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When scientist Zorana Ivcevic Pringle first started out in academia as an undergraduate student, she wanted to study interesting people. Unfortunately, thats not a scientific term, and it carries with it a value judgement (also unscientific, as fun as it sounds). I started being interested in describing what creative people are like, and understanding that complexity in a creative personality, she says. They seem to embody these dichotomies, things that oftentimes dont go together in most people. It grabs your attention to something really important. She frames creativity in her research around strength and vulnerabilities, particularly engaged in how both personality and processes feed a creative act or idea: How do you approach it when you have an idea? What happens with it? I became interested in what I ended up calling the process of self-regulation in creativity. And that is, how do you make yourself do it? Now, on the heels of launching her book The Creativity Choice (May 2025), Pringle, who is a senior research scientist at the Yale School of Medicines Center for Emotional Intelligence, admits she was onto something, and that dichotomy she senses about creativity is endlessly inspiring and interesting, across disciplines, everywhere. I wanted to study people who are complex, who are doing things that are different, and who are pushing boundaries of what is possible. The body of work shes cultivated in more than two decades of researching creative individuals and their processes is both incredibly layered and also fundamentally pedestrian. We all can relate to it, even if we dont have the last name of Bezos, Einstein, or Monet. Creativity has a lot of fun in it. We dont talk enough about it, but it also has times that are very hardI mean, excruciatingly hard. We encounter obstacles, as a rule. Nothing you ever try works out. Thats disappointing, frustrating, overwhelming. That can be stressful. We have to deal with that and on some level accept it will happen. We have to have comfort that we can handle it somehow. I became fascinated by that. I am very motivated by frustration. I work from the world of science. A gap, a question, something thats missing. I find it frustrating: Why hasnt this been asked? And then I want to ask it and work on it. I want to see how you can start answering it. That process of okay you have an idea but what are you going to do to make it real is fascinating. I sometimes start my talks with a New Yorker cartoon that shows a cocktail party. An Upper East Side-ish cocktail party. Theres a group of people and someone says, Do you know it is Harry who invented the daiquiri? He just never did anything with it. We chuckle because we have an understanding and a recognition of Harrys in real lifepeople who have ideas but dont do anything with it. We don’t always follow up on all of our ideas. There are reasons why people might not follow up on ideas. Oftentimes, the pictures of the creative process in the popular media are either limiting or more unintentionally discouraging. I love the picture book What Do You Do with an Idea? By Kobi Yamada. Its one of those rare things thats actually true to the creative process. That book is showing, Okay, I don’t know what to do with it. I’m just going to ignore it. And then it stays there, then you start on it. Okay, now you’re starting to nurture it, and then it starts growing with you. It is truly a stunning book. It is wonderful to see those kinds of portrayals in the popular media, but those are rare. There are barriers that we have to get over, that are psychological in nature. The sense of risk and discomfort associated with creativity, wondering whether we have confidence. I have done a study where I wanted to see what goes on in people’s mindsthe psychological experiencewhen they were considering whether to share ideas. And I found three strands of thinking: One is outwardly oriented. It is asking, well, what are people going to say about it? Are they going to find it silly? Are they going to think it’s stepping on someones toes? Is somebody going to be angeredgatekeepers, stakeholders, supervisors; angering them is not the best idea. These are real considerations, and we shouldn’t take them lightly. Another kind of consideration is more inward-oriented. And that one is, well, this is making me self-conscious. This is making me anxious, that personal discovery. And then the third consideration is completely different, and it’s saying this creative work, this trying to do something new, something originalbut effective and making a differenceis important to who I am as a person. It’s almost not a choice. You are making a choice, but it’s like involuntary because it’s just an expression of who you are. How you answer these outward and inward considerations is going to determine whether you start or not. Sometimes I hear people say, Oh, you have to get comfortable with risk. You have to get comfortable with this discomfort. You have to be fearless. I’m like, “No, you do not.” If that was the case, I would never have done anything. I