4 ms·

Know your craft. Find inspiration in everything. Practice, practice, practice.

chacha102 17y ago
That summed up everything. I spent 5 minutes trying to be creative enough to think of something to add, but all of it was covered under that.
- iamwil 17y ago
  mm. I guess I'd add read about and learn about a wide variety of things. Learn to cultivate your sense of curiosity. When you have a good nose for the interesting, you'll be able to put things and ideas together in a novel way.
  - jacoblyles 17y ago
    An example, in the 60's through the 90's, many economists created entire new fields of economics by applying it to other domains and vice versa. Economics + math produced game theory. Richard Posner, a judge, started the economic study of the law. Others, such as Olson, Buchanan, and Tullock, noticed that the theories of economics could be applied to the government as well as the market, and public choice was born (and Nobels were won). Lastly, psychologists got involved in economics recently, spawning the new discipline of behavioral economics.
    - eru 17y ago
      I agree. Though game theory predates the 60's. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_theory#History http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_theory#History
amichail 17y ago
I believe creativity is a result of a genetic predisposition that manifests itself in the presence of extensive experience/knowledge. So yes, it helps to check out cool ideas (e.g., on TED, TechCrunch, etc.) and to think critically about those ideas. A creative idea is often the result of a novel pairing of two things. So the more things you know about, the better your chances are that you will stumble upon a compelling pairing.
Confusion 17y ago
Find inspiration in everything I think that begs the question. How does one find 'inspiration' in something?
- paraschopra 17y ago
  I know this sounds weird but try to imagine yourself hallucinating. Try to imagine what could be the most weird thing you could do with something. Try laughing at yourself when you think of useless and most off-the-beat ideas with a thing. Observe your trajectory of thought.
jacoblyles 17y ago
It is certainly easier to be creative when one has reached a high level of proficiency at one's craft. Sugar Ray Leonard can pull off dance moves in the boxing ring, I keep my hands up and my jab out or I'll get my head knocked off.
- anamax 17y ago
  That's just an argument to not get in too far over your head. Start where you can grow and then do so.
- qaexl 17y ago
  It is easier because (1) The tasks becomes so automatic, you no longer have to think about it and "work through it". It sinks into the subconscious. This is important. (2) When the tasks becomes automatic, you naturally relax. Being relaxed, creativity and inspiration comes out. You cannot force it out. Stress kills creativity. Fear-inspired creativity typically manifests as paranoia. (3) This is why some people can get oddly-inspired brilliance as a complete n00b in a craft. He doesn't know anything, yet sometimes he is relaxed enough that some randomly brilliant thing comes out. Often, this fades away with more mastery of the craft. It is why children are often perceived as naturally more creative. (4) Someone who has mastered a craft to the point where it requires no thinking can be far more creative than the complete n00b. A master's inspiration takes advantage of deep understanding of his craft, so not only would it be far more effective, it is much more consistent. (5) The four stages of competancy: unconsciously incompetant, consciously incompetant, consciously competant, unconsciously competant. Most people reach the stage of consciously competancy (which requires concentration) and stop there. This is the stage where you've "learned" something and you "get" it. To reach the stage of unconsciously competancy, however, requires an incredible amount of practice and repetition (Malcom Gladwell's ballpark-nice-round-number of 10,000 ... which depending on the skill, really isn't all that much). An example in the case of programming: I remember when I first learned the Ruby syntax. While I had other languages under my belt, I still had to mentally, and deliberately parse the syntax, and then try to understand the flow. Now, if I look at a codebase I am reasonbly familiar with, I can glance at it. I don't really see the code itself so much as how it all fits together. I have not yet mastered the syntax to the point where I can glance at unfamiliar code and do that. Another example related to programming: I've seen would-be-programmers struggle to type their programs. For them, they have not reached a stage of unconscious competancy with typing. They have to frame bits of their thoughts and then deliberately type it out. Some touch-typists I know are not that much better. For me, having played so much MUDs back in its heyday, I've learned how to type well enough that it is no longer an interface bottleneck for me. Example from martial arts: There is actually a ton of material written about this subject of creativity in the "boxing ring", some of the surviving ones written a couple hundred years ago or more. One of my favorite is the Japanese densho, Neko no Myojutsu. A modern (though more obtuse) treatise about this subject is "Effortless Power". Both books discusses the cases about creativity, the newbie, and the master craftsmen.

