Daily Creative with Todd Henry

James Dyson built 5,127 prototypes over roughly five years, which on paper is the least efficient way imaginable to make a vacuum cleaner, and yet the person capable of building the final one existed only because of the 5,126 that came before it. Todd opens with that story to ask a question every creative professional and leader needs to answer honestly: which of the struggle...

In 1963, a losing high school high jumper in Medford, Oregon, turned his back to the bar and went over headfirst. People laughed. Coaches told him to stop. Five years later Dick Fosbury won Olympic gold, and today nobody jumps any other way.

That is the story of what it means to be singular, and it has never mattered more. AI can now produce competent creative work inst...

In this episode, we dive deep into the pervasive influence of "ghost rules"—those unwritten, unspoken expectations that quietly dictate team dynamics and decision-making. We unpack a dramatic real-world example from Ford's historic turnaround and dissect how invisible beliefs around permissions, accountability, candor, and tact can shape (or sabotage) culture and creative per...

In this episode, we explore what it means to create meaningful work in an era dominated by unprecedented technological tools. Using the bizarre linguistic experiment of Adriano Celentano’s 1972 hit—an Italian pop song composed entirely of nonsensical syllables that mimic English—we draw analogies to today’s creative landscape. We discuss the risks of letting artificial fluenc...