came across this quote from Georgia OKeefe and she said something like, I’ve been absolutely terrified every moment of my lifeand I’ve never let it keep me from doing a single thing I wanted to do. I am not fearless, and I am not comfortable. And so if that desire and that sense of identity and the importance of creative work is there, it is possible to embark on it and do it, even if you are not comfortable. We’re just accepting the discomfort, to start the process. That is truly empowering. Those messages, you have to find the fearless in youwhat if you cant? Does that mean you cannot be creative? It implies it. It is not the case. I don’t think that you are born a fully creative person. It is true that for some people, some things that are important for creativity may come easier than for others. That does not mean that those for whom it doesn’t come all super easy cannot learn. We have wonderful evidence that creativity skills can be learned. We are starting to accumulate evidence that attitudes and mindsets relevant to creativity can also be learned. So all of these different pieces of the puzzle that is creativity can be learned. There is a whole constellation of things we need to be creative to the maximum the potenial. For the book, I interviewed the founder of Pinterest, Ben Silbermann. I really loved that interview because he had this unusual level of awareness and insight about the nature of the creative process, and in particular, the importance of the social side of it. He provided this really vivid example: When you are thinking of starting a company and you happen to be in the Bay Area, at the parties you go to, people discuss starting companies; at the bars you go to, people discuss starting companies. We don’t talk enough about that. We focus on individuals with great ideas. Sure thats important, but they are not coming out of a vacuum. There are reasons there are hubs where particular kinds of things tend to happen. Creativity is social, even when it does not seem like it. There is a big list of misconceptions on creativity. When I speak to my son, I say to him, if there is one thing, only one thing that you are going to learn from me about creativity, it is that first ideas are usually almost as a rule, not the most creative. And that seems to be, I have learned, counterintuitive to people. Thats because of the misconceptions about creativity that we have, that it is something that comes to you when you feel creative. We attach the word feeling to creativity because of how we were conditioned to think about it. But it is not a feeling. And because of this idea that it just comes over us that it’s not the result of purposeful thinking and work, we have this impression that the first thing that comes to mind has to be the most creative. But we can easily demonstrate that its not the case. There is a disproportionate association of creativity and genius. And it has very negative consequences. If we say the word creativity, we immediately think of Einstein, Monet, and Steve Jobs, then we look at ourselves and say, “Well, I am not that, because most of us are not that. If you say you are not that, which chances are you are not, then it is logical to think that there’s something special about them. That they were born with it. And if they are born with it and you are not, then there’s nothing much you can do. So why even try? And often in educational settings, we are trying to encourage and empower young people by putting forth these examples. But the exact opposite can happen. Some say that creativity is the highest when we have full freedom of action: no constraints, everything goes, but creativity is not about full freedom. Your mind has to start somewhere. And the way the mind works, it starts with what is familiar. What is familiar is something youve done previously. If youve done it previously it cant be original, by definition. Intuitively, it seems that creativity is this free floating, spontaneous thing. But no, not even for artists, who are the most stereotypically creative. Let’s look at that in the artistic practice: I am only going to use these materials. I’m only going to use this method for a particular thing. Those are constraints. Recognizing that the creative block does not mean that I am not capable. I can more easily say, “Okay, here are some things I can do about it to make it as short as possible.” I was using all of the strategies in the book, personally in the process of writing it, and I remember, vividly, getting stuck on a chapter about getting stuck. I stared at it, and I stared at it, and just was not going anywhere. And I said, well, I have to look at it in a different way. And I knew that each of the pieces I had felt right, but they were just not flowing. I printed my chapter draft that was not working and I cut it up and physically pasted different sections and then sat on the ground and arranged them in different ways. You can take different bits and pieces of a problem and start arranging them either symbolically or physically or in different ways to see what’s going to start clicking to create a full picture.
