The metaphor of the brain as a muscle doesn’t serve us well. It gets fed to us a lot because capitalists (and aspiring alphas) like it. We all know that in-between creative work, the brain needs time to rest and recalibrate. It needs to zone out. Make new neural connections. It doesn’t get ‘stronger’ the more relentlessly we push it. The brain’s an organ. Not a muscle. Oh and it’s definitely not a computer.
If we really need a metaphor for the brain, we can (aptly) steal the one of a magpie from this Ezra Klein Show.
The brain thrives on cognitive stimulus:
“What’s that? It’s shiny! Let’s explore”.
It takes more cognitive effort to sit still and focus on one thing than it does to move. That’s one of the reasons why meditation (focus: breath) is so hard. Your body, your brain - they seek out distraction. Sparkly stuff.
Luckily, there are loads of ways to tap into your subconscious (like running, writing or just being in the shower for ages) that can yield a sense of tranquility and serve up inspired ideas.
We’re ‘loopy’ creatures - our ideas incubate, they rise from our subconscious. We grab them and put them out there. Concepts are often unfinished with frayed threads, hooks and gaps. Other people might contribute, iterate and pass them on. That’s what we want - for our ideas to take on a life of their own.
This is why undeveloped ideas are so important. They’re ‘sticky’ because they invite interaction. They’re a creative springboard of potential energy.
Undeveloped ideas bring value to the world - they’re a starting block for someone to dive for gold - or perhaps decide they want to concentrate on ‘artistic swimming’ instead (RIP ‘synchronized swimming’ - an interesting rebrand that made waves, but I digress).
When I’m struggling to find the time to create, I remind myself that perfection is the enemy of progress.
And so, this (bumper) edition is in praise of iterative, messy ideas - use it as a springboard for your own.
You are many people (and the Pop-Tart joke)
There’s an old Seinfield joke featured in this episode of The Hidden Brain.
I’m paraphrasing the below quote but it’s essentially Seinfeld talking about himself, to himself:
“I’m night man. I do what I want. I don’t worry about day man. I can override him. Day man has to get up in the morning.”
Good joke, good insight. There’s a ‘day’ and a ‘night’ version of us. There are many different versions of us. And it’s useful to remind yourself of the power you have in the moment.
Obviously, your two selves share the same body so kindness and temperance are advised (but not always observed).
If you’re a fan, here’s Seinfeld dissecting the anatomy of the pop-tart joke for the New York Times.
Oh and it’s not a connection he makes, but if you’re partial to a few Pop-Tarts, temporarily cutting the power to your own ‘night’ mode might help.
In praise of experimental genius (iteration)
Genius is more than an IQ test. And it’s one of those descriptors that’s so overused, it’s true definition has become blurry.
I’m focusing here on the concept of genius as exceptional creativity. Inspired and/or prolific outputs. Advanced, thought-leading - a cultural contribution that’s likely to be unmatched.
By this definition, contemporary popular constructs like Love Island could be seen as a significant part of the creative landscape. Rest assured that the joy of your own inspiration is that it can be high/low and come from anywhere. Alongside critically-approved creative works, mindful consumption of what some would call ‘utter shit’ is part of a balanced creative diet.
Now, genius as we’ve loosely defined it, can be split into two categories. Conceptual and experimental.
The idea of genius being split like this is taken from this Gladwell podcast.
It uses Picasso and Cézanne as the archetypes for each category.
Picasso. The Conceptual Genius:
Picasso (dunno if you’ve heard of the guy) enjoyed huge fame in his lifetime. He was prolific, showing great talent in his early years. He ‘finished’ paintings and changed styles over the course of his lifetime to become one of the most respected figures in 20th-century art.
Cézanne. The Experimental Genius:
Cézanne’s work was misunderstood and discredited for much of his life. He was known to slash and destroy his paintings. He was an extreme perfectionist. His work was often ‘unfinished’ - painfully so. He might ask 100 sittings for one painting (sittings for an average painting would total less than ten).
Critical sympathy and public acceptance eluded Cézanne until the last decade of his career. To put it bluntly, he wouldn’t have had a big following on Insta.
Later, Picasso spoke of Cézanne’s role for subsequent generations of artists, calling him:
“…the father of us all.”
Like all of us eventually, Cézanne just ran out of sitting time.
The takeaway here is that there’s no time-specific route to ‘perfection’ - even though society values a bold conceptual (ergo, instant results-driven/‘on demand’) output better.
More the experimental type? You’re still winning if you progress with your idea. Get it on paper. Share it. If you wait until it’s ‘perfect’ then you may miss its genius. And even if most of them are terrible (guilty), at least you can get them out of your system.
Create a ‘word ladder’
Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy who wrote the book, How to Write One Song is my prompt this month for discovering, connecting - and repackaging - old ideas.
In this chat about his creative process, Tweedy recommends creating a ‘word ladder’ to sparks linguistic pairings without cliches.
It works like this: List a bunch of verbs down one side of the page, and a list of nouns on the other. You can take the nouns from a paragraph in a book - perhaps one you’ve picked up for a ‘free read’ that day.
Then link up the pairs that sound interesting. Use them to articulate things in new ways. Maybe you’re working on a poem, a branding brief or just wanna break free of the staid way of describing what good coffee or wine tastes like.
Don’t worry if doing this feels like BS, the results aren’t the be-all anyway. It’s more about the process. Connections might come to you later - this is experimental genius at work.
Remember, the brain’s a magpie. Give it lots of disparate, shiny stuff to build a nest and you’ll always have that place to revisit when you’re at rest.
Oh and…
I did a word ladder today (yep, just so you know I actually do this stuff). Two pairings that worked were, ‘gold-fearing’ and ‘map-conquering’.
Perhaps my subconscious was telling me I’m holding back from monetising my talents. More likely, it was just telling me to get out more - with GPS on standby.
Thanks for reading and if you wanna share, ideas are infinite - go ahead.