(This article is part of an ongoing series on technical and soft skills from Nathan Thomas, a full stack software engineer working in San Francisco. He previously worked and attended Lambda School. Click here for the previous article in the series, a piece called "Destructuring in JavaScript: A How-To Guide.")
But Then We Build the Sky
It's been 8 months since I've written a soft skills article. That's roughly the entire time I've been working in tech.
For a piece about creativity, the irony is not lost on me about how hard it was to finish.
This article has been in my draft box for about 6 months now. It's been opened many times late at night when everyone else is asleep. It's been stuck in an infinite loop of never-ending rewrites.
I guess you might say that I've been struggling to feel creative.
We live in a culture that is inspired and captivated by artists and celebrities. Originality is celebrated, but we don't often talk about the source of creativity (or how to get there if we're lost in a creative desert).
Let's talk about some of the ways that we can improve our chances of hitting our creative stride.
As always, grab a nice cup of coffee or something else equally good. Let's talk. ☕️
"We want you to take from us. We want you, at first, to steal from us, because you can't steal. You will take what we give you and you will put it in your own voice and that's how you will find your voice. And that's how you begin. And then one day someone will steal from you."
- Francis Ford Coppola
It's Not Always Fun
One of the most beautiful pieces of art in Europe is a painting covering the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Ordered by Pope Julius II, it's now considered a modern marvel that draws tourists from all around the world.
Too bad Michelangelo hated making it.
He wrote to a friend in 1509 while in the middle of painting it and said, "My painting is dead. Defend it for me…. I am not in the right place - I am not a painter."
Self doubt is natural. So is feeling "off" sometimes or like you've lost your touch. Sometimes, it will feel like you're lost in the middle of a dark woods and your only light is starting to burn out.
I once had a writing teacher who would tell students that creativity isn't some sort of bolt of lightning that hits you randomly while you're walking around. You have to reach out and take hold of it yourself.
A common rule for creative writing students is to just start jotting words down on a page, because inspiration tends to hit those who have placed them in a position to be struck.
We have to learn to push through that feeling of creative resistance. It pushes back against us and tells us that we're not worthy, that we won't amount to anything, that we have no creative talent, or that we'll never reach the dream we hold in our mind's eye.
Push through that feeling. Open up your laptop, pick up your guitar, or hold that pen in your hand.
Create.
The rewards come after you push yourself through the feelings of inadequacy.
"Telling yourself you have all the time in the world, all the money in the world, all the colors in the palette, anything you want - that just kills creativity."
- Jack White
Constrain Yourself to Find Your Path
In his book Steal Like an Artist, Austin Kleon says, "In this age of information abundance and overload, those who get ahead will be the folks who figure out what to leave out, so they can concentrate on what's really important to them. Nothing is more paralyzing than the idea of limitless possibilities. The idea that you can do anything is absolutely terrifying."
Something powerful happens when artists have to create under both real and artificially-created constraints. They often find themselves exploring new ways to bend rules or push boundaries.
But that will never happen if those boundaries aren't there to begin with.
Unlimited resources can be severely overwhelming. If you're already expecting yourself to just "turn on" the faucet of creativity, it's not always beneficial to have an unlimited toolset available to crank on it.
There's a reason so many famous inventions have been created specifically to solve a problem the inventor had. The person was faced with a problem and lacked the ability to solve it, and so they created their own tool.
Don't be afraid to build something new with the limited materials you have available to you. Experiment with placing constraints on your projects and creations.
Learn the rules, and then break them.
Creativity through Quantity
Pablo Picasso, the prolific Spanish artist, produced around 50,000 pieces of art throughout his life. He was definitely driven by a desire for recognition, but he also fought with an inner desire to produce works of quality.
Most of the material he is most famous for is a very small subset of what he created. However, it's almost a guarantee that many of those works would never have existed if he didn't maintain the endless productive turmoil he placed himself in throughout his life.
What you should take away from this is that you shouldn't wait around for lightning to strike twice.
Produce.
Create new content, art, music, code, or whatever you're working on like your life depends on it. Make it your craft. Make it the thing you think about every day when you wake up.
It might seem counterintuitive (compared to only revealing completed works that you feel are perfect), but bulk production of your life's work is one of the few ways you can ensure that, when the wave of creativity hits, you're lucky enough to be standing in the surf.
"Modern art = I could do that + Yeah, but you didn't."
- Craig Damrauer
Conclusion
Creativity is hard because it's not always something you can control. It's unrealistic and impossible to just turn it on like flipping a light switch.
Instead, find ways to keep pushing yourself towards the general direction of your creative potential.
Also, play with working within a limited set of rules. You can then learn how to break them and build something completely original.
Finally, push yourself to produce large amounts of content; it's only by allowing yourself to iterate quickly that you can eventually come up with beautiful works of art.
Oh, and don't beat yourself up if you struggle with feelings of creative self-doubt. Most artists throughout history had it too, so you're in good company.
Thanks for reading. 🔥
Nathan
(GitHub, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Portfolio Site)
Top comments (2)
Nathan, you really need to read The War of Art, by Steven Pressfield. The entire book is about this topic.
It's on my reading list! Thanks Chris.