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E-Commerce
In June, Google released its newest smartphone operating system, Android 16. The same month, Apple previewed its next smartphone operating system, iOS 26. The new OSes are packed with exciting features, yet each still fails to address a particular pain point that their users have had for years concerning two of the platforms most-used apps: Apple Maps and Google Maps. Specifically, there is still no easy way to transfer saved map data from one app to another. This ends up locking users into one mapping platform, which is good for the two tech giants involved, but bad for individuals who want more control over their data. However, all is not lost, and if you do wish to transfer your data between Apple Maps and Google Maps, there is a (time-consuming) way to do it. Heres what you need to know. It’s absurd that Apple Maps and Google Maps dont play nice together Im a big fan of both Apple Maps and Google Maps. Apple Maps has made significant progress in recent years to rise to the level of Google Maps, the current king. Google Maps still has better point-of-interest data (i.e., business information, such as live foot traffic data) and considerably more contextual data about a location, thanks to its crowd-sourced reviews and photos, but Apple Maps has surpassed Google Maps in several areas. Its strengths include a less cluttered interface and a more visually appealing map design than Google Maps’s. The fact that each mapping app has different strengths is the reason that I, like many others, switch between them. However, unlike other competing apps the two companies makeemail clients, photo apps, address books, and web browsersI can’t easily transfer the data Ive created in Apple or Google Maps (in this case, hundreds of saved locations Ive bookmarked over the years) to the competing app. I see no good reason for this lack of functionality, other than to bind a user to a specific mapping platform. After all, when you save a location in Apple Maps or Google Maps, youre simply telling the app to remember a locationan address. This address can be easily processed by any mapping platform. Indeed, its what these platforms are designed to do. That’s why it’s so ridiculous that neither mapping app has the simple transfer your saved locations feature that allows the porting of data from one to the other. Still, at least there is a workaround. Heres how to transfer your saved locations between Apple Maps and Google Maps If you do want to transfer your saved locations from Apple Maps to Google Maps, or vice versa, you can. It will just require some tedious manual labor on your part. Here’s the best way Ive found to transfer my saved locations from one mapping app to another. (Note: as always, before performing any kind of data transfer, you should always back up a copy of that data first for safekeeping.) From Google Maps to Apple Maps: Go to takeout.google.com. This is the Google tool that lets you download your Google data. Select Maps (your places), then click Next Step, and then Create Export. Google will email you a link when your saved places are ready to download. Open the downloaded takeout ZIP file. Now, open the Saved Places.json file inside. Clicking on it should open the file in a web browser. Every saved location you created in Google Maps will appear in the JSON file, in a slightly unusual format. Each entry will list the coordinates, Google Map URL, address, country code, and name of the establishment. Now comes the tedious part. Open up Apple Maps and either copy the name of the establishment or its address into the search field in the Apple Maps app. Now, click the + button in the address or business listing in Apple Maps to save the location in the app. Repeat this process for every saved listing in the JSON file. Be aware that it could take hours, or even days, depending on the number of saved places you have. From Apple Maps to Google Maps: Unfortunately, porting your saved locations from Apple Maps to Google Maps is a bit harder because there is no way that I’ve found to generate a list of all your saved places. That means you’re facing even more manual work if you want to move your data from Apple Maps to Google Maps. Open Apple Maps. Tap your profile photo. Tap Library. Tap Places. Tap on a saved location. On the locations information sheet, scroll down and copy the locations address. Alternately, copy down the location’s name. Now open the Google Maps app and paste the copied address or the location’s name in the search field. When you find the location in Google Maps, tap on its listing and then tap the Save button. Tedious, right? Pro tip: After completing either one of these manual saved location transfers, its probably a good idea to get in the habit of bookmarking a saved location in the other mapping app when you save it in one. Why cant I easily swap my data between Apple and Google Maps? I asked both Google and Apple why they dont allow users to easily export their saved locations from their respective mapping apps into a competitor’s, and why they dont permit users to import a list of saved locations into their mapping apps. Neither provided an answer. Apple simply confirmed that users cannot export their saved places in Apple Maps, and mentioned that users can share individual saved locations with others. Google directed me to its Takeout feature and explained that users can import locations saved from other apps into a “Google My Maps layer, which isnt part of the main Google Maps app that users see when they open the app. In other words, Google allows users to import saved locations into a new layer, but those locations wont appear on the default map they use every day. It’s absurd in 2025 that there’s still no simple way to share saved locations between the worlds two biggest mapping platforms. Switching from one mapping service to another should be as straightforward as changing web browsers. Just like I can easily export bookmarks from Safari and import them into Chrome, I should be able to do the same with my saved maps data. Hopefully, both Apple and Google will fix this issue in the future. Until then, adventurous users with time on their hands can try the manual steps outlined above.
