Commitment and creativity

To be successful we need to be committed. Creativity may benefit from well-placed commitment, but it may also suffocate. When does commitment to goals become, and obsession and what happens next? Stay tuned, only in this blog … More reading materials here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Overreacting

All that is missing in the abstract: a sound track. OK, so maybe I oversold a bit to show a point. When we are excited and committed we talk differently, act decisively and convey focused energy. This is the great communication trick of successful entrepreneurs and the typical charisma of narcissistic maniacs. If we believe in what we do people follow.

But does it make us more successful? At some point, our focused energy and enthusiasm backed by the support of our fans will hit the fan or wall of reality.  What will fly next is anyone’s guess. If we are creative and lucky, we might be able to achieve something remarkable.

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Unless you farm mindlessly you will not achieve anything in your life

Repeating the same action over and over in some video games is often called “farming” or “mining”. The game design is quite simple: you get a prestigious award like a cape if you can do something repetitive for say 20 hours. You can do other things, but then it will take more than 20 hours. Brace yourself and start “farming”.

I was never able to do this, even as a child. In some MMORG game, a cape-bearer came to me and said: “You will achieve nothing in your life because you do not show commitment”. Well, I was committed to other things like my Ph.D. and played simply to reduce stress.  Yet in my Ph.D. I did not find enough focus to check every tiny detail of what I wrote. As long as the formulas and simulations coincided with each other and with common sense I was happy.

My thesis advisor thought otherwise. “Unless you can supercharge your brain with the task you handle and think about it day and night, you will not come up with a groundbreaking creative solution.” Maybe he was right. I never revolutionized science.  My works and patents are incremental: an example of good management and engineering rather than a quantum leap.

Does commitment really improve creativity?

I did not find any scientific proof. What I find is something very different, along the following lines:

“You start with 100% commitment to move your lazy ass.  Then you try a couple of things that everybody does. You work hard as hell only understand that you cannot outwork the competition. So you crash and fail miserably. You walk away. Then you come back for nostalgic reasons. And suddenly you start innovating. Everybody is cheering. Where did that come from? How come I did not see it before?”

Basically commitment builds up some sort of charge, but walking away allows it to flow through new channels. Maybe this is why so many entrepreneurs fail: when they walk away to become truly creative they lose their supporters. It takes very complex teamwork to power through the periods of search and dispair.

The sources of creativity

I did not personally watch people act creatively under fMRI. Those people who performed such experiments say that during the hard work stage only certain areas of the brain light up intensively, but once the person takes 5 min to rest his entire brain lights up like a Christmas tree.

As far as I understand, creativity does not reside in a specific brain area. When we use closely connected brain areas we repeat the same patterns. Once distant brain areas start to communicate, something new happens. We start to experiment in our mind, without being aware of it, until new ideas surface.

We need to give this process its time, we need to be sensitive to the ideas that surface and develop them. That’s a very different sort of commitment. Creativity is more likely to come to “marathon runners” then to “sprinters”. And the process may take years.

Commitment as patience

Today people ask me about things I wrote seven years ago. When I wrote them I did not really expect a lot of readers. Very few people read them then. I was writing because I was interested in the subject and try to sort it out for myself.

Today I read very differently than I read seven years ago. I learn faster, I remember better and I use a set of methods, which I do not fully disclose due to their complexity. The patience, commitment to learning, and hundreds of small incremental changes pay up. I have several channels through which I collect ideas, and each time a good idea comes by I test it. Occasionally the result is great!

This sort of commitment is similar to fishing rather than farming. I come prepared and I wait calmly for the perfect timing. When the time comes, and usually it is during vacation time, I execute the planned activities and wait more.

Do I change my goals?

It is unreasonable to be committed to the same values and goals for decades. We change, and so our goals develop with us. As long as the goals do not disappear and surface out of nowhere they are trackable and we can adapt.  It is OK to kill old goals and create new ones, but then we cannot benefit from the advantages years of hard work can offer.

Farmers in Israel are great at identifying opportunities. Each time they spot a market need they plant the correct trees, say avocado. Suppose it takes the avocado seven years to grow. After seven years the market is flooded with avocado. There is no financial benefit in avocado anymore. So the avocado trees are sold cheaply to anyone who can buy, and a new sort of tree is planted.  Israeli farmers rely on the government’s support do be relevant, and the farmers that are profitable do not follow trends but have a deep understanding of their ground and its hidden potential (this is called terroir).

Revolutions are rare and correspond maybe to 4% of creativity. Maybe the common creativity is not a revolution but an aggregation of incremental understandings?

Procrastination to be embraced and banished

We need to fight procrastination to start moving and test things. If we do not test things we do not understand which ideas work and cannot ask the right questions. A huge part of our experience needs to be hands-on.

The procrastination is a valued tool for coming up with new ideas. When we rest, not all parts of our brain are at rest. Maybe we change location, maybe we try a different mindset. Possibly we allow some ideas to surface. Periods of procrastination often are followed by periods of revelation. So we should embrace procrastination.

When we communicate with other people or do something new and get creative ideas, we need to act upon them. At least we need to write them down so we do not forget them, even in the middle of the night when we are tired. Maybe we should explore these ideas a bit, trying to maximize the new connections, environment, and mindset before we return to the routine. At this point, we need to banish all procrastination.

I find this very confusing, yet somehow it works for me.

To sprint or not to sprint?

We feel alive during a sprint. It allows us to concentrate all our energy, ideas, and attention into a short, highly productive burst often referred to as “the flow state.” Occasionally, something remarkable may result from these sprints, though they are inevitably followed by a significant downturn.

Without engaging in these brief sprints, we may struggle to overcome certain challenging obstacles. People who sprint continuously often fail to develop robust foundations, becoming fatigued, frustrated, and prone to errors. To put it bluntly, “the shit hits the fan,” and they risk experiencing a backlash.

In theory, it’s prudent to sprint sparingly, only after thorough preparation. Yet, those who adopt this strategy risk encountering a “wall” — an obstacle that cannot be surmounted within the sprint’s timeframe. A cautious approach involves steadily tackling simpler tasks and then channeling all energy into the toughest challenges when conditions are ripe. However, there’s no guarantee this is the optimal path.

Perhaps the best course of action is to follow one’s instincts, recognizing that any progress is preferable to stagnation.

Building long term and short term commitment

To build long-term commitment we align our goals and milestones with our values and how we want to see ourselves in the future. If we understand that no matter when we achieve our goal it will make us proud, we can invest effort year after year.

A short-term commitment often has an expiration date. We often feel that we need to do something in time even if it kills us. A competition, a promise to someone, our commitment to the team are great motivators for the short-term commitment.

The state of full 100% commitment in itself is interesting and unique mindset, so we are likely to come up with ideas we would not come up with otherwise.

While not entirely in control, we tend to shine creatively when committed.

Bacon and eggs

The chicken contributed while the pig committed. There is a difference between contribution and commitment. Contribution may cost us a bit, but commitment might take a huge toll. So think twice before committing.