6 ms·

The pencil case model of creativity

69 points by jruohonen 11d ago

jschveibinz 11d ago
Not much discussion here, but this is a good observation about not just incorporating something like creativity into your life, but how much emphasis we all put on incorporating pleasure into our work lives. That transition happened sometime in the 80's. I'll step up to the mic and give my opinion: There was a time when most jobs were physically demanding in one way or another. Working on a factory production line doesn't allow much opportunity for adding creativity into your work. The answer: avocations. My dad was a machinist--which can be a very creative job--but he always preached to me the need to have activities (creative or otherwise) outside of work. He played music, built projects in the garage, and played around with drawing and painting at home. We are likely transitioning away (once again) from a majority of jobs that include opportunities for creativity to a majority of jobs that are just plain "work." So it's a good idea to remember that time outside of work can be the opportunity to be creative. I can hear the comments already about no time outside of work: family, commute, etc. But remember, if you want something bad enough, you will make time for it. I'm just as likely to neglect this fact as anyone else: we only get one chance to live. If it’s important, then make time for it. I yield the floor.
- bryanrasmussen 11d ago
  >But remember, if you want something bad enough, you will make time for it. >I yield the floor. yeah, well, there are of course living situations that people can be in, in which time can not be made for it.
  - burnedbyhell 11d ago
    Creativity takes time to get into the right mindset before it manifests. The demands of life in the modern era leave little room for self. Work alone is an unavoidable sacrifice of quality of life for the majority of people.
    - funnybeam 10d ago
      How much time do the majority of people spend scrolling on their phones? I tend to think that i don’t have time to do the things i want to do outside of work, but on the rare occasions when i managed to put my phone aside for a couple of weeks I find I have more time than i know what to do with. Everyone’s situation is different obviously, but personally “I don’t have time” is completely untrue
- Chinjut 11d ago
  Why not transition to a time where we do less jobs? Why should we have to carve out extra time in addition to a just plain work job?
- sph 11d ago
  Working on a factory production line is just a blip in the history of humanity and creativity. No offense to your dad, but I wouldn't try to draw any conclusions on how we are meant to find self-actualization in our careers based off a very recent, and actually very inhuman mode of industrial production where people are expected to operate as indefatigable machines.
- easywood 11d ago
  >> If it’s important, then make time for it. Indeed. Replace the sentence "I don't have time for this" with "This does not have priority for me." This will make it easier to decide if you are going to read your kids a bedtime story or if your going to finish that report.
hn45e7pbij 11d ago
Small thing but makes a big difference
FinnLobsien 11d ago
There are some occupations (artist, author, founder, scientist, etc.) that are popular forms of escapism because they look so self-actualized. From the outside, it looks like: 1. They only work on what they like. 2. Their work exists for its own sake, not to accomplish some other motive (e.g. the painter's paintings exist to be enjoyed as paintings. It's not graphic design, which exists to sell something else.) In practice, that's usually not true. A founder deals with compliance forms, a novelist only writes a vampire book because that's what the market wants, and the scientist applied for 27 research grants this year. When it comes to work, humans seem to need to believe that perfection exists, that there is a situation in which all of our problems would be solved. I've been lucky enough to have had multiple situations where I reached the exact career goal I set a few years prior. The career that seemed like the situation where all problems would be solved. I was (and continue to be) happy with my career, but as soon as you live in yesteryear's idealized reality, you realize that even within that exist some annoying things and you idealize the next thing.
- nurbl 11d ago
  I saw a cartoon that captured this pretty well; a pianist who looks pensive, thinking "I don't enjoy this at all". The caption is something like "how to know you're a professional". Everybody runs this risk, but "creative" jobs probably more so. Not being able to enjoy what you're doing even if you're successful. It may be because there's always a pressure to improve. But it could also be because the inner motivation that used to drive you has been replaced with external rewards. C. Thi Nguyen calls it "value capture". I agree with the author's friend in that it's up to each of us to find creativity, it must come from within.
- altmanaltman 11d ago
  So what? Yes, when you acheived your dream, you need a different dream. That is not a fundamentally bad thing right? The fact that you find your current "dream" reality annoying is a sign that you have become and yes it is okay to dream again but that doesn't mean your previous dream was wrong or faulty or unrealistic. Thinking perfection as a real thing to achieve is not good but striving an ideal version of you is how you grow. Your ideal version changes as you grow its natural.
knollimar 11d ago
Surely the researcher has way more constraints and is thus less creative in their job? I'm all for finding the joy in things, but the author starts with the comparison and then uses the ability to find creativity with it being a requisite part of the job. Surely the person with more pertage of trdious work has a more tedious and less creative job. Imagine if someone made this argument about dollars per hour, and the exec said they work overtime often so the valet has no right to complain about pay since they can look harder for tips.
hungryhobbit 11d ago
>But maybe creativity exists precisely within boundaries, because they define the space in which our ideas can play with one another. This, so much: boundaries are the origin of creativity! If I say "fill this blank page with something", the least creative person in the world can do so. But if I say "fill it with a picture of a crow fighting a snail" or "fill it with an essay justifying the right to free speech", that is when the creativity will come out. This is why I find it so frustrating when TV/movie writers for established franchises feel the need to get "creative" and completely change their work from the original. No, you are not "creative" for making something that doesn't play by the (meta-)rules of that show/universe! (Star Trek Discovery, I'm looking at you.) To the contrary, you lacked the creativity to make fun new material to watch ... while staying within the boundaries of what made people like the show/movie in the first place.
- teekert 10d ago
  Yeah. Was hoping Strange New Worlds would be more TNG like but with ethical dilemmas of our time (ie black mirror but much more optimistic) but, meh. Not as meh as Discovery, but the Orville does it better.
danielvaughn 10d ago
The most interesting creative decisions happen within a tight set of constraints. Side note, I also had to expand my definition of "creativity" early in my career. I grew up and was educated as an artist. Even received a Bachelor of Fine Art Painting. Never took a single class on anything to do with computer science. As I was transitioning my career towards programming, I was worried that I would lose my creativity. It took me a while to realize that programming was intensely creative, just as much as being an artist. They simply have different aesthetics.
- kgraves 10d ago
  Agreed, I hope we all go back towards doing this.
GarnetFloride 10d ago
Sometimes you need to think outside the box, sometimes inside the box, and sometimes you need to think about the box itself. Some people will tear down Chesterton's fence because they don't want to feel limited, others won't approach because they want to be safe. Few ask why it was put up in the first place. With nothing but a piece of paper and a pencil you can draw an alley or start building an imaginary world. Too many of us turn boundaries into chains to hold us down.