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E-Commerce
Julia Austin has spent her career as a startup operator, executive coach, educator, investor, and board member. She is on the faculty at Harvard Business School and is faculty cochair of the Arthur Rock Center for Entrepreneurship. Whats the big idea? After the Idea is a field manual to help you see around corners when founding or joining a startup: to understand whats coming up next and not feel alone when things get hard. Startup life is messy, beautiful, overwhelming, and oftentimes rewarding. This guide provides a tool kit for navigating the complex reality of moving from a great idea to a functioning business with clarity and confidence. Below, Julia shares five key insights from her new book, After the Idea: What It Really Takes to Create and Scale a Startup. Listen to the audio versionread by Julia herselfbelow, or in the Next Big Idea App. 1. The real work starts after the idea. The journey from idea to company is rarely linearand almost never glamorous. Most founders have an OMG moment early on in which they realize that they are not just building a product, fundraising, and selling: they are building a company. In the early stages of a startup, focus tends to be on the immediate needs around creating a product rather than on a more holistic view of what the business may look like months or years from now. It can be easier to focus on whats right in front of you when the big picture can be a daunting, or even paralyzing, concept. Founders are often portrayed to the outside world as crushing it, but internally, they may be filled with doubt, imposter syndrome, and fear. They can be plagued by thoughts like, Does my idea suck and no one is telling me? Do I know anything about running a business or leading a team? If every company founder could go back in time and rethink their startup plan, most would say they wished they had been more intentional about the operations of their business. It is never too early to be thoughtful about team culture and hiring, brand image, finances, legal considerations, and everything else beyond the product or service on offer. Most teams fail to get these tactics right at the start of a new venture, and not everyone has a coach or professor to show them the way. After the Idea is about the nuts and bolts of startups beyond just the product. Its about building something that works after the excitement fades and the real challenges kick in. 2. Move slow to go fast. Everyone loves the myth of overnight success. In startup culture, were told to move fast, break things, and launch quickly. But moving too fast before you understand the problems can waste months (potentially years) and a lot of money. I teach my students and clients to move slow to go fast. That means taking time early on to understand the customerwho they are, what they need, what they struggle with, and how they make decisionsthrough proper discovery work. Discovery goes beyond customer interviews. Thorough discovery involves observing your target audience in their natural environments and conducting experiments to better understand the problem you are solving. These techniques allow you to validate and invalidate assumptions to become more confident about what to buildand what to ignore. Discovery goes beyond customer interviews. In 2018, the founding team of Brij began with an idea to help consumers track valuable itemslike laptops or jacketsusing QR codes. The concept was a kind of digital insurance, helping lost items find their way back to their owners. Before building anything, they conducted real-world experiments by leaving tagged items in public places to observe how passersby responded. Through this, they learned what people valued and how likely others were to return certain itemsa water bottle, not so much; a laptop, yes. More importantly, they realized the real opportunity wasnt in lost-and-found services, but in using QR codes as a marketing tool for consumer brands. That insight led them to pivot before hiring a team or building infrastructure for a business they didnt want to run. Their discovery work clarified the business they truly wanted to build. Just like checking the weather before a hike, discovery work doesnt give you every detail, but it helps you get oriented before heading into the unknown. What you learn wont just shape your product, it will influence the business you build, the roles you hire for, how you sell, and how you operate. Discovery is the foundation. Its one of the smartest investments to make at the start of a startup journey. 3. The universal challenges founders face. There are many types of founder stories. Founders come from all walks of lifewomen and men, people of color, from around the globebuilding everything from enterprise software to food products to mission-driven consumer brands. No matter how different their businesses were, their challenges were strikingly similar. Every founder must wrestle with hiring the right peopleoften while competing with better-funded companies or trying to convince others to join something that barely exists. Building a team isnt just about finding talent; its about aligning on values, communicating clearly, and building trust under pressure. Then, theres managing cashsomething that can make or break a startup. Founders have to make tough trade-offs: Do we invest in growth or extend runway? Can