Initial caveat, and something like an apology. It’s been some time since I posted anything on this site, sorry. In my own defense, it’s been a bitch of a year, so far. Enough. For the caveat: I keep coming back to this subject, but I do so because too many people just don’t understand it – but want to look like experts anyway. So, here you go.
I read and hear and see so much about genius and creativity and what it takes to think like a genius or how to increase your creativity. It’s all bullshit. These people have no idea what they’re talking about, especially those who should know better – those in the medical community. Genius is not something that can be trained. Creativity is only narrowly inheritable. You can’t do this, and furthermore, you don’t want this. Let’s see if you follow my thinking.
There is a common belief in many if not most people, which says, “Everyone is creative.” Nonsense. Very few people are truly creative. Creativity requires not only openness and courage, but high intelligence and deep sensitivity. It requires broad experience, the ability to make unlikely connections between highly disparate thoughts and physical items, and an ability to see the nonsense in sensibility. Nothing is less likely than the possibility that everyone is creative. And you don’t want to be creative. I promise you that.
To be creative is to be weird. Creatives are usually outcasts. To be creative is to have absolutely no interests in common with ordinary people. Creative people dance with madness and self-destruction, they chase shadows and illusions, they commune with voices from beyond the ordinary world of humans. Conversely, they are buoyed up with a joy that most people don’t even know is possible. They exist in a realm of light and color that is extremely difficult to communicate to others. Yet somehow, they feel they must bring this knowledge to people. This never really works well.
Any art form you care to name, any science, any mathematical treatise – are all lame, all insufficient to transmit the beauty and truth that a creative sees all too clearly. And yet, they keep trying. They can’t help it. Creatives are driven to express themselves and their ideas in whatever limping format or inefficient terms they can manage. They ache to pass on the visions they have been given. And they struggle, often for years, to try to make their ideas clear.
Now, if this sounds like the old trope of a ‘high and lonely calling’, or any such bullshit that makes artists sound like supermen, it’s not. Is it lonely? Very often, yes. A high calling? Well, that sort of depends on the artist, doesn’t it? There have probably been far more selfish, perverted and outrightly wicked creatives throughout history than there have been saints. In fact, I would argue that much of the checkered reaction of the common throng to creative types is due to just the fact that they are as broken and bloody handed as the rest of us. They are also, apparently, far more susceptible to mental illness.
One survey of people with what used to be known as manic-depressive syndrome estimates that roughly 10% of people suffer some form of depression, including bipolar syndrome. This percentage is closer to 40 or 50% in creatives. Creatives may be more likely to have a serious narcissistic complex, or to be sociopathic or even psychopathic. It’s a dangerous thing, to be creative – not only to oneself, but also to others. However, please realize that these problems and their associated ‘pluses’ are generally only an issue for hardcore, genius-level creatives. There is another type that doesn’t suffer as much and can still call themselves ‘creative’.
Many people can and do learn how to paint, how to sing, how to dance, even how to write. With practice they can become quite good. But they’re generally good at doing the same things that others have done before them. Within those boundaries, they can be considered creative. They should be proud of their work and the effort they put into it; I’m not trying to disparage them at all. But every one of them, upon trying to push their chosen artform past a certain point, will hit a ceiling. This will discourage many, because they will find that, while they can create many beautiful things, they cannot create new beautiful things. They may even feel or hear or see shadows of things beyond, but they can’t go there. You cannot force genius. Also – you never ‘discover’ that you’re a genius. If you are one, you already know.
Right now, everyone wants to be a genius, or to be seen as one. The attitude is, if you’re a genius, everything comes easily to you. Absolutely ridiculous. Every ten IQ points you rise up the scale, the job gets harder. And the scale is not linear, it’s logarithmic. Therefore, geniuses have to work a hundred or a thousand times harder than ‘intelligent’ people in order to make a mark in their profession. And when they do succeed, the results are mind-blowing, but look deceptively simple. “Oh, hell, I could do that,” people say. No, you couldn’t. Only Picasso could paint like Picasso. Not your grade-schooler. Only Einstein could’ve come up with the Theory of Relativity. If you could come up with it, why didn’t you? Answer: because you’re not a genius. And I promise you, you really don’t want to be one.
Well, I’ve wasted too many words on this subject, and I’d rather not come back to this topic again any time soon. So, let’s get our heads out of those smelly, dark places and face the truth, shall we? It is perfectly okay to strive to be better informed, more highly skilled and more artistic. Anyone can do this, and the benefits are obvious. But forget about being a genius. You aren’t one. Just the truth, kiddies.
Be well.
bcd