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Updated section on creativity

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Kenneth John Odle 2024-08-08 22:01:55 -04:00
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005/codex-005.tex
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@ -261,21 +261,15 @@ Considering that my entire job exists to help keep the drug supply safe\footnote
The irony is that I took this job because I \textit{knew} it would be boring. My last job had been so nerve wracking that mentally I was completely spent by the time I got home and creating anything at that point was damn difficult if not impossible. I figured that if I had a job that was boring where creativity was not encouraged (that is, we have a procedure, so just stick to the procedure) I could store my creative juices during the day the and use them during the evening to create things. The irony is that I took this job because I \textit{knew} it would be boring. My last job had been so nerve wracking that mentally I was completely spent by the time I got home and creating anything at that point was damn difficult if not impossible. I figured that if I had a job that was boring where creativity was not encouraged (that is, we have a procedure, so just stick to the procedure) I could store my creative juices during the day the and use them during the evening to create things.
As it turns out creativity doesn't exactly work this way. As it turns out creativity doesn't exactly work this way. One of the things that attracted me to teaching was that I got to be creative all day. What I forgot about teaching is that when I got home I was still charged up creatively. I hadn't used up all my creativity. Quite the opposite, in fact.
You can't store up creativity during the day and then use it all up in the evening. That's not how creativity works. What happens instead is that your creative juices just dissipate throughout the day and when your day is over you're just empty—a dried up husk that could be blown away by the lightest breeze. I have spent too much time thinking that creativity is like a bag of candy: you can have a piece of candy every day this week, or you can wait and have it all on the weekend. Unfortunately, that's not how creativity works. If you don't spend time each day being creative, you probably won't feel very creative during the weekend. You can't just store up creativity and then spend it when you have the time.
One of the things that attracted me to teaching was that I got to be creative all day. What I forgot about teaching is that when I got home I was still charged up creatively. I hadn't used up all my creativity. I had multiplied it. Ages ago I saw an interview you with the father of a very large family (which had grown mostly through adoption) and the reporter asked him how he divided his love among so many kids. His answer was brief and to the point: love is not something you divide—it's something you multiply.
Ages ago I saw an interview you with the father of a very large family (which had grown mostly through adoption) and the reporter asked him how he divided his love among so many kids. His answer was brief and to the point: love is not something you divide he said, it's something you multiply. Creativity is like love. You can't save up creativity so you can divide it out later. Creativity cannot be divided. It can only be multiplied. The only way to multiply it is to use it.
Creativity is the same kind of thing. You can't save up creativity so you can use it later. Creativity is something that cannot be divided. It must be multiplied. It's taken me too long to realize that this is what I've been doing with my creativity. I can't store it up during the day and then use it in the evening. That's not how it works. Creativity is not something that gets used up; it is something that grows when you use it. Creativity just leads to more creativity. It's not a zero-sum game.\footnote{I wish people would realize that our economy—which is not a natural thing, but a thing completely invented by humans—does not have to be a zero-sum game. Just because somebody else gets something they need does not automatically means that I get less of what I need.}
I've since come to view creativity like a river—it has to move to do anything. It can move boulders and it can sift the finest silt. It can carve a valley through a plain or it can split mountains. It can nurse the communities around it and it can serve as a way for them to get from one place to another.
Dam a river and it does not become a lake, it becomes a prisoner. Not content with its lot, it constantly seeks escape. When it finds it, it will give some small warning but then it will completely and utterly destroy that dam.\footnote{See \kref{https://damfailures.org/case-study/teton-dam-idaho-1976/}{https://damfailures.org/case-study/teton-dam-idaho-1976/} for a good example of this.}
That's what I've been doing with my creativity. I've trying to dam it up during the day and then release it in the evening. But it doesn't work that way. You can't hold back creativity. You can't divide it up, hour by hour. You can't parse it out drop by drop. Using your creativity doesn't mean that you use it up. Rather, creativity, like love, can only be multiplied. Creativity just leads to more creativity. It's not a zero-sum game.\footnote{I wish people would realize that our economy—which is not a natural thing, but a thing completely invented by humans—does not have to be a zero-sum game. Just because somebody else gets something they need does not automatically means that I get less of what I need.}
That means it's definitely time for a different job. That means it's definitely time for a different job.
@ -285,7 +279,7 @@ Given all that, I need to find myself in a place I was back when I was a kid—a
Those are the two things I have always been. I don't mean those two trajectories revealed themselves to me when I was in college. I mean that I knew these thing when I was eight or nine years old. Those are the two things I have always been. I don't mean those two trajectories revealed themselves to me when I was in college. I mean that I knew these thing when I was eight or nine years old.
I have always scribbled. I got a hold of a manual typewriter at the age of eight or nine and never looked back.\footnote{I am fairly certain it was an old K-Mart model—I know for sure that it was blue and that I found it in our attic, and I'm pretty sure it looked like this one: \kref{https://gallery.kjodle.net/picture.php?/628/category/76}{https://gallery.kjodle.net/picture.php?/62\\8/category/76}.} I have always scribbled. I got a hold of a manual typewriter at the age of eight or nine and never looked back.\footnote{I am fairly certain it was an old K-Mart model—I know for sure that it was blue and that I found it in our attic, and I'm pretty sure it looked like this one: \kref{https://gallery.kjodle.net/picture.php?/628/category/76}{https://gallery.kjodle.net/picture.php?/628/category/76}.}
As for the teaching thing, I'm not quite sure. I've always enjoyed learning things and knowing how to do things and sharing that knowlege with other people in the hopes that that might change their life for the better. As for the teaching thing, I'm not quite sure. I've always enjoyed learning things and knowing how to do things and sharing that knowlege with other people in the hopes that that might change their life for the better.