Creative detours
jasonleow • 13 Dec 2023 •
I didn’t get much work done yesterday because I got super distracted making Lego box sets of Singapore, using @levelsio’s custom GPT called “Brick Box Generator”.
But I think it ended up being a great distraction that I sorely needed. Not had this much fun making random sh*t in a while!
Truth is, I feel tired. Maybe it’s partly because of my Github commit streak. Maybe it’s partly because of showing up daily to write, ship and tweet. Maybe it’s partly because of my money woes. Maybe it’s partly because of end of year fatigue. Or maybe it’s just lack of sleep for the past week (most likely).
Whatever the reason(s), it’s there, and having a little boost helps.
Sometimes a creative detour is the key to being more effective and efficient, as counterintuitive as it seems. Because it’s just the law of diminishing returns if I keep hammering at it when I’m running on fumes. Motivation, energy levels, creativity, everything.
The fact that I went viral (309 upvotes, 66 comments) on Reddit r/singapore helped a lot too with the dopamine haha. I also posted it on Facebook, LinkedIn and a few chat groups to share with my local peers and friends.
So the detour—while seemingly wasting time on the surface—helps top me back up in that motivation, energy, creativity.
Creative detours, the secret productivity hack.
Comments
@Winkletter Exactly! LEGO is leaving money on the table not having this tool.
Interestingly, if I used DALL-E itself (not the custom GPT), it refuses to generate it due to trademarks. I wonder how levelsio bypassed that…
@jasonleow I think ChatGPT just doesn’t have as many restrictions. I don’t know if they trust the users more, or maybe since it has to go through the GPT they have more nuanced restrictions. LEGO might be okay, but if you said something like a Nazi-themed LEGO set it might not work. I’m too afraid to even try it, lest I anger the OpenAI gods.
Oh I meant using DALL-E inside ChatGPT. It didn’t want to generate the Lego set cos trademark.
That GPT works really well. DALL-E not only is able to make a LEGO version of what I ask for, but repeats it on two sides of the box art and the booklet. If I were LEGO I would hire someone to run ideas through this all day long.