6 ms·

This made me think that perhaps part of the reason adults seem to often be less creative than young children is due to how little movement adults often do durin

by Akkuma 11y ago

This made me think that perhaps part of the reason adults seem to often be less creative than young children is due to how little movement adults often do during the day at their jobs. Maybe we've been impeding ourselves by how much more of a sedentary lifestyle we live from sitting at a desk all day, to sitting in a car, to sitting to eat, to sitting to watch tv, etc.. If you could prove that the increased creativity leads to increased productivity, you might start seeing startups pushing for people to take walks whenever they hit a snag.

dummy7953 11y ago
Yes, and while we're being creative, perhaps we can think of a way to solve the problem of increasing productivity while never seeing the benefit of any of it. /rant
- oldmanjay 11y ago
  Not to be too flip, but that problem has been solved for centuries. Negotiate better.
  - stdbrouw 11y ago
    Doesn't help when the issue is benefit to society rather than personal benefit.
rokhayakebe 11y ago
"Motion creates Emotion"
robotkilla 11y ago
> adults seem to often be less creative than young children I think there are a number of reasons for this. I don't have a lot of time to write it all out here, and I would like to get my thoughts more focused on the whole subject before I write too much but here are a few reasons that I think lead to a so-called loss of creativity. Inactivity and stress leads to a whole host of issues, which I think loss of creativity is a side effect of. I suffered a severe loss of creativity during my early to late 20s. I attribute this to high stress, too much work, and a loss of focus. Also depression didn't help at all. Inactivity and stress makes you feel like crap. So does depression. I would go through bursts of creativity even at my low points, but I could never finish anything I started. Depression would always make me fail. Learning to live with depression, getting rid of my stress and focusing in hard on the things I want to make has boosted me to (what at least feels like) a whole new creative level. I think people lose their creative focus. They forget the reason for creating in the first place and so they see no reason to remain creative perhaps, or they can't see whatever it may be they enjoy creating panning out into a profitable business, so they stop. They allow social norms to smash their creativity at various critical stages in their life perhaps. Some parents are pretty down on creativity as well. Society as a whole celebrates people who think differently, but in day to day life the people you encounter openly show their disapproval (if you speak your mind). If you don't practice your creativity, study techniques, test yourself, fail at whatever you're doing and learn from your mistakes (just like literally everything else) you will end up "losing" your creativity... though I like to think that some people who were "creative" never really found it in the first place. They perhaps started down the right path, and then abandoned it, like a child who gives up on reading. During my youth (I can remember as young as 5ish but I have one story saved which i wrote at age "3 1/2") I created things nearly every day. I have piles of papers saved from nearly every stage of my life, be they sketches, doodles, or something more. Most of it is unfinished and pretty much rubbish. I like to look at that pile of garbage and compare it to what I have now (just like I do with the stuff I made a few years or months ago). I think that kids are just less inhibited, are able to make weird connections because they don't know how the world works (this can be simulated though, so don't despair), have less stress, less obligations, have more time, are healthier and more active like you said.
- TeMPOraL 11y ago
  Another thing I think also kills creativity is obligations. Jobs. Deadlines, things you have to do soon "or else" - be it in private or work life. As a kid I could spend hours or days (or, during summer, even weeks) doing whatever it is I was interested at the moment - be it playing games, writing code or drawing things. I could go easy and take as much time as creativity requires. If I fail, no problem. There was always tomorrow afternoon. There was always next Saturday. As an adult, I can no longer do that. There's tons of obligation, and every scrap of free time I have must be allocated well. I feel this pressure to be immediately successful, immediately rewarded, because there's very little time left in between errands and having to get some sleep. This pressure is what I think makes people just not bother. Not think creative thoughts, because there won't be time to do anything with them anyway. There's this bit of "statistics" floating around the Internet, that "Americans [or other first-worlders] spend on average 4 hours a day in front of TV". If only they could channel that time into something creative... Except they can't. Because when you come home tired, your willpower drained at work, after you're done with your chores, for many drinking beer and watching a movie (or reading a book; somehow, no one ever says reading books is a waste of time) is the only reasonable way to wind down. Because you don't have to commit. You don't have to allocate time, worry that you won't have enough of it. You just sit down and enjoy the show, and then repeat the loop 'till you retire.
  - stfu 11y ago
    Obligations and also the expectation of "intention". Just doing things without intending to become an expert of it or using it for some sort of more "purposeful" purpose has become so rare.
  - robotkilla 11y ago
    Agreed - I have spent the last 3 years working from home making very little money but educating myself on the various gaps in my education so that I could make modern video games. Money has gotten really tight a few times but I've managed to survive along with my girlfriend on a very small income. We put almost all of our free time into learning game development for the sake of learning something new, but with the goal to produce an independent commercial game. After I found a way to get rid of most of my obligations I was able to pursue this as a life path.
loceng 11y ago
The difficulty is reversing the impact of stagnation on a mind and body. It takes time and varying levels of support depending on how rigid a person and their life has become - whether someone started to get stuck during childhood or later. Properly applied preventative and proactive health I feel are the solution for this.
bryanlarsen 11y ago
I was under the impression that the major reason for the difference in creativity between children and adults was due to synaptic pruning. Children learn much easier, and adults are better/faster at using what they've learned. It's an evolutionary trade-off.

