5 ms·

How To Be Creative

85 points by rms 18y ago

DaniFong 18y ago
38 bold exhortations to live life creatively. Here's my favorite: "Sing in your own voice. Piccasso was a terrible colorist. Turner couldn't paint human beings worth a damn. Saul Steinberg's formal drafting skills were appalling. TS Eliot had a full-time day job. Henry Miller was a wildly uneven writer. Bob Dylan can't sing or play guitar. But that didn't stop them, right? So I guess the next question is, "Why not?" I have no idea. Why should it?"
- mlLK 18y ago
  One HN-relevant Picasso quote. . . Computers are useless. They can only give you answers. and one that always cheers me up since I make more logic errors than anyone I know. . . I am always doing that which I can not do, in order that I may learn how to do it. --Pablo Picasso
  - anamax 18y ago
    Picasso also outlived his talent. http://www.amazon.com/Old-Masters-Young-Geniuses-Creativity/dp/0691121095/ref=sr_11_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1230920697&sr=11-1 http://www.amazon.com/Old-Masters-Young-Geniuses-Creativity/...
jmtame 18y ago
Iterate over and over until you find something interesting.
- zitterbewegung 18y ago
  Yea thats what I do but I have an efficiency function which judges my iterations so I know if an iteration is actually good or not.
jcromartie 18y ago
This may be a repeat appearance on the front page, but I welcome it any time!
- larrykubin 18y ago
  Outstanding post. I believe I bookmarked this a while back to read later, but never got around to it. This morning I woke up with client work to do, but of course I went to HN first instead. Noticed this, and spent 2 hours reading and thinking about the points. Very worthwhile.
- dhotson 18y ago
  Agreed.. this is always worth re-reading every few months. It's a fantastic read.
hhm 18y ago
"Beware of turning hobbies into jobs" Don't most hackers turn their hobbies into jobs? How does that work for you?
- th0ma5 18y ago
  i've had some success but mostly irritation over this... for the most part computers in general are both my hobby and my career, and that mostly works out, although can be exhausting, so i find other things. specifically aspects of computerdom, administration like things used be a hobby for me, but not anymore now that i'm an admin, so my hobby is programming. then i got moonlighting work on special programming projects. lots of fun, but now i just feel like making art and music more... and hopefully i can avoid making those a job just because i want to keep it fun. i don't know... i might go back into design fulltime and become just a hobby hacker again, but i guess i need that in depth analysis of systems troubleshooting to feel relevant. it used to be a cool rewarding hobby, but now it is a cool and rewarding job, so i guess i can't complain, and it still works for me
antiform 18y ago
There's also a nice pdf version here: http://www.changethis.com/6.HowToBeCreative http://www.changethis.com/6.HowToBeCreative
- Timothee 18y ago
  It is nicer but it doesn't have all the 38 points. I like the layout though.
jacobbijani 18y ago
stop reading huge lists and go fucking make something
noonespecial 18y ago
"A lot of people in business say they have twenty years experience, when in fact all they really have is one year's experience, repeated twenty times." This has always been my favorite quote from this essay, probably because to goes double for the software industry. Having 10 years experience programming poorly makes you a worse hire than someone with no experience at all.
palish 18y ago
Everybody has their own private Mount Everest they were put on this earth to climb. I stopped reading there.
- ynd 18y ago
  why?
  - palish 18y ago
    Because it's overgeneralized, useless, feel-good nothingness.
sammyo 18y ago
They missed #1: 10% inspiration, 90% perspiration.
- echair 18y ago
  It's 1:99, not 10:90.

85 points by rms 18y ago

38 bold exhortations to live life creatively. Here's my favorite: "Sing in your own voice. Piccasso was a terrible colorist. Turner couldn't paint human beings worth a damn. Saul Steinberg's formal drafting skills were appalling. TS Eliot had a full-time day job. Henry Miller was a wildly uneven writer. Bob Dylan can't sing or play guitar. But that didn't stop them, right? So I guess the next question is, "Why not?" I have no idea. Why should it?"

mlLK 18y ago
One HN-relevant Picasso quote. . . Computers are useless. They can only give you answers. and one that always cheers me up since I make more logic errors than anyone I know. . . I am always doing that which I can not do, in order that I may learn how to do it. --Pablo Picasso
- anamax 18y ago
  Picasso also outlived his talent. http://www.amazon.com/Old-Masters-Young-Geniuses-Creativity/dp/0691121095/ref=sr_11_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1230920697&sr=11-1 http://www.amazon.com/Old-Masters-Young-Geniuses-Creativity/...

jmtame 18y ago

Iterate over and over until you find something interesting.

zitterbewegung 18y ago
Yea thats what I do but I have an efficiency function which judges my iterations so I know if an iteration is actually good or not.

jcromartie 18y ago

This may be a repeat appearance on the front page, but I welcome it any time!

larrykubin 18y ago
Outstanding post. I believe I bookmarked this a while back to read later, but never got around to it. This morning I woke up with client work to do, but of course I went to HN first instead. Noticed this, and spent 2 hours reading and thinking about the points. Very worthwhile.
dhotson 18y ago
Agreed.. this is always worth re-reading every few months. It's a fantastic read.

hhm 18y ago

"Beware of turning hobbies into jobs" Don't most hackers turn their hobbies into jobs? How does that work for you?

th0ma5 18y ago
i've had some success but mostly irritation over this... for the most part computers in general are both my hobby and my career, and that mostly works out, although can be exhausting, so i find other things. specifically aspects of computerdom, administration like things used be a hobby for me, but not anymore now that i'm an admin, so my hobby is programming. then i got moonlighting work on special programming projects. lots of fun, but now i just feel like making art and music more... and hopefully i can avoid making those a job just because i want to keep it fun. i don't know... i might go back into design fulltime and become just a hobby hacker again, but i guess i need that in depth analysis of systems troubleshooting to feel relevant. it used to be a cool rewarding hobby, but now it is a cool and rewarding job, so i guess i can't complain, and it still works for me

antiform 18y ago

There's also a nice pdf version here: http://www.changethis.com/6.HowToBeCreative http://www.changethis.com/6.HowToBeCreative

Timothee 18y ago
It is nicer but it doesn't have all the 38 points. I like the layout though.

jacobbijani 18y ago

stop reading huge lists and go fucking make something

noonespecial 18y ago

"A lot of people in business say they have twenty years experience, when in fact all they really have is one year's experience, repeated twenty times." This has always been my favorite quote from this essay, probably because to goes double for the software industry. Having 10 years experience programming poorly makes you a worse hire than someone with no experience at all.

palish 18y ago

Everybody has their own private Mount Everest they were put on this earth to climb. I stopped reading there.

ynd 18y ago
why?
- palish 18y ago
  Because it's overgeneralized, useless, feel-good nothingness.

sammyo 18y ago

They missed #1: 10% inspiration, 90% perspiration.

echair 18y ago
It's 1:99, not 10:90.