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Creativity and simplicity

August 7th, 2010 at 01:57 pm

I am starting to read the book Creativity by Mihaly Csikszentmihaly and I like it right from the start. He is a psychology professor at the University of Chicago. One of his early points in the book is that there are many things competing for your attention, so if you really want to have a chance at being creative it helps to cut down all the noise around you. And creative people can be so wound up in their ideas that they can appear isolated and unfriendly, when actually they are just preoccupied, like the stereotypical absent minded professor (maybe a little projection on his part)? Smile

I thought I would get this down here since it is one of my main ideas in life and one of my main pet peeves, that as an advanced society we seem to have to spend way too much time on mundane or overly complicated stuff. Take computers, for instance. Computers can be wonderful tools, but also maddening nuisances! And I am convinced that there is SOMETHING I can do to help this situation since it is a field rife with opportunity.

Anyway, that's all for now, but I'll probably bore you with ideas from this book all along until I finish it. Smile

Posted in General, Raves | 3 Comments »

3 Responses to “Creativity and simplicity”

  1. retire@50 Says:
    August 7th, 2010 at 08:31 pm 1281213086
    1281213086

    I loved his book called FLOw. Really resonated with me about getting lost in a project and being very happy/fulfilled by the experience.

  2. Ralph Says:
    August 8th, 2010 at 12:43 pm 1281271406
    1281271406

    Yup, that was a goodie too! I usually get the "flow" feeling on Fridays at work as I'm wrapping things up and closing loose ends, and basically the same at home as I putter around doing little clean up jobs, weeding, etc.

  3. Jerry Says:
    August 13th, 2010 at 08:35 pm 1281731742
    1281731742

    I am in the middle of preparing for a huge board examination, and the thing that will lead me to feel the most ready is to spend as much time in that "flow" state as possible... between now and December. I think that there is something to the many distractions that keep us away from that state... if we want to accomplish something, we need to have some insurance that we will not be distracted by Facebook or email or television or other crap!
    Jerry

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