What does it mean to be creative? J. Eddie Smith over at ‘Practically Efficient’ nails it with a very thoughtful post on the topic. Head over there and give it a read. (And seriously go add his blog to your RSS reader.) As someone who’s spent a fair amount of time kicking around the concepts of “innovation” and “creativity” in the product development space Eddie’s summary really hit home for me.
Creatives […] have this highly coveted form of social capital. Creative success echoes envy in six words: “Why didn’t I think of that?”
Our current culture seems to be increasingly wanting the recognition of being creative without the hard work up front. Not really surprising I guess … but sort of depressing some days.
The process of creativity isn’t glamorous. It’s simply about hard work, the management of emotions, and delayed showmanship.
Real creativity is the dull and failure-fraught art of giving people things they never asked for.
The “magic” is sitting down and cranking, sweating the details, and seeing where things go from there. And sadly, most of us are unwilling to do this with enough consistency to find that magic. I know I sure need the reminders to sit back down and stay after it.
What’s your take? Is he on target? Oversimplifying? Under this definition, do you still want to be more “creative” day to day?