Kafi Pierre

Creative Dir | Arts Advocate | Triple Threat| Podcaster| Live, Work, Create...Repeat

[Kafi Pierre @kafipierre]

@CityofPickering We get snow everything year. It’s a shame what you do this to seniors. After shoveling your plows came through and put a mountain of waist high deep snow on my parents driveway and blocked them in @KevinAshe you need to do better for your constituents!!

[Kafi Pierre @kafipierre]

@MichelleObama She was and will always be THE STANDARD. Rest in Power Ms Robinson.

[Kafi Pierre @kafipierre]

Weigh in on Canadas draft clean electricity regs before it’s too late! https://t.co/0a5D8bIXPb #RenewablePowerForAll #EndFossilFuels

[Kafi Pierre @kafipierre]

Interview: Odile Gakire Katese on THE BOOK OF LIFE at McCullough Theatre https://t.co/mNaJJRWytC

[Kafi Pierre @kafipierre]

My dear friend is so brave

My bi-solar disorder https://t.co/D2yUduAXvq via @expressupdates

[Kafi Pierre @kafipierre]

Interview: Jewelle Blackman Reflects on Her Six-Year Journey With HADESTOWN https://t.co/ewVaHRss4V

[Steven @StevenTnyc]

@halleberry Happy Birthday queen hope you had a great day 🥰

[autumn🐊 @echo_ville]

beyoncé continues to attract such a diverse crowd - people truly feel safe and accepted at her shows.
look at this lady letting herself go and having a good time while everyone’s hyping her up! so heartwarming to see 😭

[Kafi Pierre @kafipierre]

Support the Black Repertory Group Theatre! - Sign the Petition! https://t.co/sw28SHtYPF via @CdnChange

[Billy Oppenheimer @bpoppenheimer]

In 1985, Nike held a 24-hour shoe design contest.

Nike was struggling. Their stock dropped 50%. They had to lay off people. Adidas, Converse, & Reebok were all selling more shoes.

So in a panicked attempt to find creative talent, Nike held a shoe design contest.

The winner was

A corporate architect named Tinker Hatfield.

"Two days after the competition," he said, "I wasn't even asked—I was told that I was now a footwear designer for Nike."

As he got to work on his first official shoe design, he thought about a building he had studied in architecture school: The Centre Pompidou in Paris.

The Centre Pompidou is an inside-out building, meaning that the structural, mechanical, and circulation systems are all exposed.

“That building,” Tinker said, “was describing what it was to the people of Paris. And I thought, ‘Well why not do that with a shoe? Let’s cut a hole in the side and show what’s in the shoe.’”

So Tinker designed an inside-out shoe:

The Air Max 1.

The Air Max 1 was a massive success, and it steered Nike's design direction from then on.

"To this day," Tinker says, "Phil Knight says I saved Nike."

Takeaway 1:

Had he not studied that building in Paris, Tinker says, he couldn’t have created the Air Max.

Creativity, he says, is a function of the “library in your head."

“When you sit down to create something...what you create is a culmination of everything you’ve seen and done previous to that point.”

Takeaway 2:

Tinker Hatfield went to architecture school and then he was a corporate architect for 4.5 years. Then, literally overnight, he became one of the best shoe designers in the world.

This makes me think of a counter-intuitive discovery made by psychologist Charles Spearman in 1904.

Before Spearman, the natural assumption was that the more you specialize in one thing, the worse you’ll be at other things.

Instead, Spearman discovered "the positive manifold" phenomenon.

He found that different abilities tend to be positively correlated. That the expertise gained through specialization is transferrable. That the cognitive and creative abilities cultivated as an architect could positively correlate with being a shoe designer.

- - -

"Creativity is a function of the previous work you put in."  — Robert Greene

Follow @bpoppenheimer for more content like this!

[Kafi Pierre @kafipierre]

The Canadian film and TV industry needs skilled labour now /via @globeandmail https://t.co/xEbwAwro1F

[Brandi Morin @Songstress28]

I’ve never seen Chief Adam cry. This is tough to take in. He’s fought 4 so long 4 the rights of his people; against industry, land/water being poisoned by oilsands. Now, the whole community of Fort Chip evacuated by boat & plane because a raging fire is at their back door. He stayed to help save it #ClimateEmergency

[Kafi Pierre @kafipierre]

Legendary singer Tina Turner dies at 83 - ABC News via @ABC - https://t.co/EmKHTvT8Ha

[Luminato Festival @Luminato]

Luminato is BACK June 7th to June 18th with exciting and unique programming set to invigorate Toronto with creativity!
Visit our website to see what's in store this June. 😉 https://t.co/5gAoT0gFUL
#Luminato2023 #ItsArt #ArtsFestival #SummerInToronto #TorontoFestival

[Kafi Pierre @kafipierre]

@Essence Best cover EVER!

[@realSarahPolley (she/her) @realsarahpolley]

If you grew up in a house of hockey fans...getting to do this narration for the opening of Hockey Night in Canada is more meaningful than going to the Oscars. (And my nephew Owen now thinks I am cool. Result!)#LeafsForever #leafsnation #hnic #hockey

[Sportsnet @Sportsnet]

“So sit back, because the story is getting to the interesting part.” 🎞️

Canadian Oscar-nominated filmmaker Sarah Polley (@realsarahpolley) opens #HockeyNight in Canada. 🍿🔥

[Romeo Candido @romeocandido]

30 years after my debut as a performer in Miss Saigon, my first musical as a composer will be premiering at @citadeltheatre in May. Edmonton is going orange this spring! Filipinos are taking the stage, front and centre and behind the scenes. let’s go! #prisondancer

[Kafi Pierre @kafipierre]

The magical underwater Kelp Forests of the Great Bear Sea could disappear forever if we don't act now. Donate to @standearth & support efforts to protect this critical ecosystem & the orcas and sea otters that depend on it:
https://t.co/cOqttPY7Iv

[Kafi Pierre @kafipierre]

Sign the petition: Invest in Ontario's Arts and Culture Sector https://t.co/kR0T2ugiTm