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To Be More Creative, Cheer Up

nautil.us

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Re: To Be More Creative, Cheer Up

#21

Post by coldtea »

jackmaney wrote: post #12

I know that one isn't supposed to judge a book by its cover, but I refuse to take Kirsten Weir seriously by the title of this article alone. "Are you depressed? Cheer up!" "Are you in a wheelchair? Get up and walk around!" "Struggling with money? Try not being so poor!" The title of that article makes me unreasonably angry.

So, you decided to read the article calling people to "cheer up" as something that is addressed only to depressed (and as such futile).

Because, really, it's only people who are depressed that don't cheer up, and nobody else is moody/grumpy with no reason and could use the advise, right?

Think of the second example you give: "Are you in a wheelchair? Get up and walk around!"

If the article had "Get up and walk around!" as the title (in the same way this has "cheer up") would you take it as addressed to people in wheelchairs?

What about all the sedetary people that sit in front of a PC or on their couch 24/7 but are PERFECTLY capable of getting up and walking around? The article would be obviously addressing them in that case.

So why read this title as addressing "mentally ill/chemically imbalanced" depressed cases?

Re: To Be More Creative, Cheer Up

#22

Post by coldtea »

jackmaney wrote: post #20
denova wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's different! Not being creative isn't the opposite of being cheery. The assumption is that the reader may not see any connection at all between happiness and creativity, and that the association might provide some insight. Though if you're like me and are only happy when you are able to create things, I can see why you would be irked.

I honestly can't tell if you're trying to troll me or not. Is there any adult alive who hasn't at one point realized that being depressed might--just MIGHT--impact one's ability to be creative?

Again with "depressed".

Not being cheery is not the same as depression.

It's a super-set that includes depression cases as a small subset.

If only depressed people were moody and grumpy... We'd all be smiling and singing all the time...

Re: To Be More Creative, Cheer Up

#23

Post by jackmaney »

spaceshipdev wrote: post #19
jackmaney wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's my secret: I'm always unreasonably angry. [turns around, hulks out, punches space worm]

Made my evening, thankyou. :-)

You're welcome. If only I had more responses such as yours, instead of trolls (whom I refuse to dignify with an actual response). Oh well.

Re: To Be More Creative, Cheer Up

#24

Post by pasbesoin »

To cheer up, fix your environment. (And your health.)

Most of the unhappiness I've encountered has related to poor environment. Wear and tear over time brought on increasing poor health -- another significant factor.

Meantime, I had people telling me I simply needed to "adapt". Consistently, I was supposed to change in order to meet their goals.

It was the rare person who simply took me as I am and genuinely sought to work with that to mutual advantage. Those people and occasions were some of the most productive of my life.

A consequence of all this, is that I tend to think quite poorly of most prescriptive advice. When people are all busy talking at you, they're hardly ever actually listening to you.

Re: To Be More Creative, Cheer Up

#26

Post by andrewfelix »

j_baker wrote: post #6

I have to say, I can't help thinking the author doesn't know anything about Hemingway or Picasso. Both are very famous examples of how depression can be creative. You can name many others like Virginia Woolf or Emily Dickenson. I think both depression and exuberance can be creative, albeit creative in different ways. Exuberance is very good for, as the author notes, divergent thinking. You simply have the ability to…

The article actually barely touches on positive thinking. The more important factor is divergent thinking. I suspect the article's title is designed to generate interest.

It's a stupidly misleading title.

Re: To Be More Creative, Cheer Up

#27

Post by ytturbed »

One thing the article gets right I believe is that highly creative people are annoying, almost psychotic individuals. It can't be otherwise. If they cared what other people thought as much as the rest of us do they'd self-censor their ideas.

Re: To Be More Creative, Cheer Up

#29

Post by anapparition »

Counter examples (a few):

Hemingway, Sylvia Plath, Larry David, Kafka, Schubert, Heraclitus, Beckett, Beyonce, William James, Henry James, David Foster Wallace, Winona Ryder, HP Lovecraft, Mozart, Oppenheimer, Rilke, Celine, Faulkner, Baudelaire, Newton, Nietzsche, Rachmanioff, Craig Ferguson.

One of the main thrusts of the article, that incubation of ideas often occurs during divergent thinking, does not entail that one must be in a cheerful mood (in fact, one could view many forms of depression as extended periods of divergent thinking), despite the study referenced therein, which claims "People are more likely to maintain broader attention and solve problems when they’re in a positive mood." Moreover, the studies represent data on a statistical average (and probably apply largely to settings conducive to such studies, like sorting blocks, or playing Jenga in a novel way), while many historical examples of creative minds suffered prolonged periods of depression.

Finally, I wonder, how many man-hours have been wasted on clickbait?

Re: To Be More Creative, Cheer Up

#30

Post by beatpanda »

coldtea wrote: post #15
j_baker wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We don't really know the full relationship between substance abuse and mental illness. There's a very well-known correlation between the two, but it's questionable whether the substance abuse causes mental illness or the mental illness causes the substance abuse. It's likely some combination of the two: the substance abuse aids the mental illness and the mental illness aids the substance abuse.

Or, you know, actual sensitivity and sadness for something causes both depression and substance abuse. It's not like don't have things to be sad and depressed about, creative people doubly so. Thinking it's all just chemicals gone bad in the brain is the fad of the day, like electroshock treatment for gays and ADD over-perscription in previous decades. People are always conflating circumstantial pepression with "ment…

Not quite forgotten: http://www.theicarusproject.net
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