The No. 1 Habit of Highly Creative People

[sudont]

Nope. The most effective habit of highly creative people is persistence, the ability to work and work and work while resisting burn-out.

The best graphic designers I’ve ever met would put in 8-10 hour days, then go home and work on their personal projects. It was effective, they all had at least 3 AIGA awards and about 10 HOW awards, each.

[evac]

If we're talking about habit of highly successful people, I would agree it's persistence. But if we're talking specifically about highly creative and innovative people, then we may have to measure them with a slightly different set of metrics, for which solitude may be a more relevant habit than persistence.

Though I can't say whether solitude is THE number one habit, I would agree it's one of the best habits to have for generating insights and ideas.

[pgroves]

>Nope. The most effective habit of highly creative people is persistence, the ability to work and work and work while resisting burn-out.

But if that persistence is applied to 8 hours a day of meetings and 3 hours of email, it wouldn't lead to anything impressive. The days/months/years of persistence must go toward "creating" not just "working." The author made the case that most creativity happens when you're alone with your thoughts.

[te_chris]

Your attitude is symptomatic of most people who, in lieu of being actually creative and making cool stuff, don't, but believe that if they just keep trying they'll get there. Sometimes this is true, but genius works in mysterious ways.

Also using designers as an example is a bit disingenuous as well. I know this is a massive value judgement, but I don't generally consider designers artists. they're too bound by their medium generally to be considered properly creative and artistic. they're more technicians - solving interesting problems, but never with the surprising abstraction that makes great art great.

[prknight]

Persistence may guarantee a certain quantity of output and that may allow for a higher statistical chance of 'wins', but it's not a must-have habit to be highly creative. Compare the histories and creative methodologies of Edison (known for persistence) versus Tesla (mad, but more creative scientist) - I'd rather be Tesla creative than Edison creative. What a lot of creative people that appear incredibly persistent have in common are lifestyles that are driven by curiosity. Leonardo Da Vinci is perhaps the most creative genius to have walked the planet but it wasn't the habit of persistence that set him apart - it was his curiosity. He produced like crazy but he was famously known as a flake in the day (for not finishing stuff). He didn't care about output - he was driven by his questions, his curiosity. Curiosity driven people don't stop because they intrinsically need to find the answers, they can't help it - it's a form of persistence. I'd rather have a insatiably curious person working on developing ideas than a persistent workaholic.

[michaelty]

"Everyone can be taught to sculpt: Michelangelo would have had to be taught how not to. So it is with the great programmers".

Alan Perlis

[katovatzschyn]

I think persistence is paramount, but the most general habit is simply "creation." One needs to be creating something, perhaps not always, perhaps not always well, but creating something none the less. It's a self selecting habit to unite a group by, but for some reason, to some, not an obvious one.

[swannodette]

Don't confuse success with creativity.

[AndrewMoffat]

On a side note, it seems like people value persistence more than creativity because it's more attainable by everyone. We can't all be creative freaks like Tesla, Van Gogh, or Einstein, but we can all work really really hard at what we do. Telling someone to "be more creative" doesn't have the same effect as "be more persistent"...you either have it or you don't with creativity.

It's almost like the naturally creative are cheating somehow, and there's a quiet resentment towards them by those of us who are non-creative-but-persistent, as if we want to forget that natural creativity gives a distinct advantage that can't be duplicated by persistence alone.

I think a couple of the posts in this thread exemplify this attitude.

[AndrewMoffat]

That sounds like "the no.1 habit of highly productive creative people", not "the no.1 habit of highly creative people."

[klbarry]

Too true. This is also the same for every successful entrepreneur I've ever heard of, read about, or ever known.

[solipsist]

The article left out the following quote of Albert Einstein:

“I lived in solitude in the country and noticed how the monotony of a quiet life stimulates the creative mind”

[narrator]

Unplugging and just staring at the wall for a couple of hours alone is good for creativity. It tends to lead to a good mental environment for "image streaming". "Image Streaming" is watching a movie in your mind made up of as many memories and things you can imagine pieced together, usually focused on a particular topic. It's basically a way to access the enormous power of the right-side of the brain.

[JoeAltmaier]

Ok, maybe its not #1, but it is important.

Newton did his best work hiding out in his country house during Plague season.

Einsteid flourished in a Patent office - nobody bothered him much, he could spend all day thinking.

[iamwil]

Actually, I've found that the "Top idea in mind" is how I do it, and figured someone would have mentioned it already.

http://www.paulgraham.com/top.html

I just never put a name into it, until I read that essay. When you mull over something in your mind all the time, you're bound to come up with something as you get more new pieces of information in your day to day life.

[daimyoyo]

I think the fact that most historically creative people were nite owls, and the fact they score better on iq tests (see http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200911/intelligence-...) could be linked to the solitude that inevitably happens when you're up late.

[pmichaud]

The habit is "solitude."

[Andrew_Quentin]

and the opposite, connecting with people.

[Stormbringer]

I think solitude and deep thinking time are crucially important to programming. However, I have been becoming more and more aware that programming is also performance art (audience of our peers), by which I mean that programming is also a social activity.

In order to be appreciated, it must be shared.

[dzuc]

Might I recommend: David Bohm wrote a very accessible book on creativity--what it is, how it works, etc.

http://www.amazon.com/Creativity-Routledge-Classics-David-Bo...

[mbesto]

I love this idea that somehow creative people are somehow "special"; I really like the articles preface of "Creativity is a nebulous, murky topic that fascinates me endlessly — how does it work? What habits to creative people do that makes them so successful at creativity?"

Here is a good interview with Craig Wynett ("Chief Creativity Officer") at P&G, in which he attempts to explain how they at P&G are trying to approach creativity from a scientific approach:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLBJ9pda7TA

In my opinion, cognitive science will be a huge topic in marketing in the years to come.

[ramidarigaz]

Really? I don't think so. Some of the coolest ideas I've ever had have come during discussions with friends. I'm most productive when I'm alone, but rarely do I have creative ideas by myself.

[alexwestholm]

The article notes that solitude should be balanced with participation and awareness of one's space. Upon reading that, I realized that's why sites like HN are so valuable to me: I get both without much hassle.

[dave1619]

I resonate with the article. As I've grown in the practice of tranquil and contemplative solitude, my creativity has grown. "Creation comes from within, inspiration comes from without."

[etal]

This is also called "flow" or being "in the zone" -- focusing on one thing, intensely, without interruptions. It's one more reason to lump programming in with the other creative arts.

[pier0]

Stopped reading the article when I saw listed as a highly creative person the "actress best known for her awesome work in Buffy the Vampire Slayer".

[dmoney]

She also writes and produces The Guild ( http://www.watchtheguild.com/ ) and its associated comics. I think the show qualifies her as both creative and a successful web entrepreneur.

[byteclub]

Or, to put it another way: meditation.

[gareth_at_work]

creating != producing

[mcnemesis]

to a good extent, creativity == (ability to generate alternatives && identify / pick out the best)

and i believe 'ability to generating alternatives' is one of the most important issue here, as often times, most / all existing solutions to a problem have failed or are poor, and it is then required of a 'creative' person to come up with alternatives - obviously the bonus is when the best is picked from these alternatives.