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Welcome to Brainstorm, our book on productive obsessions. The habit of mind that Brainstorm describes is one of the brain’s glories. You can give your brain the gift of a productive obsession by inviting it to think hard about something.

In The Van Gogh Blues, I explained that making meaning helps combat the existential depression that so many creative people experience and provided a vocabulary of meaning to support a person’s meaning-making efforts. “Productive obsession” is a wonderful phrase to add to that vocabulary.

A productive obsession is an idea that you choose for good reasons and pursue with all of your brain’s power. It might be an idea for a novel, a business, or the solution to a personal problem. You take your idea and really bite into it, providing it with genuine neuronal devotion. A series of these productive obsessions is the exact equivalent of a lifetime of making meaning.

There are many books that help you extinguish your unwanted, unproductive obsessions. Brainstorm, by contrast, champions and salutes the unrivaled power of productive obsessions. Read Brainstorm today and begin enlisting billions of neurons in the service of your passions and ideals.

Please enjoy this site. You’ll find a productive obsession checklist to help you get started, information on my workshops and trainings, and more. Welcome to Brainstorm!