He felt 'creatively dead', then harnessed the power of boredom
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Re: He felt 'creatively dead', then harnessed the power of boredom
#2Could’ve used more details on how exactly that process worked, but - big Song Exploder fan.
Re: He felt 'creatively dead', then harnessed the power of boredom
#3Could’ve used more details on how exactly that process worked, but - big Song Exploder fan.
Any long time with yourself will do: walking for days in the mountains, isolating youself in a cabin in the wood to write, a meditation retreat...
It's hard to have your own thoughts when the entire world is constantly inputting its own in your psyche.
After long periods of silence, you start emptying and the mind fills the void. Ideas come in.
With practice, it will stop filling the void. But this isn't necessary if all you want is producing new ideas.
Even being bored is not necessary, but we are so not used to less input that we easily get bored.
Re: He felt 'creatively dead', then harnessed the power of boredom
#4Could’ve used more details on how exactly that process worked, but - big Song Exploder fan.
Any long time with yourself will do: walking for days in the mountains, isolating youself in a cabin in the wood to write, a meditation retreat... It's hard to have your own thoughts when the entire world is constantly inputting its own in your psyche. After long periods of silence, you start emptying and the mind fills the void. Ideas come in. With practice, it will stop filling the void. But this isn't necessary if…
Road trips are my (not so) secret sauce to boredom and, as pointed out, ultimately my more creative ideas.
Re: He felt 'creatively dead', then harnessed the power of boredom
#5I started doing Song Exploder as a kind of distraction, you know, a little side hobby idea that could also be a way to hopefully give myself a day job in between tours and making records and things like that.
It might even be the opposite of "boredom" but I think this is pretty common and a neat technique if you're feeling "blocked" in your pursuits: do something that pushes your buttons but still uses other aspects of your knowledge and skills, and you can find another way through.
Re: He felt 'creatively dead', then harnessed the power of boredom
#6> I would set everything else aside. I wouldn't look at my emails. I wouldn't have any meetings. I wouldn't do anything for the podcast. Just music. It allowed some space for my brain to get bored.
I feel creatively dead, but mostly only at work. Never have enough time/space to let things just settle down, it seems like.
This might be why I still resist management stuff: I dislike accepting responsibility for the problems of the org because I know they will eat up more time and energy than any accompanying pay increase. And then I get resentful because I'm supposed to be the one holding things together.
Re: He felt 'creatively dead', then harnessed the power of boredom
#7Text only version of NPR? What is this goodness and why don't more sites have one?!
Re: He felt 'creatively dead', then harnessed the power of boredom
#8> I would set everything else aside. I wouldn't look at my emails. I wouldn't have any meetings. I wouldn't do anything for the podcast. Just music. It allowed some space for my brain to get bored. I feel creatively dead, but mostly only at work. Never have enough time/space to let things just settle down, it seems like. This might be why I still resist management stuff: I dislike accepting responsibility for the pro…
Welcome to the rat race. Just wait until you get the responsibilities of a manager anyway without the pay increase! Might as well fight for that title...
Re: He felt 'creatively dead', then harnessed the power of boredom
#9Text only version of NPR? What is this goodness and why don't more sites have one?!
Here’s some lists of text-only websites:
Re: He felt 'creatively dead', then harnessed the power of boredom
#10"HIRWAY: ...Just music. It allowed some space for my brain to get bored. Another thing that I learned was how much boredom was, like, an essential part of creativity. Maybe boredom is too strong of a word for it, but it's something like..." mindfulness.
I remember hearing Sam Harris (I think) say something to the effect of 'once you reach some stage/awareness of mindfulness, you can never be truly bored.' Like, if you're bored, you're not paying attention. That's stuck with me.