Get unstuck from a creative rut | Hacker News Reader

Get unstuck from a creative rut

holloway.com

90 pointsandrewsavikas32 comments

This is an ad for a book, what we used to call a slashvertisement. The strategies suggested are platitudes and boil down to saying stop freaking out about the end result when you're just getting started. The strategy that works for me is get a full day of outdoor exercise, but that's just me.

I noticed this as well. Here's a list I googled with some good books, I am going to try a few more: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/152063.Books_That_Inspir...

maybe you have such a list about motivation and purpose?

I do think, or maybe that's just how it works for me, that it doesn't really matter what you do, as long as it is something that gets you going, where you don't have to think extensively, which can be anything.

- Doing something outdoors (hiking, biking)

- Cook my favorite meal (so that I don't have to research anything, but can just start)

- Clean the house

- whatever

The cleaning one is a big meme on some parts of the internet, but for me it does an incredible job. It's easy, you don't have to think much, while it still occupies your brain for some time and in the end you're happy and feel comfortable.

It sounds like meditation with extra steps. At least that's how I describe those same tasks and their effect on my thoughts. Your hands are busy but your brain is left enough space to figure things out.

I would add coffee to the mix, and maybe a notebook once the idea starts making sense.

Good point, but this article is actually pretty good. It's also well suited to HN, because he's suggesting we take advice from painters. You know who else did that? pg https://paulgraham.com/hackpaint.html

Great recommendation. Thanks. As a painter I take advice from hackers. The clarity and orderlyness of their thinking completely outclasses that of painters and suchlike.

Critical response: https://idlewords.com/2005/04/dabblers_and_blowhards.htm

It's actually an excerpt from the book -- may also be an ad, but probably the best kind of ad (free content, try before you buy).

I prefer a site without ads, or at least the kind where adblock works.

Nope.not just you. Check out the blog/book Daily Rituals. This lists the creative habits of artists. Running, walking and exercise features high on that list. I believe that there has even been some empirical research done on this phenomenon.

you can download the book on libgen fyi

Some of this, "get to work; relinquish results; draft demo sketch," reminds me of the Brooksian aphorism "Plan to Throw One Away." Make mistakes quickly, etc.

My major hobby is making music, and I feel the best way to write a good song is to first write a whole lot of terrible songs. Don't be afraid to experiment, go down rabbit holes, play.

From Brian Eno et. al. - https://www.oblique-strategies.com/

I configured fortune to spit out a random oblique strategy in my .bashrc every time I open up a new terminal; it’s great fun, and a gentle reminder when I’ve been working too long that I should spend more time pursuing the art that I love.

Does anyone know of a libre/free resource that has a list of strategies in the same spirit?

Also, does anyone have a libre/free source for something more tech oriented? I can imagine the cards being something like "make data column oriented instead of row oriented" or "deduplicate data".

The best I've found is the "Little Deck of Game Design" [0], which seems pretty cool.

[0] https://www.whatgamesare.com/2011/10/the-little-deck-of-game...

i made this an app for the bangle js hackable smartwatch: https://github.com/smcalilly/oblique-strategies-bangle-js

no idea if it's still in the app store, somebody stole my watch.

I cannot agree more with the 'make time to play' idea. Hard to connect to the goals and tasks at hand, playing, specially physical play, shares many aspects of the creative process: observation, strategies, emotional reactions, winning some, loosing some. Playing keeps me curios and engaged. Great article.

One of my favorite things to do with my kids is "Lego challenges" where they come up with objects and I have to try and build them. The combination of constraints (their object, limited lego pieces) always ends with me building something I had no idea I could!

I’ve always been interested in the idea that creativity is primarily about random association. That association can happen inside your mind, or it can be externalised like that story of how Donald Glover’s Childish Gambino name came out of a Wu-Tang Clan name generator. Yah!

Related: I just wrote a post about the book Thinkertoys which has lots of great exercises for generating ideas and getting out of creative ruts: http://www.scraggo.com/thinkertoys-generate-art-and-business...

Rick Rubin's new book has interesting ideas in the same vein.

I don't see "Drugs" on that list, but it could be because that's a totally conventional way of getting out of a creative rut.

What kind of "drugs" are you alluding to?

Propranolol before sleep.

The kinds artists and musicians are famous for consuming of course.

All of them?

Well, most. There's some really nasty ones I don't expect people go to for inspiration, they go to them because they are junkies and can't afford the regular stuff. The one that comes to mind is so horrific, I won't even mention it, but it's a big story out of Russia a few years back.

One tip I have not seen mentioned is to change medium. As an artist and arty teacher I recommend this to my students all the time. Channing medium seems to impact the way we think and the style of our problem solving. As an artist I swop between the mediums: Oli paint, drawing and 3d digital. Whenever I get struck in one I move to another.

Needed this right now. In a bit of analysis paralysis with ml. Going to use the Feynman story as inspo

I recommend the artist’s way [0].

[0]: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/615570.The_Artist_s_Way

Generative tarot deck [0].

[0] https://abetusk.github.io/ResonatorVoyantTarot/

No mention of Oblique Strategies

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