There was a time where, effective or not, I would have turned my nose away at anything that sounded remotely like a “proven method.”
Resistance to formulas is natural for creative people. We are obsessed with originality, forgetting…
