My creativity experiment

Every day during my spring semester I headed to The Den at 5:30am. If anyone asked, it was my office. But in reality it was a 10x10 storage unit I had rented out. Inside was a desk, a chair, and a small heater.

I wanted to explore what creativity was without any preconceived notions about it. For that I needed a quiet, consistent, and safe place to focus.

I didn't want any expectations as to how my hours would be spent each day. My only rule was that I couldn't distract myself. For example, sitting in silence and allowing my mind to wander was fine, but I couldn't watch YouTube or scroll through Instagram. Often I'd make music, write, program, draw, or use any creative medium that seemed interesting. I never had any plans or projects I had to finish. All I wanted to do was to put in my 3 hours of creativty and see what happens.

I feel like I learned a lot about myself, even though that is hard to quantify. Working with so many different mediums also taught me that all creative work feels the same day to day. Before I thought I could never be a musician because it wouldn't be intellectually stimulating enough compared to engineering. I was dead wrong. The grind of making music day to day is just as difficult and exciting.

However, the long term significance a project holds is different. Think about building rockets or making the next hit video game. The long term fulfillment of these two things will vary a lot between people - they carry different amounts of significance based on the person. But the day to day grind will feel very similar. Each will have similarly compelling problems to overcome on a short enough timescale.

This is important because we can get lost in the grind of someone else's mission. Day to day we might be stimulated and intrigued but over the long term we aren't pursuing what would bring us more fulfillment and satisfaction.

What could you contribute to the world over a 10 year period?