69 points by jruohonen 11d ago

Not much discussion here, but this is a good observation about not just incorporating something like creativity into your life, but how much emphasis we all put on incorporating pleasure into our work lives. That transition happened sometime in the 80's. I'll step up to the mic and give my opinion: There was a time when most jobs were physically demanding in one way or another. Working on a factory production line doesn't allow much opportunity for adding creativity into your work. The answer: avocations. My dad was a machinist--which can be a very creative job--but he always preached to me the need to have activities (creative or otherwise) outside of work. He played music, built projects in the garage, and played around with drawing and painting at home. We are likely transitioning away (once again) from a majority of jobs that include opportunities for creativity to a majority of jobs that are just plain "work." So it's a good idea to remember that time outside of work can be the opportunity to be creative. I can hear the comments already about no time outside of work: family, commute, etc. But remember, if you want something bad enough, you will make time for it. I'm just as likely to neglect this fact as anyone else: we only get one chance to live. If it’s important, then make time for it. I yield the floor.

bryanrasmussen 11d ago
>But remember, if you want something bad enough, you will make time for it. >I yield the floor. yeah, well, there are of course living situations that people can be in, in which time can not be made for it.
- burnedbyhell 11d ago
  Creativity takes time to get into the right mindset before it manifests. The demands of life in the modern era leave little room for self. Work alone is an unavoidable sacrifice of quality of life for the majority of people.
  - funnybeam 10d ago
    How much time do the majority of people spend scrolling on their phones? I tend to think that i don’t have time to do the things i want to do outside of work, but on the rare occasions when i managed to put my phone aside for a couple of weeks I find I have more time than i know what to do with. Everyone’s situation is different obviously, but personally “I don’t have time” is completely untrue
Chinjut 11d ago
Why not transition to a time where we do less jobs? Why should we have to carve out extra time in addition to a just plain work job?
sph 11d ago
Working on a factory production line is just a blip in the history of humanity and creativity. No offense to your dad, but I wouldn't try to draw any conclusions on how we are meant to find self-actualization in our careers based off a very recent, and actually very inhuman mode of industrial production where people are expected to operate as indefatigable machines.
easywood 11d ago
>> If it’s important, then make time for it. Indeed. Replace the sentence "I don't have time for this" with "This does not have priority for me." This will make it easier to decide if you are going to read your kids a bedtime story or if your going to finish that report.

