The Need, and Power, of Creativity

Sweet Bites for August 9, 2024

Hi all,

Welcome to another edition of Sweet Bites, Mind Candy’s bite-sized newsletter with thought-provoking finds to send you into the weekend with.

This week we kicked off our monthly theme of creativity with a dive into how creativity is the ultimate form of freedom (links below).

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🍰 Mini Bite
Enjoy the Process

For many of us, when we think of the freedom of art, we think of the end result, the recognition it would bring, the impact it can place on the world, its importance in it.

But when we can take a step back, one of the things that gives us the most enjoyment out of the creative process is in fact the process itself.

The author Stephen King says he doesn’t care about his published work:

“For me the fun of writing novels isn't in the finished product…”

King enjoys the process of being creative, of being free to invent the worlds he does. But once they’re done, the fun is gone.

“[referencing his finished books on the shelf] to me those are like dead skin, they are things that are done.”

📚 This Week’s Monday Meditation

✏️ This Week’s Wednesday Wisdom

📰 Article Worthy of a Read

To be creative, Chinese philosophy teaches us to abandon ‘originality’ by Julianne Chung

Potentially counterintuitive, in this article, Chung leverages the wisdom of Chinese philosophy to argue that being creative is about letting go of the idea of originality.

According to Chung:

“The Zhuangzi (莊子), a classical Chinese philosophical and literary text... On one interpretation, creativity isn’t conceived as aiming at novelty or originality, but rather integration. Instead of aiming at something new, it aims at something that combines well with the situation of which it’s a part.”

Quote from the article I am pondering:

“focusing on integration could encourage us to better understand creative agents as being intimately connected with, and products of, their environments. This would broaden our notion of creativity in a way that might allow us to see creativity demanded in a greater range of activities.”

📖 Book Recommendation

Create Dangerously by Albert Camus

In this short essay, Camus breaks down why creativity and art are foundational to the human experience.

A few favorite passages:

“The only realistic artist would be God, if he exists. The other artists are, of necessity, unfaithful to reality.”

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“A rebirth in art today depends on our courage and our desire to see clearly.”

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“Freedom in art is worth very little when it has no meaning other than assuring that the artist has an easy life. For a value, or a virtue, to take a root in any society, we must not lie about it, which means we must pay for it, at every possible moment.”

Beneath the paywall this week we have:

• 🤯 A Review of Creativity by Big Think

• 🦉 Wisdom by Albert Camus

• 🛠️ Tactic by Rick Rubin