Most personal is most creative

The Prison of Financial Mediocrity, curated.supply, Pixar's true story and many more...

Jan 04, 2026

hi 👋 Prado here

every week (or so), I publish one essay & 10 interesting things that help readers become healthy, wealthy, and wise

Most personal is most creative

one philosophy i want everyone to follow in 2026 - “most personal is most creative”

let me tell you a story of how i came across this one-liner and how it worked in my life

few months ago, i was watching a video where I first heard this quote

it was the speech given by Bong Joon Ho (Director of movie - Parasite) after winning the Oscar Award. he said:

“when i was young and studying cinema, there was a saying, “Most personal is most creative” by Martin Scorsese.“

it impacted me deeply.

while working with creative people, the quickest and easiest way to get people to be creative is

let them create something personal to them.

we work with clients who come with certain expectations.

but when you let the artist create something that feels personal to them - they change the game.

if you are someone who works with other people a lot, this is a great philosophy to follow

most personal is most creative

let them cook and slowly teach them how you see the world.

this philosophy also applies when you are stuck in life.

not sure what to work on next? find something personal to you

build something that feels personal to you.

imagine a child asking you to tell a story and you are not sure which one to tell

a personal story is the easiest story to tell

few more philosophies i want to follow in 2026:

underpromise, overdeliver
play long term games, with long term people
seek pain, maximise fun
healthy, wealthy and then wise
blinders on, locked in (context)

anything you’d add to this list?

10 interesting things from this week

1. 50% of U.S. vinyl buyers don't own a record player (Blog)

the learning is compressed in one line

"the more the digital domain saturates us with instant, on-demand content, the more we prize the unique, unrepeatable or tangible experience."

The Prison of Financial Mediocrity (read)

3. Pixar’s True Story (read)

4. check out curated.supply

5. another interesting website: lotteryeverysecond.lffl.me (a website that runs a lottery every second)

6. Question of the week:- what are the big decisions you are working on?

Leave a comment

7. Picture of the week:- happy 2026 y’all

8. Current read: The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
what are you reading?

9. Meme of the week:- my singaporean friends will get this joke

if you didn’t get it, watch this video

10. Quotes of the week:

“Slowly the increasing complexity of tools and trades subjected the unskilled or weak to the skilled or strong; every invention was a new weapon in the hands of the strong, and further strengthened them in their mastery and use of the weak.” - Will Durant, The Story of Civilization.
(Tweet this quote)
“Climb the mountain so you can see the world, not so the world can see you” - David McCullough Jr
(Tweet this quote)
“All warfare is based on deception.

Hence, when able to attack, we must seem unable.
when using our forces, we must seem inactive,
when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away,
when far away, we must make him believe we are near” Sun Tsu - Art of War
(Tweet this quote)