Why would anyone, ANYONE, listen to the woman who put forth the most narcissistic, self-involved book written in the last 25 years? I wanted to fucking punch her in the ovary 40 pages in.

"Blah, blah, blah, my life is fucking tragic, I'm well off and blonde and thin and I have friends that love me and lovers and have all the advantages offered to me but I'm so empty."

Anything this woman has to offer the world is clouded by her WHINE.

@1 Amen!

I cannot believe the Stranger just posted an endorsement of Elizabeth Gilbert. I've lost all respect for this publication.

@1 Completely agree. I kept reading, waiting: Where's the sarcastic punchline? Where is it???

TED = Bullshittest bullshit, that was ever bull shat.

That was a lovely talk, I've heard it before but not in a while now. Thanks for reminding me. And I take all of her self-involvedness over the complaints from comments 1-4.

I keep reading it a "genus" and have been muttering "c'mon ailurus fulgens, you've got a free cake comin!" during the entire article.

I don't care at all for Elizabeth Gilbert's work, but this was a very insightful talk. I love Jen's response to it, and am thrilled to hear more about the internal dialogue at the Stranger around the Genius Awards. Thanks Jen for this great post.

If you are interested in "the creative process", I would suggest you read the book by Jonah Lehrer called, Imagine: How creativity works. It conveys the actual science behind creativity. This is a good talk, but just a mere glimpse into what is really going on in all of our heads!