The germ of an idea doesn't make the sculpture that stands up... so the next stage is hard work
Mihaly CsikszentmihalyiRead
Creative individuals tend to be smart, yet also naive at the same time... Creative individuals have a combination of playfulness and discipline, or responsibility and irresponsibility.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Creative individuals possess a blend of intelligence and innocence, balancing playfulness with responsibility.
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi highlights the dual nature of creative individuals, indicating that they are often intelligent but may lack experience or practicality. This combination allows them to approach problems with both playful exploration and disciplined effort, leading to innovative results while sometimes embracing a sense of naivety or irresponsibility.
Themes
CreativityIntelligencePlayfulnessDisciplineResponsibilityNaivety
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about innovation at a conference, you might say, 'As Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi pointed out, creative individuals blend intelligence with a level of naivety, allowing them to explore new ideas.'
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To live means to experience-through doing, feeling, thinking. Experience takes place in time, so time is the ultimate scarce resource we have. Over the years, the content of experience will determine the quality of life. Therefore one of the most essential decisions any of us can make is about how one's time is allocated or invested.
Mihaly CsikszentmihalyiRead
It is as if evolution has built a safety device in our nervous system that allows us to experience full happiness only when we are living at 100%-when we are fully using the physical and mental equipment we have been given.
Mihaly CsikszentmihalyiRead
Our jobs determine to a large extent what our lives are like. Is what you do for a living making you ill? Does it keep you from becoming a more fully realized person? Do you feel ashamed of what you have to do at work? All too often, the answer to such questions is yes. Yet it does not have to be like that. Work can be one of the most joyful, most fulfilling aspects of life. Whether it will be or not depends on the actions we collectively take.
Mihaly CsikszentmihalyiRead
Similar quotes
Creativity is a natural extension of our enthusiasm.
Earl NightingaleRead
Every really good creative person in advertising has always had two noticeable characteristics. First, there was no subject he could not easily get interested in...Second, he was an extensive browser in all sorts of fields of information. For it is with the advertising man as with the cow: no browsing, no milk.
James Webb YoungRead
Sometimes ideas are coming so fast that I have to stop doing one song to get another. But I don't forget the first one. If it works, it will always be there. It's like the truth: it will find you and lift you up. And if it ain't right, it will dissolve like sand on the beach.
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Creativity is the ability to identify self-imposed constraints, remove them, and explore the consequences of their removal.
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The creative individual is particularly gifted in seeing the gap between what is and what could be.
John W. GardnerRead
This is the extraordinary thing about creativity: If just you keep your mind resting against the subject in a friendly but persistent way, sooner or later you will get a reward from your unconscious.
John CleeseRead