My wife (a psychologist) and I discuss this regularly around poetry, music, painting, etc. Some of the most "beautiful" works come from unhealthy emotional states. And that a lot of the sameness we get today in popular culture arises when art is cultivated by large organizations which are inherently are devoid of emotion, and are pushing populism instead of beauty.
You can see it very easily today in popular music. If you look back to the 1990s and the rise of alternative music, hundreds of one-hit-wonders, 8 different "Natalie"s, etc. And today where one-hit-wonders don't really exist anymore because Clear Channel has cultivated a sound and artists that don't conform that sound are not going to get airplay, and not have a run-away one-hit-wonder and fade back into obscurity and cult-fandom.
Meanwhile, my Discover Weekly in Spotify and the channels spun from those artists have many thousands of songs that are considerably better than anything on the radio, but will never get airtime.
Here's a good example of what a real radio station would sound like today if we still had DJs and the freedom to play anything:
https://radioparadise.com/player
I asked Bill (the owner) 13 years ago about opening a station in my town to simply play his stream on FM but he broke the news to me that it's not really possible. It would cost something like $100,000 dollars (probably $250,000 today) just to get the license.
I also got the feeling that it would be so expensive to operate (in electricity alone) that stations are no longer viable as self-sustaining entities. They make their money by cross-promotion of other stations and businesses under an umbrella corporation.
The only way to break up this stagnation is antitrust enforcement IMHO. Bring back the Broadcast Station Cross-Ownership Rule at the very least, then go further to also break up the big media duopolies like CNN/Fox News (which of course will not happen in these times):
https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/fccs-review-broadcast-o...
In 2017, the Commission eliminated PDF Download its rule that had previously prohibited common ownership of a full-power broadcast station and a daily newspaper if the station's contour (defined separately by type of station) completely encompassed the newspaper's city of publication and the station and newspaper were in the same relevant Nielsen market. At the same time, the Commission also eliminated the radio-television cross-ownership rule, which had restricted the common ownership of broadcast radio and television stations located in the same market. These two rules -- the newspaper-broadcast cross ownership and radio-television cross ownership rules -- were eliminated due in part to the growth in the number and variety of sources of entertainment, news and information in the modern media marketplace.
Linkin Park's Bennington Talked numerous times about how his drug addictions helped him creatively despite him wanting to be sober. His later more sober songs kinds suck tbh.
The thoughts that come from drug tweaked brains are always slightly off. Sometimes though not usually, the thoughts are unique in a novel and attractive way. For creative thinking, dosing on something may be effective but I doubt it's healthy.
There are of course brilliant artists who are nuts, many of whose work I admire. But most high-performing people I know seem to be pretty “normal” and disciplined.
Hold a key in one of your hands and hang your hand down by your side while you let yourself fall asleep while sitting in a chair (honestly this first part sounds the most difficult).
When you fall asleep—or rather the trance-like borderlands between awake and sleep— you should naturally drop the key (or whatever metallic, noise-making object) which should spring you back awake retaining some of that state you just fell into, or any insights sprung into mind during that state.
I'm sure everyone's had mornings where they woke up after dreaming but without feeling quite awake—it's related to that feeling that they'd chase.
Maybe someone has a link on hand to a better write-up about it. I don't.
The gist (as I was taught it) is that when generating ideas, you separate things into two phases.
In the first phase, you focus solely on coming up with a lot of ideas. And here's the key part: during this phase, you avoid all judgment, evaluation, and negative thinking (maybe even excessive positive thinking) about ideas. If you're trying to generate ideas that solve a problem, for example, you don't worry about whether it will work. Just write it down.
In the second phase, you then go through and evaluate which ideas are good and bad. Many of them won't make sense, and of course you toss those out, but it's good that they're on the list because it confirms you did it right.
I think doing it this way this gains you two things. One, in the first phase, you stay focused on idea generation. Every moment your brain is occupied in evaluating merits is a moment your brain is not working on creating ideas. It's very easy to get sidetracked exploring an idea in depth. Avoiding evaluation helps ensure you actually allocate time to idea generation.
Two, it helps emotionally. Judgment, even if done constructively and in good faith, tends to kill the moment/mood (which is relatively fragile), whether it is self-judgment or from others. Coming up with ideas feels good and you get a little emotional reward as you create them. But negative thoughts or responses tend to make you want to hold back. Last time you offered (to yourself or someone else) an idea, it was partly a negative experience, so why repeat that?
You can do the two-phase thing individually in your own head or in groups.
Practically speaking, this isn't necessarily easy to do in groups. Many people already have preconceived notions about how brainstorming or idea generation is supposed to work, and it's hard to get them to try a new way or understand the difference between this and how they normally do it. Also, some people have trouble sticking to it. Sometimes because of impatience or wanting to look smart, but also because evaluating later can give you a feeling that you'll forget an important thought if you don't express it now.
I even started a technical blog:
But I may not be poor enough anymore to continue writing it.
BTW any interesting tech talks, meetups etc. you can recommend?
I recall from someone in the field in art therapy who discussed with me the difference between being artistic and being creative. Being an artist implies the pursuit of technical mastery of a certain craft, whereas being creative is the ability to create novel ideas through various means. These certainly aren't mutually exclusive properties, as many of the legendary artists of the past are those who excelled in both.
Though it can feel discouraging to perceive that one lacks a natural affinity for either of these qualities (I tend to fall more into the creative side of things rather than artistic), this also gives rise to the long list of successful artistic/creative duos. For example, duos are pretty common in the webcomic community (Penny Arcade being the most obvious example).
It's good to strive to improve oneself, but should the right opportunity arise, working together with other people who can make up for those (perceived) shortcomings has at least as much potential as being a solo artist/creative. And being involved with a community can provide new insights which can lead to personal growth in creativity and mastery.
There is something floating around in your mind that you want others to experience. It might be an emotion or thought or aesthetic experience that you had and want others to share. It can even be "asymmetrical" in the sense that perhaps you yourself haven't had the experience but it's one you want someone else to have.
Craft is all about the "how" of art, and expression is about the "what" and the "why". Expression can be a way of connecting with people because what you feel or think becomes something they feel or think too.
If you have art that is all craft and no expression, it can be a little empty or dull. For example, a pianist who plays all the right notes but doesn't put any feeling into it. Art with all expression and no craft isn't always great either. If a painter wants to capture the beauty of a person's face but can't draw noses, the effect probably won't be beauty.
For me, anything that makes me a little tired so my thoughts wander. Sitting down after a hard workout for example. Another is that time at the end of the day where I worked hard so I'm a bit tired, but I'm not so tired that it's time to sleep yet. I also have to allow it to happen. Sitting down in front of the PS4 or on my phone is not going to let my mind wander.
I sometimes used alcohol for song writing purposes. Are there healthier methods?