That summed up everything. I spent 5 minutes trying to be creative enough to think of something to add, but all of it was covered under that.

iamwil 17y ago
mm. I guess I'd add read about and learn about a wide variety of things. Learn to cultivate your sense of curiosity. When you have a good nose for the interesting, you'll be able to put things and ideas together in a novel way.
- jacoblyles 17y ago
  An example, in the 60's through the 90's, many economists created entire new fields of economics by applying it to other domains and vice versa. Economics + math produced game theory. Richard Posner, a judge, started the economic study of the law. Others, such as Olson, Buchanan, and Tullock, noticed that the theories of economics could be applied to the government as well as the market, and public choice was born (and Nobels were won). Lastly, psychologists got involved in economics recently, spawning the new discipline of behavioral economics.
  - eru 17y ago
    I agree. Though game theory predates the 60's. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_theory#History http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_theory#History

amichail 17y ago

I believe creativity is a result of a genetic predisposition that manifests itself in the presence of extensive experience/knowledge. So yes, it helps to check out cool ideas (e.g., on TED, TechCrunch, etc.) and to think critically about those ideas. A creative idea is often the result of a novel pairing of two things. So the more things you know about, the better your chances are that you will stumble upon a compelling pairing.

Confusion 17y ago

Find inspiration in everything I think that begs the question. How does one find 'inspiration' in something?

paraschopra 17y ago
I know this sounds weird but try to imagine yourself hallucinating. Try to imagine what could be the most weird thing you could do with something. Try laughing at yourself when you think of useless and most off-the-beat ideas with a thing. Observe your trajectory of thought.

jacoblyles 17y ago

It is certainly easier to be creative when one has reached a high level of proficiency at one's craft. Sugar Ray Leonard can pull off dance moves in the boxing ring, I keep my hands up and my jab out or I'll get my head knocked off.

anamax 17y ago
That's just an argument to not get in too far over your head. Start where you can grow and then do so.
qaexl 17y ago
It is easier because (1) The tasks becomes so automatic, you no longer have to think about it and "work through it". It sinks into the subconscious. This is important. (2) When the tasks becomes automatic, you naturally relax. Being relaxed, creativity and inspiration comes out. You cannot force it out. Stress kills creativity. Fear-inspired creativity typically manifests as paranoia. (3) This is why some people can get oddly-inspired brilliance as a complete n00b in a craft. He doesn't know anything, yet sometimes he is relaxed enough that some randomly brilliant thing comes out. Often, this fades away with more mastery of the craft. It is why children are often perceived as naturally more creative. (4) Someone who has mastered a craft to the point where it requires no thinking can be far more creative than the complete n00b. A master's inspiration takes advantage of deep understanding of his craft, so not only would it be far more effective, it is much more consistent. (5) The four stages of competancy: unconsciously incompetant, consciously incompetant, consciously competant, unconsciously competant. Most people reach the stage of consciously competancy (which requires concentration) and stop there. This is the stage where you've "learned" something and you "get" it. To reach the stage of unconsciously competancy, however, requires an incredible amount of practice and repetition (Malcom Gladwell's ballpark-nice-round-number of 10,000 ... which depending on the skill, really isn't all that much). An example in the case of programming: I remember when I first learned the Ruby syntax. While I had other languages under my belt, I still had to mentally, and deliberately parse the syntax, and then try to understand the flow. Now, if I look at a codebase I am reasonbly familiar with, I can glance at it. I don't really see the code itself so much as how it all fits together. I have not yet mastered the syntax to the point where I can glance at unfamiliar code and do that. Another example related to programming: I've seen would-be-programmers struggle to type their programs. For them, they have not reached a stage of unconscious competancy with typing. They have to frame bits of their thoughts and then deliberately type it out. Some touch-typists I know are not that much better. For me, having played so much MUDs back in its heyday, I've learned how to type well enough that it is no longer an interface bottleneck for me. Example from martial arts: There is actually a ton of material written about this subject of creativity in the "boxing ring", some of the surviving ones written a couple hundred years ago or more. One of my favorite is the Japanese densho, Neko no Myojutsu. A modern (though more obtuse) treatise about this subject is "Effortless Power". Both books discusses the cases about creativity, the newbie, and the master craftsmen.