Chuck Close on Creativity, Work Ethic, and Problem-Solving vs. Problem-Creating

http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/12/27/chuck-close-on-creativity/

by brandoncarl • 14 years ago

89 41 14 years ago

shuaib• 14 years ago

Leonardo da Vinci was a chronic procrastinator. Ironic?

slurgfest2• 14 years ago

There were better artists, and better engineers, but he certainly had a fertile imagination, and who knows, maybe freedom of schedule was part of that.

pknight5• 14 years ago

who were better artists, engineers during his time?

pknight5• 14 years ago

He was notorious for not finishing projects, or finishing them late; but that's not the same as procrastinating by browsing reddit all day, he got a hell of a lot done.

bgilroy26• 14 years ago

I agree, the idea that Leonardo's works poofed into existence doesn't add up.

ky3• 14 years ago

"For inspiration to strike, it has to find you working." -- Author?

asmithmd12• 14 years ago

Picaso:

http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/30296-inspiration-exists-but...

gruseom• 14 years ago

That site isn't reliable for checking quotes. The only one I know of that tries to be comprehensive and accurate is Wikiquote, and according to it this line isn't attributable to Picasso: http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Talk:Pablo_Picasso.

chrisguitarguy• 14 years ago

"Show up and get to work" is a large part of Steven Pressfield's The War of Art [0] as well.

0. http://www.stevenpressfield.com/the-war-of-art/

jongold• 14 years ago

+1 for Steven Pressfield.

I read Turning Pro first after this excerpt on 99u and loved it; The War of Art was cool too but kind of cringey & self-helpy in places.

http://99u.com/articles/7192/Are-You-Trapped-in-a-Shadow-Car...

drzaiusapelord• 14 years ago

Ugh, I tried reading that a few years ago. Its pretty much a schlocky self-help book with large doses of new age religion in it. I guess whatever works for Steven Pressfield, but that doesn't work for me.

This website has everything that book has, and more, without the awkward self-help spiritualism that's so popular:

http://gapingvoid.com/2004/07/25/how-to-be-creative/

Also, if you're "busy" reading /r/getmotivated and books like these you're not actually doing work. You're reading about doing work. These advice guides are traps and time wasters in themselves. Good in small doses, but after a point, they're just as bad as watching TV.

vijayr• 14 years ago

Maria Popova's blog is awesome. Somehow, she always finds those little known (or unknown) books, quotes etc

delambo• 14 years ago

(This sounds ranty, but...)

I'm one of the odd developers that doesn't obsess over tools. I worked with four different editors, last year - vico, vim, sublime, and eclipse - and I can't say that I'm attached to any of them. I don't complain when I can't use my favorite vim or sublime shortcuts (I don't even know a lot), and it doesn't phase me when I have to hack some code on my 13" MBP instead of my 24" monitor at work. Contrary to what most think, a developer that obsesses over their tools doesn't necessarily make them a good developer.

"Show up and get to work."

thirdtruck6• 14 years ago

Agreed. I've knocked out hundreds of thousands of words of novel on my netbook in vim. Having only low-end hardware actually helped me focus.

daeken3• 14 years ago

I'm actually in the market for a typewriter right now, for exactly that reason. I'm setting up a room in my new house with nothing but a desk for a typewriter, a chair, and a sound system.

ShaunK• 14 years ago

Yes I agree. I've never felt that I shipped a product late because it took me too long to type. A good editor and a nice setup certainly help me feel better, but I think it's very easy to get carried away.

thirdtruck6• 14 years ago

If I learned anything from NaNoWriMo and from Stephen King's "On Writing", the labor counts much more than creativity.

My 400,000 words of novel-writing (and counting) might only contain a few gems, but it contains far more than the empty page of someone still waiting for inspiration to strike.

Sitting down and pounding out whatever you can for an hour or two a day will make you a successful writer faster than anything other than actually writing.

SatvikBeri• 14 years ago

Derek Sivers has another good article on this: http://sivers.org/qlq

I think the general 10,000 hours theory suggests that for the first ~2,000 hours of a new skill, all practice is deep practice (exact # of hours depends on the skill, of course.) That means that for the first few years, quantity of practice is more important than anything else. You'll eventually hit a plateau and need to practice in a different way to continue improving, but that will only ever apply to a few skills throughout your lifetime.

thirdtruck6• 14 years ago

That makes sense. Amusing how it fits so well into the 80/20 rule, too.

One might need those 8,000 additional hours to level-up into the next Tennessee Williams but - as emphasized in 4-Hour Chef and elsewhere - just 2,000 hours puts your far beyond 95% of the world.

famousactress• 14 years ago

Nick Cave's said very similar things about inspiration/creativity as well...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v...

igorgue• 14 years ago

I can see the CEO of startup "X" printing this article and showing to their "whiny" developers so they stop asking for a better work environment where their boss doesn't try to micro-manage them all the time and distract them.

It seems like he doesn't care about when he works, but he has long uninterrupted work times, which is great, and it's what most developers ask for.

dwj• 14 years ago

And then the employees of startup X would tell the CEO that they should be working for 6 hours a day rather than 16.

noblethrasher• 14 years ago

Elizabeth Gilbert (authored Eat Pray Love) had some similar thoughts in this fantastic TED talk: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86x-u-tz0MA

brudgers• 14 years ago

My neighbor, Nan, is a working painter. She starts about first light. Getting started in the morning is a habit.

I read Vonnegut's biography, And So It Goes. He'd been developing his novel about Dresden for nearly two decades before it became Slaughter House Five. He wrote most every day, just like any other job.

neilk• 14 years ago

It's a good point, but you should also put it in context with Chuck Close's monastic dedication. Unlike a lot of artists, he seeks out constraints. Often times he starts out by closing off options, and then seeing what scope for creativity is left.

For instance, he's done a zillion self-portraits. He thinks his face is uninteresting, so he can explore pure technique. (Also, I guess he's always available as a model.)

Perhaps this is all part of making creativity a predictable thing - he doesn't get lost in infinite options.

achompas• 14 years ago

I'm a big fan of Twyla Tharp's "The Creative Habit" for one reason: it completely does away with the whole mystification of "creativity" as some gift from a divine source. The plot is simple: creating stuff requires work. Figure out how you work best, then work. End of story.

Anyway, I'm a fan. It cured me of all inspiration-seeking behavior.

* http://www.amazon.com/The-Creative-Habit-Learn-Life/dp/07432...

Chuck Close on Creativity, Work Ethic, and Problem-Solving vs. Problem-Creating

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