Creativity requires isolation
blog.oxplot.com
blog.oxplot.com
(This is one reason YC asks founders to move to the Bay Area, but not to work in our space. We want founders to be able to talk to other founders, but not all the time.)
Input:
-Objective research: (left-brained) Keep your idea of the problem and the reality of the problem in sync, or else any solution you come up with is useless, no matter how creative.
-Creative inspiration: (right-brained) Reductionism is a great tool, except when it runs amok. If you could truly understand everything, you could never be surprised by anything. "The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science."
Output:
-Left-brained: This is what the author of this article seems to refer to. Spending time proceeding step by rational step through a large problem. This process requires high focus, so isolation often helps.
-Right-brained: aka "stop thinking about it and just do it [by feel]." Our left-brains revolt at the idea of doing something without having thought through every possible decision and outcome in terms of every scientific field and level of abstraction. But at some point we form habits, and, for the sake of time, we should be incredibly grateful for this. If you form good habits you can trust, your efficiency can skyrocket.
Sleep:
-Running other threads while you're awake: The classic example of this is "Eureka!" Some of us seem to do our best thinking while showering, driving, exercising, cleaning, or studying another science. Refine your meta-heuristics by working in a very different problem domain.
-In a bed: dreams: a very different problem domain. Go through a few thousand of them.
Lastly, it's important to consider the contiguous time I spend in each of these modes 3 modes. If I spend a week in relatively isolated, left-brained output, it's quite likely I'll feel creatively sapped by the end, and will need to spend the following week almost solely in input. By the end of that week, my brain will be so overflowing with ideas that I can't even listen to music without wanted to silence the input so I can get back to output. Oscillating at extremes is extreme. Whereas, while socializing an idea I effectively go from input to output (mostly right-brained, off the cuff) every few seconds. Both feedback loop lengths - and everything in between - have their advantages and disadvantages.
Ultimately, it's about finding a balance both between and within each mode. All things in moderation, including, of course, moderation.
I'd guess that this pattern is there in the historical details, though I don't know the relevant history well enough.
(i don't just mean individuals in isolation, but also where groups can exist in a degree of isolation from others).
It's like the idea of a to-do list: it's a list of things you don't really want to do, because the things you want to do are done already.
If you're doing something you love, you'll be too busy doing it and being creative that you won't have time to go, "am I being creative?"
Creativity doesn't require isolation. It requires happiness and motivation.
Enjoyment is not sufficient. Someone may enjoy playing video games, but it's hardly creative unless the game is designed in a specific way.
Enjoyment is not necessary either, at least in the beginning. There are many things at which I was (at least somewhat) creative which I didn't enjoy doing when I first started. My enjoyment of those things actually followed my realization that I could be creative doing them. (If you want to know specifically what it was: it was marketing. I had a horrible aversion to it at first, until I realized that it is in fact a form of creativity).
But real quickly: yeah, that dude playing video games is playing video games. If he were to then start developing video games, I'm just saying that creativity would be easier for him in that realm than if he decided to do something he didn't enjoy.
And the thing you're doing might not be what you enjoy. The process it uses might be enjoyable. Marketing for you might have had a lot of freedom and individual control to it (I'm just using examples). So maybe you wouldn't be passionate about marketing per se, but the process of it and the lifestyle it brought might've been awesome. I mean, I bet there are very few people who really love insurance. But if running an insurance company your own way provides freedom and a good service, that can be enjoyable.
And I agree that enjoyment is not necessary; it predisposes you to creativity, though. You don't have to have genetic flaws to develop a disease, but certain genetic hiccups can predispose you to that disease....
I found this comment interesting. I see a to-do list as a way to manage progress towards your goals in discrete steps. That includes things I want to do and those I don't but are necessary. Curious: how do you use a to-do list?
But I don't write a to-do list to make the WordPress theme. If I wanted to make the theme, I'd be making it already, already have it done, or be so interested in doing it that I wouldn't need to write it down...
To thoroughly explore a potential area of opportunity requires local creativity and this is best done with intense focus and concentration.
There are times though when you get stuck, you achieve a kind of local optima but the solution still doesn't feel right. This is where the second type of creativity fits in, and it is specialized for taking a much broader perspective than the conscious mind can handle.
This of course requires a completely different approach, as focus and concentration is definitely not welcome here. To get with this you need to disengage your conscious brain and let the subconscious take a crack at it. I find this is best done by using physical/mental distraction such as going for a walk, running, taking a shower or interacting with others.
A good nap does wonders too.
I totally identify with this, and think it's actually true.
Of course maybe I should try a few hours of silence sometimes.