This Conversation Made Me a Sharper Editor
About this episode
A conversation about creativity and editing with Adam Moss, the magazine editor who founded 7 Days and remade The New York Times Magazine and New York magazine. Klein says the talk made him a sharper editor. Moss's central insight: editing is sensitivity to one's own reactions — trust your reaction, and get everyone, including artists, to trust theirs. Drawing on his book "The Work of Art," built from 43 interviews with artists, he describes three stages of making anything: imagining, shaping (editing), and executing — with the middle stage where most people get stuck. They discuss speed and creativity, throwing work away cheaply to enable risk, Sondheim's process, and listening to the body like choreographer Twyla Tharp. On AI: Moss says the chatbot makes everyone an editor not a maker, flattening taste. On hiring: he wants confidence but not too much, an interesting mind, and the charisma to say no.