we afford this hire now, or do we wait? Raising capital, budgeting, forecasting, and understanding burn rate become daily concerns. Building a team isnt just about finding talent; its about aligning on values, communicating clearly, and building trust under pressure. Legal complexity is another constant. Early decisionslike how to incorporate, how to split equity, or whether your IP should be protectedcan have ripple effects years down the line. Many founders dont realize theyre setting the foundation for future funding rounds, partnerships, or even exit scenarios. Through it all, there are difficult conversations. With cofounders when visions diverge. With investors when goals arent being met. With customers when promises fall short. Add to that the emotional rollercoaster of building something from nothing and its no surprise founders often feel isolated or overwhelmed. For anyone trying to turn an idea into a real, functioning business, while the industries may differ, the patternsthe messy, high-stakes, emotional work of building something from scratchare surprisingly universal. 4. The emotional side of startups. Founders are constantly managing pressurefrom investors, from customers, from themselves. If you have cofounders, the interpersonal dynamics can get intense fast. Ive seen many startups unravel, not because of product issues, but because the huan side wasnt managed well, resulting in burnout, resentment, misalignment, or a lack of trust. The number one statement my coaching clients say when we start a session is, I am so overwhelmed. Starting or joining a new venture can be an exhilarating experience, but it can also be incredibly demanding and stressful. When jumping onto this rollercoaster, its crucial to be aware of the potential impact on your mental health and take proactive steps to safeguard your well-being. The first step is to be honest with yourself and acknowledge the stress. Admitting to yourself and your cofounder, partner, or coach that you are stressed is a step in the right direction. Once you acknowledge the stress, take steps to manage it. Whether youre a founder, early team member, or investor, its essential to accept imperfection and embrace uncertainty because both are constants in startup life. Prioritize self-care, set clear boundaries, and protect your personal time (because a startup will take all of it if you let it). Find a supportive community of objective, empathetic ears that you can turn to in times of stress. And consider working with a coach who understands the realities of startup life and can help you navigate and normalize the inevitable challenges. Building a company isnt just about strategy; its about resilience, relationships, and emotional endurance. The average founder journey for a business that gets off the ground is 710 years. The more intentional you are about managing all the feels, the stronger your company will be. 5. Defining success. Alignment around a shared vision for success and desired outcomes is tantamount to the long-term success of any startup. While everyone wants to jump into product discovery and solution building, alignment on where your startup is heading and what success looks like is pretty darn important. Early in his startup journey, my student Sam and his cofounder aligned on what they each wanted in terms of financial achievements of the business within a certain time frame, but they didnt get into their personal outcome scenarios. This is common for many founders. Its easier to center the success conversation on product growth, types of customers, and revenue. It can be daunting to have vulnerable conversations and tie the success of the business to your personal goals and aspirations. It wasnt until an acquisition opportunity came up that Sam and his cofounder were faced with the reality that they were not, in fact, aligned. Sam was excited about the financial upside and the opportunity to start working on a new idea; his cofounder, on the other hand, was perfectly happy maintaining a modest business that he had full control over, rather than becoming an employee at someone elses company. Whether you are a founder or a joiner, I encourage you to consider why you are entering Startup Land. Getting clarity on why you want to start a new venture is important. Every aspiring entrepreneur or startup joiner I chat with has a different reason for why they want to get on this crazy ride. Some want the autonomy and control that comes from being their own boss (a myth if you take outside capital) or the ability to innovate quickly. Some want to prove themselves to their family and friends, or want to make an impact on the world. However, its hard to imagine what that path will look or feel like once a business is off and running or when its time to pursue an exit or, for some, throw in the towel because they just cant get there for any number of reasons. Whether you are a founder or a joiner, I encourage you to consider why you are entering Startup Land and what success means to you beyond the potential for a big financial outcome. Record your thoughts in some way so you can reflect on this over time, because what success might look like today can change as you mature throughout the journey. This article originally appeared in Next Big Idea Club magazine and is reprinted with permission.
Category:
E-Commerce
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