5 ms·

Funny how every comment here is "I'm more creative when I'm happy!!!!!11", and their creative output is probably just some phone app or a poorly written poem th

by Karuma 10y ago

Funny how every comment here is "I'm more creative when I'm happy!!!!!11", and their creative output is probably just some phone app or a poorly written poem that only your partner liked. The article is talking about deep creativity. Things that changed the world forever, that are still loved hundreds of years later. No one will remember your two creative lines of code within a couple of months. Stop comparing yourself with real creative geniuses.

eeZah7Ux 10y ago
Not surprisingly you are being downvoted so much.
- reddytowns 10y ago
  And yet, he is correct. Naming a particularly egregious blindspot of the groupthink of hacker news will only get you downvoted and ignored (and flagged, and hellbanned...).
  - deathanatos 10y ago
    From the HN guidelines: > Be civil. Despite potentially being correct, I think the downvotes are merited, and not coming from pointing out an instance of groupthink, but coming because the comment was not civil. (This was my personal reason for downvoting him.) The comment is worded to attack and deprecate those people it targets — this was not necessary in order to make the point about groupthink.
    - Karuma 10y ago
      Indeed, you are correct. I knew it wasn't a very popular opinion, so I didn't want to invest a lot of time trying to make it sound nicer. I'm terribly uncivil by nature, unfortunately. I'm really sorry, but I appreciate that at least one person was able to take something from it and share his empathy with me! (Thanks, reddytowns!)
    - ci5er 10y ago
      Maybe you can help me with this. I am assured in normal life that I am "not normal" w.r.t. normal human convention (although I am told I'm a pretty nice guy) Can you tell me what, exactly, was uncivil? I ask you, because you seem civil, and I'm hoping you won't criticize me for simply not seeing it. (fwiw - I'm a native speaker of the English language in the North American tradition, but I do get out of practice from time-to-time in my travels)
ci5er 10y ago
I'm curious: what do you find deeply creative? For me, observing the world, it's the: "aha!" moment. Simply realizing that this made some pieces fall together. When I discovered GAs in 1989, I had a jaw-dropping to the floor, hit-the-library-right-now for 120 sleepless-hours kind of moment. When I understood Moby Dick to be the American Bhagavad Gita, I had a similar moment. But, for when I, myself, create - it's been very rare. Probably because I am not a creative genius. At best, I am a poly-something-or-other synthesist. Applying Claude Shannon to evolution was about my peak. I could say that my moment of creativity came when I was borderline losing it - certainly unstable - maybe insane - probably not recognizably sad. What is it like for you?
- Karuma 10y ago
  For me it's about creating something so beautiful and unrepeatable that no other human being could have ever created. It's not about solving problems or finding more elegant solutions... It's about creating something almost from nowhere, as if it were magic. And it has to be unrepeatable. Beethoven himself wouldn't be able to create the same piece twice. It's just that one-time miracle in a moment of inspiration that you'll always look back in awe...

by Karuma 10y ago

eeZah7Ux 10y ago

Not surprisingly you are being downvoted so much.

reddytowns 10y ago
And yet, he is correct. Naming a particularly egregious blindspot of the groupthink of hacker news will only get you downvoted and ignored (and flagged, and hellbanned...).
- deathanatos 10y ago
  From the HN guidelines: > Be civil. Despite potentially being correct, I think the downvotes are merited, and not coming from pointing out an instance of groupthink, but coming because the comment was not civil. (This was my personal reason for downvoting him.) The comment is worded to attack and deprecate those people it targets — this was not necessary in order to make the point about groupthink.
  - Karuma 10y ago
    Indeed, you are correct. I knew it wasn't a very popular opinion, so I didn't want to invest a lot of time trying to make it sound nicer. I'm terribly uncivil by nature, unfortunately. I'm really sorry, but I appreciate that at least one person was able to take something from it and share his empathy with me! (Thanks, reddytowns!)
  - ci5er 10y ago
    Maybe you can help me with this. I am assured in normal life that I am "not normal" w.r.t. normal human convention (although I am told I'm a pretty nice guy) Can you tell me what, exactly, was uncivil? I ask you, because you seem civil, and I'm hoping you won't criticize me for simply not seeing it. (fwiw - I'm a native speaker of the English language in the North American tradition, but I do get out of practice from time-to-time in my travels)

ci5er 10y ago

I'm curious: what do you find deeply creative? For me, observing the world, it's the: "aha!" moment. Simply realizing that this made some pieces fall together. When I discovered GAs in 1989, I had a jaw-dropping to the floor, hit-the-library-right-now for 120 sleepless-hours kind of moment. When I understood Moby Dick to be the American Bhagavad Gita, I had a similar moment. But, for when I, myself, create - it's been very rare. Probably because I am not a creative genius. At best, I am a poly-something-or-other synthesist. Applying Claude Shannon to evolution was about my peak. I could say that my moment of creativity came when I was borderline losing it - certainly unstable - maybe insane - probably not recognizably sad. What is it like for you?

Karuma 10y ago
For me it's about creating something so beautiful and unrepeatable that no other human being could have ever created. It's not about solving problems or finding more elegant solutions... It's about creating something almost from nowhere, as if it were magic. And it has to be unrepeatable. Beethoven himself wouldn't be able to create the same piece twice. It's just that one-time miracle in a moment of inspiration that you'll always look back in awe...