The Secret To Being Creative

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so we're still on covert 19 lockdown in

France ran iodide a kilometer from home

to shop and exercise and to take a time

stamped form so after four weeks the

routine like foremost was getting

uninspiring our elderly neighbor just

rang the doorbell though and left a

letter and a random book the letter says

today I am not yet contaminated the book

is for your leisure time my twelve

little children are living in Paris and

Leon when in Taiwan one in New Zealand

and two and Antibes but they can't get

to me for fear of contaminating me your

neighbor 87 years old

very quiet days the book is by James

Thompson an 18th century Scottish poet

I've never heard of he became one of the

most popular poets of the early

nineteenth century although is now

largely forgotten he actually wrote the

lyrics to Rule Britannia but his most

famous work at the time was a long poem

called the Castle of indolence

it describes a wizard who's lured guests

into indulgence indolence and laziness

in his luxurious castle while enticing

at first the idleness of the Wizards

guests leads inevitably to problems and

in the second canto the knight of Arts

and Industry destroys the castle and

frees what's become prisoners in the

dungeon when the poem was written in

1758 two things were happening commerce

industry and innovation were expanding

leading towards the Industrial

Revolution but prosperity was also

leading to concerns about overindulgence

luxury and the immorality of rentier

capitalism and the appropriation of

wealth at the time Thompson was writing

there was also a discussion in England

about the benefits of quietness

of calm repose Lord Shaftesbury wrote

about the joys of retirement and

reflection for the mind

Thompson though disagreed work is hard

grueling even but the alternatives are

worse in the Castle of indolence he

writes without and that would come and

heavier Bale loose life unruly passions

and diseases pale the castle becomes a

metaphor for the self the question can

idleness be good does it spawn

creativity or is it action that leads to

discovery and innovation Plato said that

inspiration is a kind of madness to the

ancient Greek philosopher creativity was

a kind of divine inspiration it came

from outside the limited understanding

of men a burst of lightning not

reducible to human reason

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almost 2000 years later the

mathematician Omri pon Claire

influentially argued that creativity

felt like swarms of ideas combining

randomly in his unconscious followed by

the conscious selection of one of them

according to aesthetic criteria it's

upon Claire then unlike Plato creativity

came from inside the person but was

still guided by aesthetic criteria

trends standards

social norms histories on the outside

that is determined by society in some

way but how is that aesthetic criteria

determined what makes this a better

example of creativity than this almost

all psychologists and philosophers agree

that creativity must be both original

and valuable this although sometimes

contested is likely the best definition

of creativity we have original valuable

but how is value defined who or what

decides what is and isn't valuable good

art arises out of a history of what is

beautiful or insightful and why good

music is the product of a good

understanding of instruments of lyrical

insight good literature says something

about the cultural and societal

attitudes of the time it's written in

understands the tropes of its language

take one theory for example the

institutional theory of art it argues

that the art we get is the art we get

because the experts who validate it's

promoted encourage it all like similar

themes and trends and so we're more

likely to choose certain pieces and

artists in other words it's those

experts that select which art is art not

any new artists all of these things

exist outside of the creative individual

creative standards of the products of

the social context and the individual

studies them chooses from them is a

product of them but if it comes from

inside someone - or is divinely inspired

a moment of madness as Plato argued

where does the originality spring from

how does originality something

completely new arise as if from nowhere

if you paint an original masterpiece

where does the uniqueness arise out of

how can something be created from

nothing okay so let's think about

intention consciously intending to do

something when I plan out a video it's

individual parts don't appear out of

nowhere they're planned with some kind

of intention this means the plan and

process are teleological they have a

predetermined and creative works are

often teleological Picasso made many

plans and sketches and drafts before

starting a final piece but according to

our definition remember creativity must

be original again appearing as if from

nowhere at some point often indefinable

there's a spark before there's always a

point before the end has been realized

the inexplicable moment where a thought

pops seeps rolls grows into your head

the Castle of indolence portrays a

complicated relationship between

quietude and creativity on the one hand

peace and thoughts are required for

innovation on the other indolence can

lead to inactivity and simple laziness

Thompson asks how innovation can arise

from indolence

he writes forgive me if my trembling pen

displays what never yet was sung in

Mortal leis but how shall I attempt

such arduous string I who have spent my

nights and nightly days in this soul

deadening place loose loitering

how shall I for this a prayer my molted

wing he emphasizes the temptations of

indolence and luxury he goes on oft

quilts on quilts on carpets carpets

bread and couches stretch around in

seemly band and endless pillows rise to

prop the head Thompson in the end argues

against indolence as the night's

destroys the Wizards castle in short for

Thompson it's activity movements

industry that leads to creativity but

spark requires the influence of worldly

inspiration of course creativity comes

from hard work skill graft and as we've

seen understanding the history of the

field you're trying to be creative in

knowing the usefulness of something

requires some knowledge of the world

it requires erudition there are no

shortcuts

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but originality and innovation can't

arise from the blind routine of

monotonous work there has to be another

ingredient Thompson actually influenced

one of the most famous poets of all time

William Wordsworth in 1802 Wordsworth

carried a copy of the Castle of

indolence around with him he was feeling

continually guilty for his indulgent

mood that year he wondered whether

Thompson was right about the corrupting

influence of indolence

Wordsworth wondered whether idleness

could be joyful worthy for its own sake

can so productive he was defensive

because he was creatively inspired by

indolence by the peaceful reflection of

nature and tranquility in the poem

resolution and independence he says my

whole life I have lived in Pleasant

thoughts as if life's business were a

summer mood as if all needed things

would come unsought it's a genial faith

it's still rich in genial good but how

can he expect that others should build

for him so for him and at his cool love

him who for himself will take no heed at

all but in our Foxton notebook

Wordsworth writes what if I floated down

a pleasant stream and now I'm landed and

the motion gone

shall I reprove myself ah no the stream

is flowing and will never cease to flow

calm repose quiet reflection and

peaceful indolence are equally important

for creativity as work study and

industriousness

you

it seems likely that creativity is the

balancing between and the resulting

friction from both activity and

reflection activity can be the

predictable and monotonous rhythm of

routine but thoughts and tranquility

required to combine the random swarm of

ideas as pond clare posit in the search

for Satori and creativity EP Torrance

writes that highly creative people

combine opposites they seem to be he

says both more masculine and feminine

more independent in thoughts and yet

more open to suggestions more conforming

and more non-conforming more playful and

more serious the lesson is that if

you're too disciplined too stuck in a

routine too industrious insert the

antithesis and vice-versa

there is one more element that seems to

run through all philosophies of

creativity randomness plato's divine

inspiration was random couldn't be

quantified as was pond class swarms

photon s'en indolence brought routine

and the sheltering from random activity

and experience in the world whereas for

Wordsworth the opposite was true

industry encouraged routine while idle

reflection encouraged flashes of random

creativity in an essay on randomness and

creativity

Bob Spanish writes that life is a random

selection from billions of random cells

one is randomly selected and a structure

begins and that structure extends its

structure either in a competitive

struggle or without struggle its

continuance and further expansion is

determined by the forces of randomness

that conceived the structure even the

structures that promote the process of

thinking and problem-solving a days

miss alia Taurus ISM is the inclusion of

chance into the creative process the

flipping of a coin or the rolling of a

dice to decide which note to include the

picking up of random books to inspire

poetry so our tentative flexible and

always questionable ingredients for

creativity look something like this

study and knowledge activity and

Industry tranquility and the flash and

tension and opposites and finally always

remember to add a little bit of

randomness

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week