We Are All Creatives
Tangents Vol. 6
I apologize. The Kanye picture is clickbait lol. Ye is one of the biggest creatives on the planet, but this piece is not about him. It is about us.
When we close our eyes and think of the traits that define a creative, we may think of a bright-colored, artsy, and eccentric person. In reality, we can just look in the mirror. Each of us is a creative. Unfortunately, some of us may have conditioned ourselves into thinking that we are not, but that is not true. Creativity is far from natural or innate.
I struggled thinking outside of the box up until my sophomore year of college. I realized the reason why I couldn’t was because my box was empty. I was standing at the bottom of it, staring up at the box’s giant wall with nothing to help me climb out of it. I needed to start filling up the box. So, I started to read books, watch new shows/movies, listen to podcasts, and take up writing.
My box was starting to fill up, and all of a sudden, that wall seemed a lot easier to jump over. What I’m saying is that the more knowledge we absorb, the more creative jumping points we have. We can connect more ideas and build off of them. It sounds obvious, but personally having struggled with being creative in the past, I only hope my story can spark the creative fire in at least one person who reads this.
Possibly another fairly obvious point, yet I will share it anyway. If we want to think differently, we have to practice it. Question everything and don’t worry about being “right” or “wrong.” Try to think about things in an almost nonsensical way. For reference, these are some of the crazy ideas that I conjured up in my mind — Imagine if there was an AI program that would create a specific show personally for us when we enter a couple of defining criteria — like if I typed “Give me a five-episode show set in the 1950s about Batman and Joker with Christian Bale starring as Batman,” and that show would be created specifically for me. Or how about this idea — Imagine if grade schools banned the use of headphones. Would that increase social skills among children? Or would it be an overreach and set a bad precedent?
I could keep going, but I will probably scare people away lol. The point is, that we should practice thinking differently and always try to think of crazy ideas. Don’t be afraid to think differently or worry about being right. Just think and let the thoughts flow.
Lastly, pushing creativity to the next level is not just expanding our knowledge bank, it is also about widening our social circle. Meeting new people, hearing their unique stories, and opening ourselves to people of different backgrounds are often more valuable and influential than any book. People have been the most valuable tool since civilization began, and it continues to be so. Yet, if society continues down its current path — which mostly consists of tearing each other down — creativity will fall. Every single person has layers of depth to their character and their life is their story. We should try to listen and learn from each of them.
We are all creatives. We can unleash it by filling up our box. Not just with knowledge specific to our interests or biases. It has to be everything, even things we disagree with or dislike. If we are liberal, listen to a conservative podcast and vice versa. Learn about the music business, computer science, sports, arts, history, etc. Having general knowledge of everything enables creativity and makes it easier to think out of the box. Or we can close ourselves off, live a narrow life, and enjoy staring at that wall.
