They say there is a streak of madness in creative people. It’s a perspective that one agrees with, simply because they challenge the norms question what is construed to be acceptable. You must think in that scenario highly unlikely a lazy person would be bursting with creativity. Few couch potatoes use their energies thinking of concepts that marvel the most intelligent people. Infact the bum burners push themselves to find solutions to tasks they leave unfinished or dread.
Who do you think invented the La-Z-Boy? Edwin Shoemaker and Edward Knabusch in 1928, while in there twenties agreed that sitting up straight was too much effort they invented the iconic reclining chair. Back in 1955, Eugene J. Polley invented the "Flash-Matic," the precious TV remote control. Bill Gates is famously quoted saying, he will always choose a lazy person to do a difficult job, because he or she will find an easier way to do it. That certainly holds true for Jesse Reno and all other couch potatoes. The former channelized his inner lazy to invent what we today call “escalators”.
Everyone is creative or at-least has the potential to be creative. Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi concluded that a defining characteristic of highly creative people is complex. He believed they had contradictory extremes in them that instead of being an individual, each of them is a multitude.
Interesting theory and one that reiterates why despite being branded slothful university students have been behind hugely successful platforms as Google, Facebook, Snapchat. There are also inventions like the foot hammock that make you wonder what was Matt Hulme thinking? Or the Blake Bevin’s self-lacing shoes, alas! Don’t be judgemental and never tread that path to challenge anyone’s innovation instead use that as lubrication to get your juices flowing. In that process, be grateful that had it not been for something you deem sub-par, the beauty you discovered would lie submerged, hidden even from you.
Makes one wonder how is the level of creativity arrived at? Does the now famous Adobe creativity test “Creative Types” hold merit? Is it enough to master your chosen field? Or is it all hogwash unless there is a cross connection between your thought and the iconic Malthus theory? Apparently it’s not enough to be a crackpot, Isaac Asimov explains this eloquently in his essay on creativity, written post-attending cerebration program launched by a MIT spinoff company.
There are many categories / characteristics and tips today to train one’s mind to challenge the “acceptable” to probe one to fly in the face of reason and common sense and link that back to purpose. The pandemic has fuelled people’s creativity, the social media was a museum to exhibit their craft from baking, gardening, savoury dishes, writing, painting et al. A new skill acquired or any craft helps de-stress, releases dopamine, a natural anti depressant. Paramedics employ creativity in terminally ill patients. The theory of cognition postulates that being creative is actually a basis for human life.
There is also a humongous characterization of ‘creative people” being unkempt, dirty, drunk, obnoxious, extreme mood swing but till recently that came as a part of being a genius. No one realized that they could be an underlying element of truth to them being labelled madcaps.
The very talented Van Gogh suffered from unstable moods and eccentric personality that led 150 doctors to hypothesize posthumous diagnoses. Van Gogh had recurring psychotic episodes in his life, and at age 37 he committed suicide. He lived in a time when schizophrenia had not been identified as a disorder. Life’s melodies marred, Ludwig Van Beethoven, artist Edvard Munch, poet Sylvia Plath, novelist David Foster Wallace amongst many greats. They all had the commonality of producing something unprecedented and unique and for suffering from one or more mental illness
Csikszentmihalyi’s belief also highlights the dominance of split personality or presence of many divergent aspects to one’s personality in creative people. This sentiment is echoed post extensive research by many institutes, infact the same has been published by the British Journal of Psychiatry. As per the report creative people or at least those with degrees in creative fields have a 90 percent higher chance of being diagnosed with schizophreniain comparison to people working in non-creative fields.
Many greats are testament to the findings; the founder of the “theory of relativity” was himself entwined in being creative and eccentric. Albert Einstein, showed signs of schizophrenia at the age of 20. He was institutionalized several times and died in an asylum at the young age of 55.There is also a vulnerability in these otherwise immensely gifted individuals. The mathematical genius John Nash whose work provided insight into the factors that govern chance and decision-making inside complex systems too was caught in his own beautiful mind. He is the only person to be awarded both the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences and the Abel Prize.
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Creative thinkers invest time and energy in unpopular ideas that have great potential for solving different types of problems. Their priceless ideas many a times can be encashed for yacht loads of money. Sadly a lot of them get their real due /win accolades post being in another sphere. Galileo Galilei
, Van Gogh , Oscar Wilde , John Keats all become legendary post death.
Embrace your creative side it’s therapeutic and keeps you young as well. A child’s mind is like play-dough, questions everything, and is fearless while being imaginative. Be completely egoless and willing to surrender to a source more enlightened than yourself, who knows what you’re capable of Samuel Jackson debuted at 46 in pulp fiction, Donald Fisher founded 16 billion dollars Gap in his forties, Harland Sanders sold his first Kentucky Fried Chicken at the age of 65. There must be more to life than this, there must be more than meets the eye never stop exploring…
Breathe, is an initiative to support, sustain & applaud the works of artists. There exists an interchangeable relationship between art and the society’s culture. An artists thru his / her perspective influences and lays a base to infuse positive elements in this matrix. It’s essential that both the artists and the people together raise the bar to bring about a desired transformation.
Come let’s celeberate our love for art as a wearable / accessories that become an extension of us. Let nothing we dorn be unimaginative !
Just as everyone has a sinus each one is creative, sinusitis only a few have!
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