On Creativity, or Benefits of Being a Dilettante

I’ve been out of town for a brief (fun!) getaway, so practicing has been on hold and my lesson for this week is cancelled. I won’t have much to say, violin-wise, until I resume my practice routine (over the weekend). However, I came across two interesting sets of thoughts about creativity that I thought I’d pass along.

First, via Notorious Ph.D., there’s this note from a Pixar animator named Austin Madison. (And when I say “note,” I mean a handwritten note on Pixar stationery.) He encourages persistence when you are in a drought between streaks of productivity/creativity. Seeing this encouragement in human handwriting somehow makes it seem more real, more personal, and more achievable.  

Then, via undine, there’s this article from The Wall Street Journal that discusses current research on creativity. The author, Jonah Lehrer, points out that creativity consists of “a variety of cognitive tools, each of which applies to particular sorts of problems and is coaxed to action in a particular way.” In other words, anyone can be creative if he/she has the wisdom or insight to choose the right tool for the job. Lehrer also talks about circumstances that foster creativity, one of which is this:

“If you're trying to be more creative, one of the most important things you can do is increase the volume and diversity of the information to which you are exposed.”

What a great argument for something like my little violin endeavor. Although my writing here is all about music, most of my life is not. Like most people I know--those who need/want and are lucky enough to have full-time paid employment, that is--I spend many/most of my waking hours at work. I am lucky to have a job I love (most of the time), but it can deplete me if I'm not careful.

To enjoy my job and do it well (creatively!) and enjoy life, I have to recharge. What recharges me is to "increase the volume and diversity of information to which [I am] exposed." What does that look like for me? Spending time on a regular basis with small circles of awesome people whose life experiences stretch over the whole world. Reading all kinds of shit that was never on a graduate school reading list. Watching baseball. Working on my second language skills. And now, immersing myself for a few hours per week in music, pushing my physical/mental/musical limits.

Give yourself permission to be a dilettante--it's good for your brain.