i have thought a bunch about balancing creativity and structure in my life recently. i grew up in the bay area at a unique school in an environment that really valued creativity - i felt like everyone else around me was so much more creative than i was, and that creative people were really cool. silicon valley rewards innovation, which is powered by tech / creative breakthroughs. at the same time i always really liked optimization / execution / having good systems. i’ve been thinking about how to balance the two of these things.
to start, when i was sitting down to write this is i did exactly that. i wrote down some bullet points and then re-ordered them and turned them into topic sentences for paragraphs (this seems like a pretty common approach people take to writing essays). in this way, you have laid out a bit of structure, but there is enough room to let the more creative side of you fill in the details. i feel like this applies to not just writing essays but many other things you do in life - you start with a bit of structure, and then you let yourself think freely as you fill in the lines. this is pretty obvious i guess - without any structure your ideas seem abstract and not grounded, and without creativity, your project becomes uninspiring and unengaging
a lot of knowledge-worker jobs seem to value a combination of creativity / structure. companies seem to want people that can think outside of the box and come up with fresh ideas, but also be able to walk the talk and build them out. if you only are good at executing on other people’s ideas but not spearheading any interesting projects of your own, it seems like you’ll be valued as a resource, but not promoted as quickly as more creative colleagues. on the other hand, if you’re too abstract and all you do is come up with interesting ideas but you can’t turn them into reality, you’ll probably come across as lazy and idealistic. i’m thinking about my job right now which definitely values original ideas (venture is crowded so being able to come up with new projects / narratives is extremely important, but also most vc funds are fairly small and operating at capacity so it’s easy to come up with ideas but hard to execute on them)
some people that are good at both creativity / execution can somehow separate how they handle this in their work and personal lives. for example, you might have a very analytical / structured work environment, where you’re repeating processes that have already been defined, but then after work you come home and paint or work on starting a food brand with a friend. on the flip side, some people who have traditionally “creative” jobs oftentimes plan out their weekends and social lives with calendar invites and rigid routines that allow them to get into the headspace to be creative
there seems to be a narrative that you’re born one way or the other (creative / analytical) and stay that way. obviously everyone exists on a spectrum between these two poles, or has some mix of both. but we seem to idolize dreamers (artists, visionaries, etc) and problem-solvers (practical people who get things done) on either extreme end of the spectrum. and people that think of themselves as one way, build up that narrative in their head and cut themselves off from other possibilities (children who are told they’re artistic probably continue to tell themselves that story, whereas children who are told they’re smart / argumentative are probably more likely to give up on their artistic hobbies in favor of analytical ones)
certain environments can also pressure someone into feeling like they need to be either creative or analytical. for example your family might want for you to take a low-risk job, and often these bend towards execution-oriented roles (and less creative ones). or maybe you grew up in a community that really values generating things (writing, art, original ideas, etc) in which case you’re more likely to be rewarded for that, vs being really good at building out other people’s ideas
i think there can be creativity in anyone, even people that think they’re not. this might be a stretch but one thing i remember from life of pi is the concept that reasoning can only take you so far, until you need to take a leap of faith. even if you’re optimizing / structuring something, you have to take a leap of faith and make some critical decisions and i think there is a creative aspect to that. for example when you’re designing your morning routine, you’re still making choices, and there are many ways for creativity to slip into that process. i think historically i have thought of myself as more of an executor but am trying to embrace some creative instincts i have discovered recently as well