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Creativity doesn't need a muse. It needs a drill sergeant.

inc.com

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Re: Creativity doesn't need a muse. It needs a drill sergeant.

#11

Post by nickpinkston »

InclinedPlane wrote: post #9

If you need to pump out a high volume of moderately creative trash, then working in factory conditions makes sense. If you need to foster actual creativity, if you have a desire to build things that touch people's lives and that people will talk about and be inspired from then perhaps less so. The caveat that real artists ship is still in effect of course.

Re: Real Artists Ship

I was expecting them to talk more about getting people structure to get them shipping more and challenging themselves - a la Jobs'. Instead, it really did feel like that place was a soul-grinder. The guy they interviewed didn't even work there anymore - telling...

Re: Creativity doesn't need a muse. It needs a drill sergeant.

#12

Post by jakeonthemove »

Well, I can work in any conditions, however I'm most creative (as in "original ideas" creative, not "see what others are doing and do it, too") when I'm motivated by something, not pushed by discipline.

It's hard to explain, but I believe his employees would take a job at Google or Apple (or heck, even Microsoft) any time of the day - if they really wanted to be pushed (not motivated) to their limits, they could've just joined the Navy :-).

Re: Creativity doesn't need a muse. It needs a drill sergeant.

#14

Post by alabut »

Everyone is making (probably well deserved) ad hominem attacks on the ad agency, but the principle of structured creativity isn't a bad one. Steven King once said his muse is a drill sergeant with a flat top lurking in his basement.

The book The War Of Art has a similar perspective from a dance choreographer about how she breaks through creative blocks.

Re: Creativity doesn't need a muse. It needs a drill sergeant.

#16

Post by tjr »

alabut wrote: post #14

Everyone is making (probably well deserved) ad hominem attacks on the ad agency, but the principle of structured creativity isn't a bad one. Steven King once said his muse is a drill sergeant with a flat top lurking in his basement. The book The War Of Art has a similar perspective from a dance choreographer about how she breaks through creative blocks.

I didn't really see the article describe much about the principle of structured creativity. I would have liked to have seen that.

Re: Creativity doesn't need a muse. It needs a drill sergeant.

#17

Post by TomOfTTB »

InclinedPlane wrote: post #9

If you need to pump out a high volume of moderately creative trash, then working in factory conditions makes sense. If you need to foster actual creativity, if you have a desire to build things that touch people's lives and that people will talk about and be inspired from then perhaps less so. The caveat that real artists ship is still in effect of course.

I don't buy that at all. It's impossible to look at the success The Richards Group has had and conclude it's all "moderately creative trash". More to the point it's insulting to the people who did that work.

If there's a lesson here for the HN community I think it's that there's more than one way to do things. You bristle at the idea of punching a clock and accounting for your time in 15 minute increments. So you shouldn't work there.

At the same time there are surely creative people out there who bristle at the idea of working through the night or on weekends. To those people a workplace that closes at 6pm and enforces a no-work policy after that would be appealing.

The beauty of this article is it tells us both ways work. So people who want to close down at 6pm can start a company and draw other like minded people to them. While people with no interest in that lifestyle can stay away

Re: Creativity doesn't need a muse. It needs a drill sergeant.

#20

Post by jfarmer »

InclinedPlane wrote: post #9

If you need to pump out a high volume of moderately creative trash, then working in factory conditions makes sense. If you need to foster actual creativity, if you have a desire to build things that touch people's lives and that people will talk about and be inspired from then perhaps less so. The caveat that real artists ship is still in effect of course.

When it comes to producing amazing work, quantity beats quality.

That is, it's better to produce 100 things and throw away 99 than it is to sit around a perfect 1. In the end the quality will be higher.

http://russelldavies.typepad.com/planning/2007/02/quantity_e...

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