The act of creation is both constructive and destructive. It requires taking old ideas and combining and distorting them into the new. It is not merely enough to replicate what has come before – in fact, that’s so bad we have all kinds of copyright laws and plagiarism rules to prevent it.
Artificial intelligence makes that point almost moot now. With enough time a computer can create every variation of every sentence ever possible.
What is an original idea then? The creation of something more, a whole with a sum greater than its parts.
Everyone is creative. The urge to create is inside of us, whether it’s an art project or the meaning of a life event, we seek to create an understanding, we desire connection, and we all need validation.
But it must start from within to be true to yourself. No one is creative at the wrong task. And creating or working toward something solely for the external validation is wrong. It will never lead to true fulfillment, and it will always leave you lacking. It’s like the desire for more money – at a certain point it is never enough, even when you have incomprehensible sums that could never be spent. At least that’s how it seems to go for the billionaires of the world.
A little while back, I bought a copy of Rick Rubin’s The Creative Act: A Way of Being.
I stopped on this page and pondered for some time:
No matter what tools you use to create,
the true instrument is you.
And through you,
the universe that surrounds us
all comes into focus.
I placed my bookmark in this page to come back to later.
My bookmark reads: We are stardust, meant to shine.
It’s true.