Creatives
I just finished what I thought was a midnight snack. In reality, it was early breakfast. The time is 05:30. The doctors say that you need 8 hours of sleep, but I’ve legitimately been getting by on about 4 — plus a little bit of napping — for a long time now. When I discovered that some people are polyphasic sleepers — especially creative people — it was a relief. Whenever I look into the habits and attitudes of people who do creative things for a living, I’m always reassured, because they resemble my own. I’m the weird one who stays up at night. I’m a misfit. I’m neurotic. I’m confused. I’m too impulsive. Among creative people, I’m arguably pretty boring, because I’m like all of them.
Being a creative worker is a little bit like taming a wild horse. There is energy there. The horse wants to run, but it doesn’t have a goal. It’s a magnificent creature, but it’s scared and confused, and it has a brain the size of a walnut. Creative people can be pretty dense at times. They’ll draw upon their mental resources to create things, but will struggle with the basics of life. I like to look at this self-portrait of Rembrandt from time to time:
He looks foolish and young in it. You don’t draw a self-portrait like that if you’re in the mood to take yourself seriously. People who do this kind of stuff when they’re under 30 had luck with their self development. They knew what to do early on. But no one tells you this. Or rather, if you look at what creative people tell you through their work, they talk about it all the time. So perhaps it’s a matter of being willing to listen. Of taking things to heart.
I was pretty good at ignoring the implications of popular slogans. I took them to symbolise things I already knew, but really, I didn’t understand them at all. When I look at what people in the PR industry do, they are sort of screaming at everyone. Screaming at people to apply themselves. For example:
These slogans are telling you to think for yourself and to do what you want. To go out there and create things and to do things. Most people want this, but they aren’t ready to perform the necessary sacrifices, so they buy the dream instead. They aspire but they don’t dare to actually do it. If you have common sense, jumping off a cliff is a bad idea.
People who make things don’t have common sense. They have uncommon sense.