4 ms·

What is the point of a sentence like "A Hungarian psychology professor once wrote …" without the actual name? His/her mythical study is a recurrent theme in the

• DanBC 13y ago
  Well, the name of the professor or his/her book isn't so relevant to the story, but I tend to agree with you. A real name would have been nice. (http://www.good.is/posts/secret-to-creativity-learning-how-to-say-no 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.
  • lubomir 13y ago
    Thanks or the link. 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.
  • johnbellone 13y ago
    If you are citing work I think its very relevant. Since it sets up the whole foundation of the piece.
  • mherdeg 13y ago
    Is this medium.com post ( https://medium.com/design-thinking-1/bad7c34842a2 https://medium.com/design-thinking-1/bad7c34842a2 ) plagiarized from this good.is post ( http://www.good.is/posts/secret-to-creativity-learning-how-to-say-no http://www.good.is/posts/secret-to-creativity-learning-how-t... )? I see substantial similarities in the content and no attribution. I don't think this would pass muster if it were a newspaper column.
    • aet 13y ago
      It does seem to lift a lot from the good.is post.
• diydsp 13y ago
  I hear ya. I just escaped from Academia about two years ago, where adding $country to everything counts as cred. It's especially powerful when multiple countries are combined. I cringe when I recall the false delight audience members experience when presenters start with something such as "We got an artist from Greece on board and a physicist from Austria, even some magicians from Latvia." These statements have absurdist, Babel-ish, and feel-good value, but are by no means indicators of practical success. More likely, it's a bunch of bored people from around the world uniting briefly to achieve a highly idiosyncratic and quickly forgotten result. 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.