hn45e7pbij 11d ago

Small thing but makes a big difference

FinnLobsien 11d ago

There are some occupations (artist, author, founder, scientist, etc.) that are popular forms of escapism because they look so self-actualized. From the outside, it looks like: 1. They only work on what they like. 2. Their work exists for its own sake, not to accomplish some other motive (e.g. the painter's paintings exist to be enjoyed as paintings. It's not graphic design, which exists to sell something else.) In practice, that's usually not true. A founder deals with compliance forms, a novelist only writes a vampire book because that's what the market wants, and the scientist applied for 27 research grants this year. When it comes to work, humans seem to need to believe that perfection exists, that there is a situation in which all of our problems would be solved. I've been lucky enough to have had multiple situations where I reached the exact career goal I set a few years prior. The career that seemed like the situation where all problems would be solved. I was (and continue to be) happy with my career, but as soon as you live in yesteryear's idealized reality, you realize that even within that exist some annoying things and you idealize the next thing.

nurbl 11d ago
I saw a cartoon that captured this pretty well; a pianist who looks pensive, thinking "I don't enjoy this at all". The caption is something like "how to know you're a professional". Everybody runs this risk, but "creative" jobs probably more so. Not being able to enjoy what you're doing even if you're successful. It may be because there's always a pressure to improve. But it could also be because the inner motivation that used to drive you has been replaced with external rewards. C. Thi Nguyen calls it "value capture". I agree with the author's friend in that it's up to each of us to find creativity, it must come from within.
altmanaltman 11d ago
So what? Yes, when you acheived your dream, you need a different dream. That is not a fundamentally bad thing right? The fact that you find your current "dream" reality annoying is a sign that you have become and yes it is okay to dream again but that doesn't mean your previous dream was wrong or faulty or unrealistic. Thinking perfection as a real thing to achieve is not good but striving an ideal version of you is how you grow. Your ideal version changes as you grow its natural.

knollimar 11d ago

Surely the researcher has way more constraints and is thus less creative in their job? I'm all for finding the joy in things, but the author starts with the comparison and then uses the ability to find creativity with it being a requisite part of the job. Surely the person with more pertage of trdious work has a more tedious and less creative job. Imagine if someone made this argument about dollars per hour, and the exec said they work overtime often so the valet has no right to complain about pay since they can look harder for tips.

hungryhobbit 11d ago

>But maybe creativity exists precisely within boundaries, because they define the space in which our ideas can play with one another. This, so much: boundaries are the origin of creativity! If I say "fill this blank page with something", the least creative person in the world can do so. But if I say "fill it with a picture of a crow fighting a snail" or "fill it with an essay justifying the right to free speech", that is when the creativity will come out. This is why I find it so frustrating when TV/movie writers for established franchises feel the need to get "creative" and completely change their work from the original. No, you are not "creative" for making something that doesn't play by the (meta-)rules of that show/universe! (Star Trek Discovery, I'm looking at you.) To the contrary, you lacked the creativity to make fun new material to watch ... while staying within the boundaries of what made people like the show/movie in the first place.

teekert 10d ago
Yeah. Was hoping Strange New Worlds would be more TNG like but with ethical dilemmas of our time (ie black mirror but much more optimistic) but, meh. Not as meh as Discovery, but the Orville does it better.

danielvaughn 10d ago

The most interesting creative decisions happen within a tight set of constraints. Side note, I also had to expand my definition of "creativity" early in my career. I grew up and was educated as an artist. Even received a Bachelor of Fine Art Painting. Never took a single class on anything to do with computer science. As I was transitioning my career towards programming, I was worried that I would lose my creativity. It took me a while to realize that programming was intensely creative, just as much as being an artist. They simply have different aesthetics.

kgraves 10d ago
Agreed, I hope we all go back towards doing this.

GarnetFloride 10d ago

Sometimes you need to think outside the box, sometimes inside the box, and sometimes you need to think about the box itself. Some people will tear down Chesterton's fence because they don't want to feel limited, others won't approach because they want to be safe. Few ask why it was put up in the first place. With nothing but a piece of paper and a pencil you can draw an alley or start building an imaginary world. Too many of us turn boundaries into chains to hold us down.