Paint & Pipette: The Art & Science of Innovation
Stanford Adjunct Professor Jeremy Utley explores the counter-intuitive tactics that world-class innovators and entrepreneurs employ to break through. He's learned that while innovation is part art (paint) – it's also part science (pipette) – and treats the subject with both the rigor and the wonder that it deserves. Season 1 shined a spotlight on female founders; season 2 celebrated black creators; Season 3 guests include WIRED co-founder Kevin Kelly, Harvard Business School Professor Linda Hill, CEO of Google X Astro Teller, start-up coach Liz Tran, Waze founder Uri Levine, Seth Godin, journalist Jennifer Wallace, Pixar co-founder Ed Catmull, and more.
Paint & Pipette: The Art & Science of Innovation
S3E18: Making Your Creative Process a Lifestyle with Billy Oppenheimer
Writing and researching to produce content is a full-time job that demands hours and hours of dedication. Today’s guest is the wonderful Billy Oppenheimer, writer and research assistant for Ryan Holiday, and he is here to share his creative process with us. Tuning in, you will hear all about what it’s been like to see his audience grow, his research process, his notecard system and how he measures them, the time he spends reading, the idea of honing your filter, and why he likes making physical notes instead of digital ones. We then delve into his incredible newsletter and how it has evolved before Billy tells us about how he aims to achieve his ultimate goal; to write books. Finally, we discuss Billy’s definition of ‘creative health’ and why he is basically always working. To hear all this and more, press play now!
Key Points From This Episode:
- An introduction to today’s guest, Billy Oppenheimer.
- How Billy has grown his audience and what it’s been like to watch it grow.
- Why Billy relies on his research to create content and he shares his notecard system.
- How often he spends reading and how he knows when to give up on a book.
- What honing your filter means and how Billy does that.
- Billy walks us through his entire process when reading and making notes on a book.
- The pros and cons of physical notes as opposed to digital ones and why he prefers physical.
- Billy’s newsletter, the process, its evolution, and how it helps him consume information.
- Why Billy considers social media after he’s written his newsletter.
- He tells us about his ultimate goal to write books.
- What his mentor, Ryan Holiday has taught him about writing.
- How Billy divides his time between working on his newsletter and working for Ryan.
- The (very small) role ChatGPT plays in Billy’s work.
- Why Billy measures the number of notecards he makes every single day.
- Billy’s definition of ‘creative health’.
Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode: