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July 31, 2006

10 Reasons Creative Folks Make Us Crazy

ME Liz Strauss wrote this at 10:33 am

As Business Looks for Creative Thinkers — Look Out!

Creativity at Work

In this age of innovation, Business Schools look to fill theirs eats with more right brain creative people. Folks are beginning to take notice of the value and power of the off the wall idea.

Business Week.com devotes an entire section to innovation and creativity and companies have titles such as Idea Czar on their organizational chart. Tom Peters asks “Where are the freaks in your company?” and goes on to say that they’re the ones who have the ideas.

Yeah, but how do you deal with someone who is one way one minute and the opposite the next? How do you tell a creative person from someone who just irritates you?

What are the traits that creative folks have in common? Are we all creative? Is there anyone who’s not? Can I boost my creativity? Am I a creative freak? Questions follow creativity — what is it, how does it work, and how do we access our Creativity at Work to make our brand and business stronger?.

One Creativity Study

Professor Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, the man who wrote Flow — also wrote the pivotal book on creativity — Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention. The book covers a 5-year study of 91 individuals over 60 years old, who had a creative impact on the world. The first information that Professor Mihaly offered was this extended definition of creativity:

. . . I distinguish at least three different phenomena that can legitmately be called by that name.

The first usage: wide spread in ordinary conversation, refers to persons who express unusual thoughts, who are interesting and stimulating — in short, to people who appear to be unusually bright, a brilliant converstionalist, a person with varied interests and a quick mind, may be called creative in this sense. . . .

The second way the term can be used is to refer to people who experience the world in novel and original ways. These are individuals whose perceptions are fresh, whose judgments are insightful, who may make important discoveries that only they know about. I refer to these people as personally creative. . . .

The final use of the term designates individuals who, like Leonardo, Edison, Picasso, or Einstein, have changed our culture in some important respect. They are the creative ones without qualifications. Because their achievements are by definition public, it is easier to write about them, and the persons included in my study belong in this group.

Do any of those definitions describe you?

The 10 Dimensions of Creative Complexity

I’ve read this book several times, but each time that I show it to a friend, the first place that I turn to, the place where the book falls open, is to the 10 Dimensions of Complexity of the Highly Creative Personality. That’s what Dr. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi calls them. I call them the 10 Reasons that Creative People Drive Us Crazy. Each item is a paradox, a complexity, a contradiction that’s frustrating to others when they exist together at odds in one human being. Take a look and then I’ll tell you how knowing them has helped me keep my sanity, or at least relieve some stress.

    1. Creative individuals have great physical energy, but they become extremely quiet when they are at rest. This restful period can lead others to think that they are not feeling well or that they are unhappy, when the truth is they are fine.

    2. Creative folks tend to be both highly intelligent and naive at the same time.

    3. Creative people are disciplined and playful simultaneously. In some creative people, this can mean that they are responsible and irresponsible at the same time as well.

    4. Creative minds move between a spectrum of fantasy and imagination and a firm grounding in reality. They understand the present and need to keep in touch with the past.

    5. Creative individuals seem to be both introverted and extroverted, expressing both traits at once. An image to explain this might be that they are shy showoffs, if you can picture that.

    6. Creative people are sincerely humble and extremely proud in a childlike way. It requires ego to have a risky, fresh idea. It takes self-doubt to hammer it out to a workable form.

    7. Creative folks don’t feel as tied to gender roles. They feel distinctly individual. They don’t feel the barriers of authority or the rules of what they are “supposed to do.”

    8. Creative individuals are thought to be rebellious. Yet, in order to be creative one has to understand and have internalized the traditional culture. Therefore creativity comes from deep roots in tradition. Creative people are traditional and cutting edge.

    9. Creative people are deeply passionate about their work, yet can be extremely detached and objective when discussing it.

    10. Creative people are highly open and sensitive, which exposes them to pain and suffering, but also allows them to feel higher values of joy and happiness.

    I find that these 10 paradoxes explain a lot the creative folks I work with. I also use them to understand what’s going on when things aren’t going well, particularly when we have a creative project going full speed under tight deadlines. That’s when I review this list to look for pairs that are out of balance. When I find and adjust the imbalances, the stressful moments fade away.

    Why Know This?

    Beyond the obvious fact that knowing how we think helps us understand each other and that makes relationships work. Knowing about creativity can actually enhance our own creativity and problem solving skills.

    Even talking about creativity can make a person more creative. Did you know that? Allowing our brains the room to stretch, to become flexible to take in new views and new ways of thinking is a critical skill and brand enhancing.

    To argue for our abilities allows us to get closer to reaching them in the same ways that arguing for our limits makes them happen.Some people think they’re not creative, and offer quite creative reasons for why they’re not. What’s your argument about creativity? Do you have any? Can you make what you have into a bigger creativity asset?

    Of course, we’d find a creative way to be creative without driving people crazy. Right?

    –ME “Liz Strauss

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    31 Comments to “10 Reasons Creative Folks Make Us Crazy”

    1. July 31st, 2006 at 12:39 pm
      YourCre8tivity.com » Blog Archive » Creative People Make Us Crazy? We do? said

      […] Liz Strauss has an interesting post up over at her Successful and Outstanding Blog(gers) in which she discusses some of the traits of creative people and how those traits affect their work and co-workers. The post is called 10 Reasons Creative Folks Make Us Crazy. […]

    2. July 31st, 2006 at 5:22 pm
      ann michael said

      Those 10 dimensions are invaluable. Don’t you just love this guy!

      Ann

    3. July 31st, 2006 at 6:00 pm
      ME Strauss said

      Yeah, now I know why I drive people crazy!!

    4. August 1st, 2006 at 2:53 am
      raj said

      Liz, that list describes me so much to a tee that I’m speechless. Most of those characteristics are a primary reason why people either love me or hate me.

      But I didn’t see the word “intense” in there, although I’m not so much that anymore, since I embraced some spirituality around 1997. (I still call myself the PunkMonk, even though I gave up the domain name.)

      For a person as intense and passionate as I am, blogging (and webmastering) is just about the only career left for me. It’s a superb outlet for creative people who, as you said, tend to suffer at times. I hope that instead of being afraid of blogging, like some schools are, that teachers and others will embrace blogging therapy as an alternative to art or music therapy. There’s something for every type of creative person. (There’s even one artist who sells his sculptures from his website.)

    5. August 1st, 2006 at 2:54 am
      raj said

      well, not too speechless, huh :?)

    6. August 1st, 2006 at 5:32 am
      Mark McGuinness said

      Nice post, Csikszentmihalyi’s book is a classic. Re Raj’s ‘intensity’, Csikszentmihalyi and others have written about another aspect of creative people, which is that they love doing creative work more than just about everything else. They are motivated by the work itself, which is its own reward. (Although that doesn’t stop them hankering after all the other rewards of creativity ;-)) Or as Noel Coward puts it, for a creative person, “work is more fun than fun”.

    7. August 1st, 2006 at 7:36 am
      ME Strauss said

      Hi Raj,
      The list describes me too. That’s why I’ve read the book so many times and bought several copies to give to friends. I recommend both this one and Flow — though I’ve read all of his books on the subject. I also like Optimal Experience which is about the same stuff.

      Intensity has also been a problem for me too, particularly when I am thinking new thought and trying to explain them to someone at the same time. People can mistake my “hard and intense thinking” as something it’s not — anger?

      A good friend of my reads my blogs and says it’s the best outlet for my creativity that she could ever imagine being invented. :)

    8. August 1st, 2006 at 7:40 am
      ME Strauss said

      Hi Mark,
      I love that Noel Coward quote. I’d never heard it before and I do identify with it. Being able to be creative is like a drug. It releases something in the brain that triggers the happy feelings of being useful and valuable — the feelings are much the same as those when I realized I’d just become a parent. My world and how I view it changes some and I feel that I fit much better in my own skin.

    9. August 1st, 2006 at 2:37 pm
      Christine Kane said

      i love this i love this i love this. i can echo all that raj says as well. #5 is the one that most made my jaw drop. Thanks Liz!

