I went for a long walk by the river yesterday. Just after lunch, when the sun is warmer and there's nobody around.
But I wasn't alone. I walked by the river with Rick Rubin and Krista Tippet, silently immersing myself in their conversation (thanks, Vanessa).
I won't try summarising what they shared because it's a conversation full of many amazing ideas. If you are curious about creativity, I definitely recommend listening to it.
Anyway, there's a concept that resonates a lot with me.
Rubin says, "So the world is going on, and the creative life of the world is always happening. We get to watch it, and if we choose to, we could participate. But if we don't participate, it goes on."
The creative process is always happening. When we choose to be part of that process at that moment, we become a channel of creativity. Then, whatever product, service or idea is ready to emerge will do so through us. Otherwise, it will be channelled by someone else.
That choice, then, is critical in any creative process. So, what drives our will to participate?
While pondering this question, trying to find some order in the mess in my head, I remembered this post by my friend Giuseppe that I read earlier while having breakfast.
Why do some companies make wise choices while others miss the change that is happening in the world, surrendering themselves to disappearance? Giuseppe suggests that it's not a lack of knowledge, as all those big companies and their leaders know more than enough. What they lack is the will to change.
But is it?
What if that lack of willingness to change is due to their knowledge? Not the lack of it, but too much of it.
Talking about creativity and what holds people back, Rubin says, "Man's own baggage of beliefs of thinking we know best is what is holding man back."
He shared that while sharing a story about Alpha Go, an incredibly complex board game, and how an AI program won against a Grandmaster by making an apparently wrong move.
"The men playing knew — not only did they know the rules of the game, but they also knew the traditions of the game. And they knew the whole history of the game, of what every great player had done before. And they knew what they learned in the school of playing. The computer was only playing by the rules of the game because it doesn’t know the cultural norms of the game."
There are plenty of similar stories in every field of human creativity. Sometimes, we know so much that our vision gets shrunk to the point that we cannot see the creative process unfolding around us and participate.
P.S. today’s apple is longer, but I was in the flow, and I couldn’t stop.