Taylor Swift and the Principles of Hot Streaks

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Taylor Swift just released her latest album, Evermore. It is wonderful. It is also the second album she’s released this year, following Folklore, which is also wonderful, and was released back in July. The crazy thing is this: Swift didn’t start working on either of these albums until April of this year. This means that she averaged writing a song about every 7 days for 225 days. Originally, Folklore was slated to come out in March of 2021, and Evermore significantly down the road from there. As context, before this creative burst, Swift put out an album about once every two years.  Yet many critics say these two recent albums, in a span of just a few months, may be her best yet. In this episode of The Growth Equation podcast, we explore Swift’s hot streak as a way to better understand the science, and art, of getting into a groove more broadly. We discuss entering a rhythm, maintaining a rhythm, and exiting a rhythm; as well as the common cycle of mastery: from simple, to complex, to simple but different.

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