This is a card in Dave's Virtual Box of Cards.

A Creative Habit

Page created: 2023-04-28

Note: The Creative Habit is the title of a book by Twyla Tharp, which I did read in 2016 (nine years ago as I write this) but I don’t remember it terribly well. It is not the basis for this similarly-titled card.

This Substack post Don’t build to-do apps (substack.com) by Ilango Rajagopal has at least three major ideas in it. The second is about making a habit of idea generation:

"The key to getting good at getting ideas is the mindset. A mindset of being frustrated or curious…​[and] thinking about it as a problem to solve.

"Whenever you get frustrated with something you use regularly, I want you to write it down…​Then write how you want it to work…​ Be on the lookout for repeated actions…​Look for ways to automate it with the technology or framework you’re learning.

"The point of this exercise is to build the idea-generating muscle."

Being in a habit of quickly writing or sketching ideas as they occur to you works to build the creative muscle for every type of creative act: writing, painting, programming. (See also idea-generation).

But the emphasis here is on treating problems as creative inspirations.

Plenty of us gripe about daily annoyances. But how many of us see those as opportunities to create something awesome?

(Of course, you’ve got to pick your battles. Solving the long line at the Department of Motor Vehicles might take the rest of your life. But automating that stupid daily computer task could be just a couple hours of blissful effort.)

Even if you’re not going to do the task, write it down. This seems to reward the brain and calm it down. It’s like saying, "Yes, brain. That was a good idea. I’ve written it down. I may not do this right now, but I could. Thank you, brain."

The brain will like the reward and will come up with new ideas.

By the way, the other two cards directly inspired by Rajagopal’s Substack post are: