Creativity

Georgia O’Keeffe here, as a work of art, has virtues the rest of us appear to lack. She is still. She is permanent. There’s a frame around her, putting space between her sacred beauty (an older meaning of the word sacred is “set apart”) and the profane, mundane world. I think that sometimes we need permission to stop and adore, and a work of art

Creativity arises from making new connections—contemplate unexpected things together. Don’t wait for moments of inspiration to strike. Creativity is a muscle; exercise it. There’s a logic to creativity: find what works for you, break it down, and you have a process that can serve you forever. Unstructured freedom is the enemy of true creative

get comfortable with feeling frustrated and keep going. It’s part of being an artist.

Another idea if you want to push against the mental pressure that kills good ideas, from Paul Graham’s recent essay on how to do good work: “One way to do that is to ask what would be good ideas for someone else to explore. Then your subconscious won't shoot them down to protect you.” I don’t know of anyone using this technique, but it might work.

Take two or three of those curiosities—the ideas that develop from the things you know and learn—and combine them to form a new concept. Don’t force it, but find existing overlaps and nooks and crannies that help them naturally fit together.