Creative People Say No
medium.com
medium.com
The same 'ignore everybody' approach works well for any activity, including not very creative kinds like bodybuilding, when you know what to do, and all you need is a lack of distraction.
This approach also has obvious problems: you can end up with a useless result because it falls out of context, or shadowed by a vastly better approach you chose to not pay attention to.
And, of course, you can be brilliantly creative with little or no lasting output, like someone showering others with mots and impromptus on a party. Researcher rarely interview such people, though.
I am noting that even the author of this article did not identify the anonymous hungarian professor.
If Barbara Walters was calling for a feature interview on prime time television, the answer might very well be "yes".
http://www.amazon.com/Creativity-Flow-Psychology-Discovery-I...
(Using Opera on Android)
(http://www.good.is/posts/secret-to-creativity-learning-how-t...)
> When setting out to write his book Creativity, Hungarian psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi contacted 275 creatives whose habits he wanted to study. The idea was to gain insight into their processes so that others could apply these practices in their own lives. But in many cases, the answer to his very inquiry was actually the secret to creativity. Out of all the subjects he asked, one third of them said no to being studied. The reason? Most simply did not have time. In order to be creative, many explained, it was vital they say no to any request that would take away from their time spent creating. Several who rejected Csikszentmihalyi knew of the respected author's work, yet they still maintained their hours were best spent on their own output.
While I agree it is not really relevant, it reminded me of the kind of articles some mass media produce that are basically along the lines of "scientists discovered [whatever]". Reading those is basically a waste of time, so seeing a similar sentence at the start of HN submitted post was a bit unexpected to me.
I see substantial similarities in the content and no attribution. I don't think this would pass muster if it were a newspaper column.
It's fun to imagine statements like: "We put together one developer from Connecticut, a graphic artist from Rhode Island, and -even a web hacker from Massachusetts-". This contrast shows how the practice of making something exotic and worshiping it takes place. It's one form of how we Americans inhibit ourselves from greatness - when we tell ourselves that people from $country are automatically more skilled, wise, experienced than us. Their introductions should lead with their benefits, not where their parents knocked boots.
I have also been on the mailing list of more than one musician who lists countries to build social proof with statements such as "I received grants to perform in Belgium, Holland, England and Germany." It's really only a weak form of imperialism to be invited and funded by a single individual or a committee, rather than to have populist acceptance and/or paying customers. Surely some national funding is key to maintaining the freshness within any culture, but confusing top-down support such as cultural grants, which inevitably introduce artisans from @countries with public support, with loyal customership is a blinding error.
Most people would never dream of taking a few pennies out of your account even if they could do it without asking. When someone spams me with an email or sends me on a detour with a link bait title, they are taking precious moments from my life "account".
We're not all as busy as we make ourselves out to be. People love to give others the impression they are swamped in order to say "no," not the other way around. "No, I can't go to dinner with you tonight, I'm sorry, I'm just so backlogged with work..."
There was an article here, mentioned that developer guy got involved in another project and started moving faster that before on the main project.
Ideas need 'rest time' time. Photographers take pictures and mature them for a while.
The word "no" is a powerful thing. It's probably the first word that as infants we discover has the power to alter our environment. But when we move out of the nursery, it's a word, a tool, and a habit with profoundly negative impact to the wielder.
How many times in your life have you been frustrated with a gatekeeper over some process? Chances are, they embraced saying "no".
You can say "yes". That doesn't mean that you drop everything and do exactly what is asked, either. Try it sometime, it's a transformative thing. In big bureaucracies, saying "yes" is fun, because you get these bizarre reactions... people are trained to hear "no" and lobby for you to change your mind.
> The professor contacted 275 creative people...
It certainly doesn't jive with my real world experience. I've always been absolutely floored at how far really well-known people will go to help me when I need it. Whether it be spending an hour over coffee or just exchanging a few emails, the really creative (and successful) people I've reached out to in my life have generally been willing to spend their time to help me out.
I should note that often these requests are completely blind. I don't have a business school background with lots of contacts (I went to a small state school in the south). I don't have lots of friends with friends to help me out.
I suppose my experience is about the same as the study in the article. 33% of folks fall over backwards to help me out, at no real benefit to themselves. Another 33% are kind of difficult to tie down. The rest say no. To draw a conclusion as definite as "creative people say no" is hard for me to accept.
Too often I am pulled away from my personal pursuits because someone wants something from me. Come drink with me, come have dinner with us, go on this trip with us this weekend. I'm never going to get anything done or 'get ahead' in this life without saying no every now and then.
Some people may be OK with living in this HO HUM world we live in; punching the clock and sitting in the cubicle or whatever their version of the cubicle is but point is they're trapped. Maybe they're happy though.
I look forward to my next 'no' - maybe then I can actually sit down and code to my heart's content and fulfill my dream of being my own boss, of creating something, and pulling myself out of the muck to reach true freedom.
A good perspective on this is that time is a scarce resource, and by choosing to allocate it to one thing you also choose not to allocate it to everything else.
That being said, I'd imagine if most people (myself included) chose to prioritize personal pursuits over everything else, they'd end up exactly as unhappy as otherwise.
If you want real freedom, then find a job that provides that. You probably won't make the money you want. Or live the lifestyle you think you need. In the end, however, you'll be much more free to pursue life the way you want.
For instance, my wife dedicated herself to a PhD. She makes FAR less as a professor than she otherwise would, but she takes her summers off and gets to spend time out in the world. It's not a life of glamour, but it's a life of freedom.
There are jobs that offer equal levels of freedom. You just have to often be willing to compromise some things to find them.
what's your "Time and attention management" like?
It varies.
If you're a successful person, creative or not, you probably know how to manage your time well and don't allocate it towards random studies.
Additionally, the freer you are from routine obligation, the harder it is to politely say no. I've long said fill up your schedule or others will fill it for you.