Free refill: creativity, humility and continuous learning

Florianópolis airport. The trip already feels over. Done: I zipped up my suitcase and with that almost automatic gesture, the trip closed and my head went blank for a few seconds. But no. About to head home, I stopped for a burger and my cup on the table spoke to me: two words that stopped me cold. The metaphor showed up on its own.

Refueling at Florianópolis airport.

"Free refill." What is that. What can that even be. Right there, I start thinking about creativity as a search engine. Something that fills up, you drink it, it goes half empty, you fill it again, and so on as long as the thirst lasts. Creating and loving what you make leaves you hungry for more. And that hunger tells you where to look. You want more, because you know perfectly well that when you find it, you're unstoppable, and so you keep searching. The cycle doesn't stop.

There's a place of humility in all of this that I also love. How did we end up talking about humility from a disposable cup? Well, that's the magic of searching and searching, for answers, for inspiration, for everything. There's enormous value in humility and continuous learning, in the non-arrogant stance. The truth is you'll never know everything, and that's not a flaw, it's the condition: the rules of this beautiful game are simple: whoever thinks they've already arrived, stopped growing automatically.

My brain thinks like a designer, but this isn't just about the design world. What comes in from the personal side feeds you as a creative person and vice versa. Everything adds up, everything connects. ALWAYS.

Back to the little cup. There, present. Ready to resonate with whoever looks at it with different eyes. Always ready for the refill. Not out of need, but by choice.

Magic can live in the disposable too.

J.