Friday Philosophies: Taylor Swift’s Rituals for Collaboration and Inspiration

Welcome to the first episode in our new weekly series, Friday Philosophies.

Join us each Friday as we explore the mental models, frameworks, and rituals of creative baddies, and dive into our favorite philosophies to uncover the peculiarities and common threads between them.

This week, we’re peeking behind the curtain into the mind of the prolific Taylor Swift, to muse on the rituals and divergent strategies that have guided her career so far.

In this episode, we cover:

  • What rituals guide Taylor’s approach to songwriting

  • How to nurture the mystical and inexplicable moments when a fully formed idea pops into your head

  • Her preferred morning routine and transition into creative work

  • Her philosophies on collaboration and finding inspiration

What ritual has kept you in creative flow lately? Let us know and ⁠send us a DM on Instagram⁠⁠⁠ or ⁠⁠⁠send us a voice note here⁠⁠⁠!

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I think in the grand scheme of things, I also came late to the Swifty movement, probably because of internalized misogyny... And then she released 1989 and I felt every cell in my body turnover and all of a sudden, I was a Swifty fan, and I would die for this woman. I love her. I think she’s so smart and so weird, and I like that a lot.
— Michelle
One thing about Taylor Swift is that she’s like a copious note-taker. She’s always taking notes, and she keeps them in her notes app on her phone. She also said that she writes them down in journals, and she writes pretty regularly in order to process her feelings.
— Michelle
Letting the creation be the thing that is the through line, I think, is really valuable. I often find myself being like, how does all of these make sense together? And then I remember, well, it makes sense together because it all comes from me. So I’m the through line. I don’t need to generate some meta narrative in order to make it all make sense or make all the parts of me make sense together. They make sense together because they’re connected to me.
— Michelle
Nothing, that you end up giving up as a failure. It’s just a step to the next thing, one door opens the next. And that kind of sounds like that’s Taylor’s perspective with her art.
— Michelle