    10. August 1st, 2006 at 2:49 pm
      ME Strauss said

      Hi Christine,
      I know what you mean about #5. It is the hardest one to explain to others. How can you be shy and be on stage too. You’re in control of the mic. That’s how. :)

    11. August 1st, 2006 at 3:05 pm
      Christine Kane said

      Absolutely Liz. I always laugh when people say, “How can you be so vulnerable on stage like that?” And I say, “That’s not vulnerable. I know EXACTLY what I’m gonna say!”

    12. August 1st, 2006 at 4:22 pm
      ME Strauss said

      Yeah, Christine,
      Telling the truth and being vulnerable are two totally different things. People don’t always understand that do they?

    13. August 2nd, 2006 at 1:50 pm
      YourCre8tivity.com » Blog Archive » You Are Creative! said

      […] Over on Successful and Outstanding Blog(gers), Liz has written two follow-up posts to Monday’s 10 Reasons Creative People Make Us Crazy. The points she makes are important and I think somewhat telling. […]

    14. August 3rd, 2006 at 7:58 am
      Stenstropedia » Kreativ said

      […] Hele artiklen.   […]

    15. August 3rd, 2006 at 12:51 pm
      Marketing Basics » Creative Paradox - Just how creative are you? said

      […] When it comes to creativity and personality, my experience has been that creative people have a dual personality (this includes myself - the duality of my personality is truth, the creative aspect is questionable at times) . As I read Liz Strauss’ Successful Blog - 10 Reasons Creative Folks Make Us Crazy it became clear that creative folks often contradict what we know about them. They are dynamic - changing, growing, stretching BUT over the long haul… many become predictable - predictably unique. […]

    16. August 3rd, 2006 at 3:36 pm
      Listen to One of My Tunes - Christine Kane - Blog » Blog Archive said

      […] Here’s one of my songs called “Right Outta Nowhere.” Hopefully you can hear it. Let me know if this doesn’t work. It’s a test. I’m putting this song up in honor of Doug at Service Untitled, who had a mild rant (Well, not really. I think he wrote, “Ugh.”) the other night during Liz Straus’s open mic for bloggers. (Go read Liz’s Creativity at Work series. It’s excellent!) Doug apparently doesn’t have RealPlayer (which you need to have if you want to listen to one of my song clips on my CDs&Lyrics page) or iTunes (which is where all my songs can be bought for 99 cents). I wasn’t aware that I was discriminating against some people. So here’s a song. Listen away. If you like it, it’s at iTunes. (Kathy Mattea recorded it too.) If you don’t have iTunes, then it’s at amazon.com. Click on the CD in my sidebar. […]

    17. August 11th, 2006 at 3:05 pm
      Jenny said

      Creative people are indeed pretty difficult to handle because of their mixed personality and the character issues but that is something that makes them unique. This characterization was well put and in my opinion it is a nice reflection of the creative mind.

    18. August 11th, 2006 at 5:04 pm
      ME Strauss said

      Hi Jenny
      Welcome.
      We often have trouble with things that don’t fit inside our world view of how they should work. I’m a creative type and I happen to be smart about many things. But other things I just don’t understand when people explain them. They tend to think that’s not possible. Their first response is that I’m being difficult and not trying to understand.

      That’s frustrating for both of us — until we get to know each other. Then my creativity works in my favor again.

    19. August 14th, 2006 at 4:51 am
      Wishful Thinking » Blog Archive » What Makes a Creative Person? said

      […] Liz Strauss sparked a heated debate recently with her post 10 Reasons Creative Folks Drive Us Crazy, with some people (mistakenly) interpreting her as meaning that “creative folks” are somehow different in kind to the rest of us. I made a half-baked comment on one of her follow-ups, and she suggested I turn it into a blog post - so this is my attempt at the slightly-more-baked version, with thanks to Liz for the prompt. […]

