Whenever I come back from overseas, I like how much clarity I gain about what’s important and what’s not. I pack light, so sometimes all I have is a book to entertain me – sometimes not even that, so I’m forced to watch and listen to what’s around me, be present and to think.
I also make it a point to check and respond to email minimally if it’s a work trip, and to not use the internet at all if it’s a holiday. It’s refreshing how all the information that clamors for my attention, which seems so essential back home, just fades away into the background without consequence.
It makes me wonder again, how much of my digital clutter is really essential. I’ve become more keenly aware that there’s a real line between consuming and creating, and while I’m doing one I can’t be doing the other.
I write for a living, I take photographs as a hobby, I studied design in school and even worked as a 3D artist. And I think I’ve done some decent work in these areas, if I may say so myself.
At the same time, if anyone were to ask me about what makes a person creative, my truthful answer would make them think I’m nuts.
Creativity in 2 Parts
I believe that creativity lies in 2 parts: the muse and the work. The muse is the source of inspiration for all creative work, and the work is the getting-your-hands-dirty act of making things.
Making anything good requires both inspiration and work. Inspiration without work is daydreaming, work without inspiration is dreary. The tricky part is when people use the lack of either as an excuse not to do anything.
But Where Does Inspiration Come From?
I have no idea.
I work my ass off and suddenly a divine idea springs into my head from out of nowhere, just begging for me to help bring it to life. And when it’s done, all I can do is look at it and go “I did that?”
In her TED talk, Elizabeth Gilbert describes this as a ‘genius’, an age-old idea that creative genius doesn’t lie inside the person, but from an external, divine source. Sounds kinda kooky, but I think every creative person will tell you how much it rings true. In any great creative work, there are strange moments where you happen upon an idea that doesn’t feel so much thought up, but given to you from somewhere. Read More →
I’ve always thought of myself as a devout declutterer; I regularly prune away old books and clothes, I throw junk away the moment I get it and I like to keep my desks empty and clean. I even tend to err too much on the side of decluttering by throwing away stuff that I regret later.
But I realized something about myself today. While I may be a physical declutter bug, I’m a hoarder in another realm, the one with ones and zeroes. Just a quick glance at my iTunes library tells me that I have a grand total of 2765 songs, most of which have not been listened to, and which iTunes helpfully tells me will take 9.3 days of non-stop 24-hour listening to finish.
That doesn’t include the other media I have, like podcasts (306 unwatched TED talks), ebooks (that I bought even!) and the articles (Instapaper Pro rocks!) I saved on my iPhone.
And you know what the best part is? The collection keeps growing.
Good God.
Why this incessant need to keep collecting media? There’s no way that I could ever consume all of it. And while the illusion is that digital media is free (yea right, tell that to the $300 external HDD I just bought), it consumes the only nonrefundable resource of all: time. Read More →