Why Creative People Sometimes Make No Sense

Matthew Schuler has been reading the scholar’s Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi book Creativity: The Work and Lives of 91 Eminent People, and has had a few reflections based his own creative experience. Matthew quotes  the author and notes,

I have devoted 30 years of research to how creative people live and work, to make more understandable the mysterious process by which they come up with new ideas and new things. If I had to express in one word what makes their personalities different from others, it’s complexity. They show tendencies of thought and action that in most people are segregated. They contain contradictory extremes; instead of being an individual, each of them is a multitude “

Nine out of the ten people in me strongly agree with that statement. As someone paid to be creative, I sometimes feel kaleidoscopic in my views or opinions, and that “multitude” of expressions sometimes confuses those around me. Why does that happen? My thoughts make cohesive sense to me, yet others sometimes feel that I am contradicting myself or switching positions. What is wrong with me?”

Matthew then shares nine observations that explore the experience of contradiction that seems to coincide with the creative lifestyle.  It’s an interesting look at all the factors that go in to making things…perhaps you’ll find some meaning in the grey areas.

Why Creative People Sometimes Make No Sense [MatthewSchuler]