Falling into a rut is the worst thing you can do

Falling into a rut is the worst thing you can do. -- MTJ

After the game Bubble Bobble became a hit in the game industry, MTJ, creator of the game, decided to approach the next version differently.

Typically, when companies develop the next version of a game, they keep some aspects from the previous version — characters, stories, elements, the name of the game, etc.

MTJ decided to abandon them all and developed Rainbow Island. In some places, this next game got a bigger hit. When asked why he chose to do that, this was what he said.

I believe he made up his mind to stay creative and challenge himself to try diverse initiatives. It turned out good for him.

In my opinion, you need to make a good use of your judgement to decide when to follow the rules or break them. Some rules benefit you, for example, a design system allows you to put together designs fast. However, others hinder your creativity  —  “the reason why you should do this is that we’ve always done this way”.

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Can You Add Meanings to Socks? — A Practice on Denotative and Connotative Images

socks

I did some interesting practice on making denotative images and connotative images. A denotative image is a direct representation of an object from real life, whether it be cartoonized or realistic, made by pen or something else. A connotative image added an extra layer of “meaning” to the denotative image.

To start, I needed to choose an object. I chose a sock. My mission was to quickly do 10 denotative images (using different ways) and 3 connotative images on paper. A lot, huh? I thought so, too. After all, how can socks be sketched differently into that many images? But I decided to give it a try.

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Book Notes: Becoming Steve Jobs — A Growth Story

becoming steve jobs

“Becoming Steve Jobs” is a great book. As the authors Rick Tetzeli and Brent Schlender say, this is a growth story about Steve Jobs — how he grew from a two-person team to managing a company that has thousands of employees. There are a lot of books and articles depicting him as a complete genius and at the same time, a complete jerk. From this book, I saw his soft side, his care about his employees, friends, as well as his and others’ families.

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