Issue 87: A Bulletin for Big Ideas and Better Business

OPINION/ CREATIVITY

Don’t Let The Muse Dictate Your Job

💬 Sir John Hegarty

Ap Dijksterhuis’s recent piece in The Guardian on creativity and the unconscious mind lays out a four-stage theory of how ideas are formed: preparation, incubation, illumination, verification. It’s not a new framework, Graham Wallas first proposed it in the 1920s. But it still holds weight. You fill your head with knowledge. Step away. Let your subconscious simmer. A spark appears. Then, crucially, you shape it into something useful.

Dijksterhuis focuses on that middle phase – incubation – where you stop thinking and let your brain do the thinking for you. And I’m not here to dismiss that. In fact, I recently shared how Darwin took two long walks a day while writing On the Origin of Species. He didn’t do that to escape his work, but to fuel it. The walk was part of the process.

However there is a danger in romanticising passivity. This idea that great ideas float to us while we’re sipping green tea and watching clouds form? That’s not a method, or certainly not one that’s viable when there are deadlines and clients to answer to. Take AE Housman, the poet referenced in the article. He got three stanzas handed to him on a walk, then waited a year for the fourth. A year. 

There’s a hard truth no one likes to hear: the unconscious is only useful when you’ve fed it something to chew on. Incubation without saturation is just idling. I’ve always said “I work in Advertising, I don’t live in Advertising”. Read widely. Look around. Absorb culture, contradiction, beauty, chaos.

The unconscious is only useful when you’ve fed it something to chew on

Yes, go for the walk. Lose the headphones. Give your brain space to breathe. But do it after you’ve done the real work. The thinking, the reading, the sketching, the failing. Then maybe you’ll get your fourth stanza. But don’t wait for the muse to finish the poem for you. She’s unreliable. And if you’re in the business of ideas, you can’t afford to let someone else, especially your subconscious, do your job.

THE AGENDA

✏️ Pencil it in: your agenda for the coming week

1.
Cinema returns to centre stage in Spain as the San Sebastián International Film Festival opens its 73rd edition. Known for championing distinctive voices and socially charged storytelling, it remains one of the most quietly influential fixtures on the film calendar.

19th – 27th September

2.
Toronto hosts this year’s Future Festival World Summit, where strategy meets speculation and AI takes centre stage. With the theme How to Innovate in the Era of AI Super Agents, this year’s edition will explore the future of creativity, marketing, and culture through the lens of AI, behavioural science, and trend forecasting.

23rd – 25th September

3.
Contemporary Istanbul enters its 19th edition as one of the region’s most ambitious art fairs – asserting Istanbul’s role in the global art conversation. Held at the dramatic Tersane waterfront, it brings together galleries from across continents, offering a view of contemporary art shaped by geography, politics and power.

24th – 28th September

Illustration by Sir John Hegarty

GLOBAL / AI

Keep Thinking

Photo by Anthropic

Anthropic has launched Keep Thinking, its first major brand campaign for Claude. Created by Mother, the work positions Claude as a “thinking partner” – collaborative, safe, and designed to push ideas forward rather than simply deliver answers.

While rivals tout speed and scale, Anthropic is selling reflection. The campaign suggests Claude is less a machine for shortcuts and more a companion for deeper thought. In the crowded AI market, it’s a distinct – and deliberately human – positioning.

Our recent white paper revealed that most people believe AI will make creativity more important, not less. But they’re still unsure on whether that creativity will come from humans or machines. It’s been 28 years since Apple reminded the world to “Think Different,” anchoring their innovation in humanity and embedding it in popular culture. This feels like the next chapter of that story. A rallying cry, to put humans at the centre of the next technological revolution.

GLOBAL / CULTURE

A Boom in Biennials

Photo by Getty Images

Even as globalisation is said to be in retreat, international art biennials are on the rise. From Sharjah to São Paulo, Kochi to Gwangju, these sprawling exhibitions are multiplying – and drawing growing audiences, artists, and sponsors.

The first major biennial, Venice, began in 1895 as a platform to showcase Italian artistic talent. By the 1990s, the format had expanded dramatically. Today, there are estimated to be more than 300 biennials worldwide. Spurred by postmodernism, these exhibitions evolved into global stages for disruption. What once celebrated national pride now champions creative pluralism. In an era of narrowing borders and rising populism, the biennial offers an elegant counterpunch: creative internationalism in action.

The FT notes this as a paradox: a global art infrastructure thriving in an age of political fragmentation. But perhaps it’s no paradox at all. In uncertain times, culture becomes soft power. And biennials offer what other institutions now struggle to provide: visibility, dialogue, and a global platform.

“The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt”

/Silvia Plath