Class 23

Today we discussed Twayla Tharp's book: "The Creative Habit" Here was the blog post we had due, I think it best describes/summaries some of the authors main objectives and my opinions:

What were the three take home messages that you got from the book?

1.) The first one that I got was the fact big ideas are in fact combinations of other ideas, all of them. This is important because this means that in order to get big ideas we must constantly be accumulating smaller ones to take and combine in different ways. She does this by suggesting to physically have a box to put stuff in—namely stuff that inspires you. This creates momentum to overcome the sometimes overwhelming blank canvas.

2.) The second point that I took away from the book was that we must be willing to dedicate time to your craft to fully realize our creativity within a certain area of focus. I think this is really an honest suggestion. Someone can dream to build a beautiful a car but if they refuse to practice welding, machining, etc. than the most creative parts of their design will never be fully realized.

3.) The third point I took note of was that a creative environment does not foster perfectionism but a fluid dedication towards a particular solution. While a work schedule should have a spine, as she mentions later in the book, the doesn’t mean all details are or should be accounted for in the beginning, in fact, doing so disallows further learning and any type of luck from occurring. I’m glad she mentioned luck, (though I don’t necessarily agree with that word choice) because there are certain design projects I’ve worked on that have been most successful when I myself to figure out things at the appropriate time and not all at once.

Take one of the messages or tips Tharp gives and tell how you would apply it in your life.

Tharp suggests that to find your creative DNA, or your driving creativity force, that you should consider giving up something important or seemingly necessary to your life for a week. I’ll use the example of giving up a clock and apply it. At first this seemed like an absurd challenge to me, but I began to think about what a clock is. Clocks are simply a reference point in relation abstract idea (time). So then I started thinking about how I could use other things as reference points to tell time, like perhaps when I see other people (if I see them consistent enough), when I see buses, or see restaurants or business open or close. I wouldn’t be able to look at the clack on phone ever, but it seems that I could creatively find out the time if I really wanted and I think doing so would force be to pay attention much more closely to the world around me as well.