    20. September 15th, 2006 at 5:22 pm
      Successful Blog - We’re All Creative 3: Three Year Olds Are the Masters said

      […] Related articles 10 Reasons Creative Folks Make Us Crazy We’re All Creative 1: The Bunnies Prove It Think You’re Not Creative? That Could Cost You Your Job […]

    21. September 15th, 2006 at 7:04 pm
      Successful Blog - We’re All Creative 1: The Bunnies Prove It said

      […] Yesterdays post on 10 Reasons Creative Folks Make Us Crazy — The 10 Dimensions of Creative Complexity got quite a response, particularly on a couple of forums. The most interesting part was that in the comments about the post it seemed that […]

    22. November 14th, 2006 at 9:02 pm
      Successful Blog - Mind Mapping: Right Brain Work Ahead — Enter At Your Own Risk said

      […] Related articles Inside Out Thinking: Catching Ideas Coming In and Going Out 10 Reasons Creative Folks Make Us Crazy Don’t Hunt IDEAS — Be an Idea Magnet […]

    23. December 12th, 2006 at 8:37 am
      Successful Blog - A Holiday Gift: The 31-Day Calendar of Blog Post Ideas for January said

      […] January 17 — Use a Book as a Source. […]

    24. February 18th, 2007 at 3:47 am
      Nimmy said

      Thanks a lot for this post, Liz! The 10 dimensions give me so much to be happy about because I am obsessed with both creativity and paradox thinking. (I am going to buy Dr. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s book first thing this weekend):)

    25. February 18th, 2007 at 7:39 am
      ME Strauss said

      Hi Nimmy!
      Welcome!
      I’ve read the book twice and given away about 5 copies. One time I did a read-aloud with a fiend on her deck over the summer as shared wine every time we got together. It’s fascinating. :)

      Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

      Smiles,
      Liz

    26. August 16th, 2007 at 2:15 pm
      Steve said

      The ‘look at me! I’m creative!’ aspect of many people, including myself, really frustrates me. This desire to launch oneself into the public ear to hear how unique one is is so annoying, especially when the person is not really creative, but more just novel in certain select areas.

      God, I need to relax. So many things bother me. Now I’m talking to a blog like it’s my therapist.

    27. August 16th, 2007 at 3:03 pm
      ME Strauss said

      What’s worse, Steve,
      is that now the blog is talking back to you. :)

    28. August 28th, 2007 at 11:17 am
      Five Original Must-Read Articles by Liz Strauss - Liz Strauss at Successful Blog - Thinking, writing, business ideas . . . You’re only a stranger once. said

      […] 31, 2006 . . . 10 Reasons Creative Folks Make Us Crazy What are the traits that creative folks have in common? Are we all creative? Is there anyone […]

    29. August 28th, 2007 at 10:49 pm
      Nathania - Bold Interactive said

      I’m definitely one of those creative types. And it can drive me crazy too.

      My mind will generate ideas like a freakin’ machine at midnight - Some nights I lie awake for a good hour just shooting out ideas, with intermittent thoughts of “I Have to get up in the morning!”

      We creatives do feel the disconnect with the traditional workplace, too. Sigh, now I’ll be laying awake thinking about solutions for that!!! :)

    30. August 29th, 2007 at 6:34 am
      ME Strauss said

      Hi Nathania!
      I’m one of those creative types too! I drive myself crazy — I tell people, “You can walk away from me, but I have to live inside this head.” :)

      I’ve learned to make friends with being awake. The longer I worry about “I have to get up” the more awake I get, so I just surrender to what is and figure my body will take care of itself. The thought goes something like this. “Okay fine, if you want to be up thinking, head, then that’s what we’ll do. It’s up to you to figure out how I’ll be in a great mood tomorrow.” Then I open a book to read until my mind takes the hint. :)

      I’ve also given up taken responsibility for the entire world. I’ve convinced myself that it’s pretty arrogant of me to think I could be responsible for everything that went wrong anyway. :) [grin] That helped a lot.

      Smiles,
      Liz

    31. June 17th, 2008 at 3:40 pm
      Creativity for the Socially Maladjusted « ichiwichi gets mad said

      […] Creative people are paradoxes. […]

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