Deadly conformity is killing our creativity. Let's mess about more

It's interesting that he brings up Feynman, because (if you believe his version of events, anyway;) at one point after the Manhattan Project, he was feeling particularly uninspired, because he wasn't playing. So he's sitting in the cafeteria watching someone throw a plate in the air. He starts wondering about the relationship between wobbling of the plate and the rotation. He works it out, has some fun, and then starts thinking about how this might relate to particle physics. This plate-wobbling play led to insights for which he received the Nobel Prize.

Play is where insight happens, to borrow a phrase from another professor. That's why I don't get annoyed when I see "not deeply interesting" projects on HN. You could ask, like Hans Bethe did in the Feynman story, "yes, but what's the importance of it?" and the answer in many cases will be nil. In the long run though, I suspect that play results in those important, unforeseen changes and transformations. It might not even be some change you yourself do - sometimes it's enough to spark the mind that will.

Ultimately, though, I would like to see creativity defended as an end in itself. What about play for play's sake? Our society has reached this unparalleled ability to let people engage themselves creatively, why can't that be the end-goal?

http://www.physics.ohio-state.edu/~kilcup/262/feynman.html

As much as play and experiment helps foster growth and not to take away from the point of the article, let's not forget the value of discipline and conformity in developing creative expression and, ultimately, freedom. The most creative pianist played countless scales, likely more than less creative ones, despite scales being mechanical. Same with dancers and footwork, athletes with sprints, and so on.

I am influenced by Martha Graham -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martha_Graham -- often called the Picasso of dance, who said about discipline, conformity, and freedom:

The dancer is realistic. His craft teaches him to be. Either the foot is pointed or it is not. No amount of dreaming will point it for you. This requires discipline, not drill, not something imposed from without, but discipline imposed by you yourself upon yourself. … Your goal is freedom. But freedom may only be achieved through discipline. In the studio you learn to conform, to submit yourself to the demands of your craft, so that you may finally be free.

Few people matched her creative output and development.

I wrote more about this topic since it's important to me -- http://joshuaspodek.com/master-speaks-creative-expression and http://joshuaspodek.com/model-foundation-personal-freedom

(Edit: to jahaja's question "Do I misunderstand you when I feel that you are equating creativeness with success?", I don't know a perfect definition of creativity, but as I use it, I include some sense of problems solving. Creating something useless doesn't feel "creative" to me, so in the sense of solving a problem, as I use the term, creativity has some element of success.)

The issue is that the stakes, at work, are just too damn high for all that.

When Silicon Valley became the center of innovation (1950s to 1970s) there were so many "cushy" government jobs that people didn't fear getting fired-- it was like being in Maryland today with a TS clearance-- and housing was incredibly cheap. (It wasn't the government contractors themselves that made SV shine. It was competition with them on autonomy. Companies had to provide extremely interesting work, and that made for better companies. That's why Silicon Valley made so much of itself.) People in Northern California in 1970 could take a playful attitude to work because they knew nothing bad would happen to them.

I think the Boomers are taking that easy work life to them with the grave. You could be on acid at Woodstock in August 1969, protege to the CEO of a major company in January 1970, and a CEO yourself by 1978. If you worked 50 hours per week, you were considered extremely dedicated and would climb the ladder rapidly. When there was tolerance for that kind of slack-- you wouldn't become unhireable if not Director-level by 40-- there was more room for creativity. That's gone now. Silicon Valley, with the mean-spirited and psychotic age-discrimination culture that the VCs brought in, is probably the worst.

You can't fix this problem just by fixing single companies' work environments. No matter how "creative" the work environment is, people are naturally cliquish (i.e. there's always a threat of social rejection, no matter how open and unstructured the environment, and too little structure can make cliquishness worse) and the only way people can be at ease is in the context of a larger environment where losing one job doesn't ruin one's life. In the Valley, thanks to absurd housing prices and the good-ole-boy reputation economy the VCs have set up, it often does.

As you can tell, I'm pretty horrified by the transformation of the Valley. It used to embrace genuine weirdness and true disruption. Now it's just so fucking conventional. It has the conformity and image-management needs of traditional finance, but 1/10 of the upside. At least banks pay well and promote internally.

In a way, HN is a way to learn about interesting developments in fields that we might never ever. Sometimes by people who know that they are really talking about. It's kind of like eavesdropping on really interesting conversations at a bar.

For example, this recent thread [1] is clearly being discussed by people who have enough of an interest and ability in mathematical theorems that they can critique and criticize it.

Not everything passes the community filter, however, - for more serendipity - I recommend checking out the 'new' page. Occasionally, you will find a diamond or two (if not broad interest, you personal interest) in the coal of no upvotes.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6908305

The kindness shown at Pret a Manger, while exceptional is not completely surprising to me. While at their Chicago location, I walked in and ordered food one day, running on particularly little sleep. At the register, the clerk insisted that I take the lunch on the house, probably because I looked like death. I grew uncomfortable and insisted on paying, at which point he introduced himself as the CEO, on a quick US tour of their facilities. He said it would be their pleasure and was totally sincere. Love that eatery and their people.

Anyone willing to take a shot at a good, concise definition of creativity?

Lego. At lunchtime.