Articles from metaphor
Risk-Taking, Creativity, and the Experimenter's Mindset
We’ve all become more familiar (and hopefully adept) at calculating risk over the past two years as we’ve struggled to balance the demands of daily life with the threats posed by the seemingly endless waves of the COVID-19 virus. We’ve always lived with risks, but the pandemic has significantly altered the risk/reward ratio of everyday life. It’s also made many of us more risk averse. Our COVID-induced diminished tolerance for risk-taking may also have another significant consequence: you may be feeling an unfamiliar sense of alienation from your creative confidence and desire to engage in new creative work. You’re not alone, and you can rebuild your confidence and rekindle your passion for creative work, if you’re willing to take a few small risks.
Thinking with Others
Our modern concept of creativity is deeply rooted in the value system of the artists and intellectuals of the Romantic era who believed that the greatest sin was being derivative. The biases of the Romantics still influence us. Our culture prizes originality and individuality; we celebrate the “pioneers” and “trailblazers. But our obsession with originality blinds us to the value of thinking with others and untapped knowledge in our collective intelligence.
The Brain, the Body, and the Mind
The dominant role the written word has assumed in the development of culture (especially Western culture) has inflated our perception of the role the brain plays so significantly that we now equate the brain with the mind. Nothing could be further from the truth. The organ we call the brain is not the mind. The mind is the whole body, which encompasses the brain. As we learn more about how the body and brain work together to form our thoughts, emotions, and perspective, we’re redefining the concept of thinking itself.
Loosely Organized Notes and Creative Thinking
In his essay “Communicating with Slip Boxes,” Niklas Luhmann argues that his collection of notes is not a passive archive of his thoughts, but a “competent” conversation partner capable of surprise. Luhmann isn’t a mad scientist imbuing his inanimate creation with human qualities, he’s stating a fact. The organization of his note-taking system allowed him to pose a question, then follow his branching and linked thoughts to unexpected answers. The “conversation” is the result of an open, loosely organized system designed to surprise.
Organic Notes and the Zettelkasten Method
This introduction to Niklas Luhmann’s ideas on note-taking and organizing notes is designed to help you to develop your own thinking about how you use notes and develop ideas in your note-taking system. We need to build a vocabulary for discussing notes, note-taking, and working with notes so we can more effectively implement our ideas in the applications and systems we use. Luhmann’s Zettelkasten methodology is a good starting point.
The Faithful Gardener
Most of us don’t spend much time thinking about notes and note-taking—and why would you? Most notes we take are disposable: quick scratches meant to jog our memory. But notes serve a wide variety of purposes. Reminding is only one of them. Learning to distinguish between the types of notes you take and how to use your notes effectively is an essential part of thinking outside the brain.
Working Outside Your Brain
This article introduces a new series on creativity and the extended mind: how we use tools, our body, and the world around us to enhance the capacity of our brain and create in ways the mind can’t manage on its own. In this series I’ll be writing about note-taking, personal knowledge management systems, thinking with your body, and more.
Your Creative Fingerprint
Just as we each have unique physical fingerprints, we each have a unique creative fingerprint. The loops, arches, and whorls in your creative fingerprint are shaped by the impulses that drive your creativity, your creative strengths, and your formative life, artistic, and spiritual experiences. But there’s a shift that takes place when you choose to make creativity a primary area of focus in your life: your creative fingerprint becomes your identity.