The Magic Machine: Imagination and Industry
I explore the mystery and mechanics of the Creative process by looking at two states of engagement
No one will ever quite be able to tell you how Creativity works. We will try. We will grasp with what we do know about the brain, about motivation and fulfilment, and by studying the Great Creative moments in history. But there will always be something wondrous in how we create novelty and value in this world, and why this brings us a special sense of joy and fulfilment.
There are no limits as to how, where and when we can be Creative. But there do seem to be key similarities in the way we do Creative work.
When we are explicitly outlining a Creative process, we need to demarcate (even caricature) the messy process somehow. At the risk of bastardizing Creativity, I’ll suggest we segment Creative engagement into two types. After doing this, I think the stereotypes of “Creative” and “non-Creative” people might also be better understood. When we consider the time spent in each of these states - at the extremes we find the “lazy artist” and the “dead-eyed accountant”. These stereotypes are not inherent personality traits. We learn to act in certain ways, and we can also unlearn and relearn ways of being. No one wants all free play and nothing to show for it, just like no one wants all work and no play.
So, I describe the two phases of the Creative process:
The Imagination Phase
The Industrial Phase
The nascent science of Creativity supports the above formulation, and I’ll discuss some neuroscience that points to corresponding (and distinct) brain regions that fire in these states of work:
(Keep in mind that your Creative brain is always working, making decisions, generating ideas, recombining and reimagining the sense input whirling around. You flit between dominant states, generating then editing, crafting then going back for more novel inputs. But generally imagination and inspiration must provide the Creative material which one would then craft in the Industrial phase)
The Imagination Phase - Open Mind - Generation
There are certain inseparable features that mark the Imagination phase: Curiosity, learning, play, adventure. To spark the Creative process, to engage our imagination, we must be seeking and open. I use the phrase “Open Mind” here because in the Imagination phase we are exploring and searching for new ideas, we are making new connections. We are free to generate, running wild to find and fetch the raw materials to later mold into something great.
Imagination is something that can never be quelled, but we can learn to override our Creative instincts, we can be taught to suppress our generative minds. In schools, rote learning is the antithesis of imaginative work. We are rewarded for memory games, when we should be pushed to keep the imaginative gates wide open. It is this free and novel thinking (guided but not restrained by existing instruction) that will usher in the Great Works and Businesses and Theories of the future.
The Imaginative brain is always on in the background, but you will need to direct your attention to compound ideas and build out blueprints for Creative projects. Frame your ideas, and begin to order the chaos. Then you can fetch more imaginative inputs - generated or learnt - to add on.
Bear in mind that although you will leave the Imagination Phase, you will return whenever you need new material and inspiration. The Imagination state never really turns off - you just override it when you need to do effortful editing of output.
The Industrial Phase - Closed Mind - Craft
Most people associate capital-C Creativity with the Imagination phase. You’ll notice I use capital-C Creativity everywhere. There is no sacred type of Creativity. Novelty must be imbibed and recombined in the Imagination phase, but’s it’s in the Industrial phase where imaginatively produced materials are honed into something valuable.
Edison said it’s 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration. It’s actually closer to an even split between imagination and industry - and inspiration must run through both.
The Industrial phase is the hard work part of the Creative process. I use the term “Closed Mind” because this is when we are sitting with what we have, we’re reworking, getting something structured down. We’re temporarily closed off to new inputs in a desperate effort to catch and tame what is flitting around in our heads - lured by the Imagination phase. It’s in the Industrial phase when we’re capturing and editing and revising, and getting feedback.
Honing output requires criticism and judgement. Until you have put in your hours (and 10,000 is an arbitrary figure), this will feel effortful before it comes easy as artistic taste.
Many of us deplore the industrial phase. It’s conscious, planned, effortful - but it gets easier with practice. The industrial phase crafts value, with persistence and time and iteration. It’s only by spending more time in the Industrial zone that you take your Creative abilities from amateur to professional, from beginner to master, from hobby to craft.
The last thing I’ll say about the industrial phase (and this is another reason why many avoid it) is that this is the time when our Creative output sees the light of day. Even if you, the Creator, are the sole audience - you have to judge what you have come up with. You have to view your darlings in a critical light, and you may have to kill them. Exposing your work to other people can bring up a host of insecurities, such as a fear of judgement, and other psychological baggage. Sometimes it’s easier to hide in the Imagination phase. If we never get feedback, and never test our ideas out in the real world, they remain plump with glorious potential, and we may keep the hope that we contain unfulfilled genius.
This might be how your Creative Brain works
As mentioned, the imagination versus industry formulation is supported by brain science. Creativity researchers speak of two dominant brain networks relevant to creative engagement: a) the default mode (daydreaming) network, and b) the executive attention network.
The default mode network (DNM) is active when a person is at “wakeful rest” - such as in tasks like daydreaming or mind-wandering. The DMN is typically active when you’re not doing activities that are too cognitively demanding - like when you’re in the shower, or when you’re washing the dishes.
The executive attention network (or Frontoparietal) is used extensively for sustained attention, complex problem-solving and working memory. When you have a clear goal, and need to direct your mental energy towards something - this kicks in.
Interestingly, they speak of a triple-network that includes the above two networks plus something called a salience network that facilitates switching between the Default and Executive. You can’t daydream and tick your to-do list at the same time. Just like you can’t generate new ideas and edit simultaneously.
Brain science, like Creativity, is messy to pin down. There is no one region for one thing - it’s all interconnected. We can use these early findings to guess at how specific brain activity might pair with imagination or industry states. And if Creativity has attributable tracts in the physical brain then we might question if we can use this knowledge to trigger the right frame of mind for certain types of Creative tasks.
Many people claim that certain activities unlock their imagination. Jeff Bezos still does his own dishes because he claims his nind wanders here in way that is beneficial to Amazon’s future innovating. (For the record, I don't believe this). Walking, dishes, showering, meditating may be able to trigger your imaginative brain. You may need more of a stick to get you into the Executive Industrious frame of mind - scheduling hard time to get work done, or structuring small tasks that you can tick off for a Creative project that gets you into the executing frame of mind.
You just need to get initiatr the right brain state, and then you almost always find flow.
Masters of Craft
That word craft is important in my vocabulary. Craft is persistent industry, but it is also scheduled play. A master of their craft knows when to find inspiration, and when to sit and forge their creative ideas into something that is hard-to-attain.
Traditionally, the stereotypical ‘Creative’ neglects the Industrial phase. They dream but they don’t deliver. The hard-working non-Creative toils their day away but forgets to imagine things anew, never searching for novel techniques and ideas, or embracing change. Masters in any field flit effortlessly between imagination and industry. At first this might need to be a conscious effort, but my suspicion is that pros switch unconsciously between the states - knowing when they need to generate, and when they need to grind.
Perhaps it’s not how adept at what you are at one state or the other, perhaps it’s about how easily you can switch between them.
In the imagination phase writers come up with characters, and worlds, writing freely and volubly. In the industrial phase, the writer edits and throws out and asks others to read versions of their draft.
Masters are retain imaginative generation and industrious production.
Embrace Both as necessary in the Creative Process
You might have a hard-wired natural inclination for imagination. You may have been raised to appreciate hard grind. If you’ve already cracked the balance, you don’t need this post to explain things. Once you have found the side of the Creative equation that you need to stoke, your challenge is to preserve both Imagination and Industry in your Creative habits.
We can lose the stigma about creative people: we are all allowed to imagine without fear or restraint, and we must all work to realise those dreams.
“It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with the problems longer.” - Albert Einstein