So I need to be sad, bored and happy to be creative

[analogmind]

To be really creative, you need to stop reading Hacker News frantically and go out and explore nature, other people and your own thoughts.

[collyw]

Actually I used to work as a rafting guide. Didn't earn a lot of money, but I had a lot of free time (in nature), and met a lot of people.

I notice that I had way more ideas then than I do now that I have settled into a 9-6 lifestyle. Sometimes that creativity starts coming back when I am on holiday for a while.

I think a "normal" office job / lifestyle is very stifling to creativity.

[smcl]

This is the simple take home for me. Same goes for the "N books/things all developers should read/know (about X)". You'd drive yourself daft reading all of them, and probably miss other opportunities in the meantime. HN is an interesting distraction which can sometimes inspire but can all too easily become a drag.

[Toenex]

Yes, but what framework should I use for that? ;)

[kosma]

We don’t know where we get our ideas from. What we do know is that we do not get them from our laptops. – John Cleese

[fenomas]

Ah, the fabled Outernet. I've heard a lot about it.

[vans]

So true ! Always looking for how to be happy/productive/creative and so on instead of being happy/productive/creative !

[hownottowrite]

Orbiting the Giant Hairball (1998) was a great guide to being creative in a world structured to squash creativity: http://www.amazon.com/Orbiting-Giant-Hairball-Corporate-Surv...

Hugh McLeod's How to Be Creative manifesto (2004) is also an amazing guide http://changethis.com/manifesto/6.HowToBeCreative/pdf/6.HowT... (you can buy it too http://www.amazon.com/Ignore-Everybody-Other-Keys-Creativity...)

[adwf]

Welcome to the social sciences, where the facts are made up and the points don't matter...

[_delirium]

Fwiw, these are the disciplines involved in the three studies:

-- Sadness/creativity link: a business school professor

-- Boredom/creativity link: several psychologists

-- Happiness/creativity link: several psychologists, a physician, and a neuroscientist

[We can also add "journalist" as another layer in there.]

[calinet6]

We'd all do well to understand and respect them far more. It is the links between the hard sciences and the fuzzy humanities where the true value lies.

[andyfleming]

Tomorrow: "Scientists find creativity studies plagued with bipolar participants"

[siddhartpai]

What's it with creativity today ?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8916115

[medecau]

Dead.

[JonnieCache]

See also: http://kill-or-cure.herokuapp.com/

[yaddayadda]

"deodorant causes cancer"

"being southern causes cancer"

"being black causes cancer"

"being male causes cancer"

"fatherhood causes cancer" / "childlessness cause cancer"

"work causes cancer"/"working causes cancer"

"bras cause cancer"

"bacon causes cancer"

"burgers cause cancer"

I feel sorry for deodorant-wearing, southern, black, working fathers (or not) that cross-dress and enjoy bacon-burgers - they clearly don't stand a chance against cancer! Who knew?

@JonnieCache - Thanks for sharing! Kill or cure does a great job highlighting how research can be contradictory, as well as how research headlines are often made sensationalist.

[TeMPOraL]

In other news, I need to be in a quantum superposition with coding: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/216352/guys_youre_not_he....

[thinkingkong]

Maybe creativity has less to do with your frame of mind, and more to do with creating opportunities to come up with novel / interesting solutions to problems. If youre angry then youre removing some internal barriers to complacency. If youre happy you feel positive about yourself and give your thoughts and pondering more worthwhile attention. If youre bored you ruminate and your mind becomes preoccupied with some track of thought.

The routine, seeing the same people, constant distraction style of living we're all so used to doesnt seem to provide us with those opportunities.

[nl]

Don't listen to music[1]. But don't conform[2].

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1995698

[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6909189

[wvh]

I had the same confusion after seeing the headlines, but after reading the respective articles, I think the point is that happiness and non-focussed dreamy state are helpful in freely exploring problems and links semi-consciously – sort of finding ideas in the back of your head – while the sadness (and anxiety) is needed to focus and keep trying to succeed in hard disciplines.

Moods correlate with states of focus and attention, and hence some states of mind are more useful in particular phases of the creative process.

I think it makes sense to some extent, as a happy person has no needs and can let their mind float aimlessly while an unhappy person wants to strive, focus and achieve to change his/her condition or to at least forget about the state of mind he/she is in.

[FreezerburnV]

Might I add yet another bit of input on how to be creative? John Cleese had a few words to say about being creative a while ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMpdPrm6Ul4

[ky3]

One of the best bits: "Look babycakes, I don't have to make the decision until next Tuesday. And I'm not chickening out of my creative discomfort by taking a snap decision before then -- that's too easy!"

I've observed that many hacker types flinch from the megahertz, ironically enough, as a way to keep up with the speed of the systems they've built.

Killing creativity is the least of it. Many snap judgments rot the brain.

[thewarrior]

All said and done there is a definite link between creativity and mental illness :

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creativity_and_mental_illness

[iamcreasy]

I think it's highly subjective. What worked for the sample space might not work for me or you. That's why I always take these type of researches as a grain of salt, and try to figure out what works for me and what doesn't.

I believes many of these claims will be debunked as the 'The Human Connectome Project' and 'The Human Brain Project' nears completion. But I think many things like creativity will always remain subjective.

[Red_Tarsius]

The only insightful article I've ever read on creativity is from Douglas Hofstadter's Metamagical Themas – love the anagam! – column: "Variations on a theme as the essence of imagination". Anything written by Hofstadter is gold and this is no exception.

link: http://www.bgrosjean.com/files/Metamagical_Themas.pdf

[pervycreeper]

The headlines, indeed, are mutually discrediting. Probably the later ones were submitted in response to the others.

All these studies suffer from inadequate efforts to properly operationalize the concept of "creativity". On the bright side, I believe that information sciences and statistics can shed a great deal more light on this particular problem in the near future.

[nz8877]

I think it's just manifestation of huge diversity among us. Once I started to appreciate the idea that we're not the same inside, I can see some very fascinating differences in the way we operate, think, see the world, etc.

Our brains are only superficially similar - isn't it as simple as that?

EDIT: fixed (hopefully) grammar mistakes.

[in3xes]

The validity of studies which say 'do X to get Y' is questionable. I simply skip them.

[icanblogshitz]

There are two kinds of people - those who are creative, and those who blog about being creative. If the ones who blogged about it actually spent time building and implementing things, they would be creative too. Whether they are sad, happy, or whatever!

[andreiursan]

to add to the list: to be more creative a broken sleep might help. Why Broken Sleep Is a Golden Time for Creativity [1]

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8574616

[jon-wood]

As the parent of an eleven month old baby I'm going to dispute that a lack of sleep does anything but make you reliant on caffeine, and useless at doing anything that requires actual thought.

[thewarrior]

I have anecdotal evidence to suggest that there is something to this. It's not so much coming up with original ideas as to knocking something up fast. Your mental censor is far more inhibited when you're sleepy and you're too tired to multi task so in a weird way you're actually more focused when you're sleepy if you're a mild ADD type.

[throwawayaway]

i really think this deserves its own submission.

[increment_i]

Were these articles written in response to each other - as you sometimes see on HN?

[Springtime]

Seeing as the Wired article posted today was from 2010 while the original two Nautilus pieces are from this month I'd imagine it was submitted as a response.