by Akkuma 11y ago

dummy7953 11y ago

Yes, and while we're being creative, perhaps we can think of a way to solve the problem of increasing productivity while never seeing the benefit of any of it. /rant

oldmanjay 11y ago
Not to be too flip, but that problem has been solved for centuries. Negotiate better.
- stdbrouw 11y ago
  Doesn't help when the issue is benefit to society rather than personal benefit.

rokhayakebe 11y ago

"Motion creates Emotion"

robotkilla 11y ago

> adults seem to often be less creative than young children I think there are a number of reasons for this. I don't have a lot of time to write it all out here, and I would like to get my thoughts more focused on the whole subject before I write too much but here are a few reasons that I think lead to a so-called loss of creativity. Inactivity and stress leads to a whole host of issues, which I think loss of creativity is a side effect of. I suffered a severe loss of creativity during my early to late 20s. I attribute this to high stress, too much work, and a loss of focus. Also depression didn't help at all. Inactivity and stress makes you feel like crap. So does depression. I would go through bursts of creativity even at my low points, but I could never finish anything I started. Depression would always make me fail. Learning to live with depression, getting rid of my stress and focusing in hard on the things I want to make has boosted me to (what at least feels like) a whole new creative level. I think people lose their creative focus. They forget the reason for creating in the first place and so they see no reason to remain creative perhaps, or they can't see whatever it may be they enjoy creating panning out into a profitable business, so they stop. They allow social norms to smash their creativity at various critical stages in their life perhaps. Some parents are pretty down on creativity as well. Society as a whole celebrates people who think differently, but in day to day life the people you encounter openly show their disapproval (if you speak your mind). If you don't practice your creativity, study techniques, test yourself, fail at whatever you're doing and learn from your mistakes (just like literally everything else) you will end up "losing" your creativity... though I like to think that some people who were "creative" never really found it in the first place. They perhaps started down the right path, and then abandoned it, like a child who gives up on reading. During my youth (I can remember as young as 5ish but I have one story saved which i wrote at age "3 1/2") I created things nearly every day. I have piles of papers saved from nearly every stage of my life, be they sketches, doodles, or something more. Most of it is unfinished and pretty much rubbish. I like to look at that pile of garbage and compare it to what I have now (just like I do with the stuff I made a few years or months ago). I think that kids are just less inhibited, are able to make weird connections because they don't know how the world works (this can be simulated though, so don't despair), have less stress, less obligations, have more time, are healthier and more active like you said.

TeMPOraL 11y ago
Another thing I think also kills creativity is obligations. Jobs. Deadlines, things you have to do soon "or else" - be it in private or work life. As a kid I could spend hours or days (or, during summer, even weeks) doing whatever it is I was interested at the moment - be it playing games, writing code or drawing things. I could go easy and take as much time as creativity requires. If I fail, no problem. There was always tomorrow afternoon. There was always next Saturday. As an adult, I can no longer do that. There's tons of obligation, and every scrap of free time I have must be allocated well. I feel this pressure to be immediately successful, immediately rewarded, because there's very little time left in between errands and having to get some sleep. This pressure is what I think makes people just not bother. Not think creative thoughts, because there won't be time to do anything with them anyway. There's this bit of "statistics" floating around the Internet, that "Americans [or other first-worlders] spend on average 4 hours a day in front of TV". If only they could channel that time into something creative... Except they can't. Because when you come home tired, your willpower drained at work, after you're done with your chores, for many drinking beer and watching a movie (or reading a book; somehow, no one ever says reading books is a waste of time) is the only reasonable way to wind down. Because you don't have to commit. You don't have to allocate time, worry that you won't have enough of it. You just sit down and enjoy the show, and then repeat the loop 'till you retire.
- stfu 11y ago
  Obligations and also the expectation of "intention". Just doing things without intending to become an expert of it or using it for some sort of more "purposeful" purpose has become so rare.
- robotkilla 11y ago
  Agreed - I have spent the last 3 years working from home making very little money but educating myself on the various gaps in my education so that I could make modern video games. Money has gotten really tight a few times but I've managed to survive along with my girlfriend on a very small income. We put almost all of our free time into learning game development for the sake of learning something new, but with the goal to produce an independent commercial game. After I found a way to get rid of most of my obligations I was able to pursue this as a life path.

loceng 11y ago

The difficulty is reversing the impact of stagnation on a mind and body. It takes time and varying levels of support depending on how rigid a person and their life has become - whether someone started to get stuck during childhood or later. Properly applied preventative and proactive health I feel are the solution for this.

bryanlarsen 11y ago

I was under the impression that the major reason for the difference in creativity between children and adults was due to synaptic pruning. Children learn much easier, and adults are better/faster at using what they've learned. It's an evolutionary trade-off.