The psychologist Anders Ericsson is famous for studying so-called “expert performers.” From decades of research into how these masters of games, craft, music, athletics and so on, Ericsson hypothesizes that the secret to their success is deliberate practice. I’ve written about deliberate practice obliquely before, as it has much in common with flow. The basic idea is that when learning a new skill, you can pick up the basics pretty quickly, but if you want to really see improvement, you need to be a bit more intentional and systematic about how you practice. For example, if you are taking piano lessons, you would do well to commit to a regimen of rehearsal. The results will be vastly different if your practice involves repeating an exercise or a tune for a set amount of time without regard to how well you do it as compared to if your goal with practicing was to be able to play your piece at the correct speed, three times in a row without a mistake. Ericsson refers to the former method as naïve practice and the latter as deliberate practice.
Read moreI haven't been feeling creative much lately
I intended only to take a short break from blogging, sculpting, and playing the Feelings Collector, but it turns out I really needed the distance, so I took more of it. I found myself in a place where I was losing enthusiasm for most of my pursuits, which happens from time to time. I’m glad I noticed what was happening and acted on it.
But, it took a bit more effort to get back in the saddle than I had thought it would. Part of my lack of interest in spending my evenings fully engaged in one thing or another was that I began to exert myself more during the workday and it left me more drained than I had anticipated. Either way, I spent quite a few evenings careening from one thing to another, not able to focus for more than ten or fifteen minutes at a time. Naturally, after a week of such evenings, I began to panic. Eventually, I remembered that browsing Julia Cameron’s books helped me out in similar situations earlier in the year and set myself down to read.
Read more"You learn a lot with distance to anything"
I was thinking this week about what my goal is in writing these blog posts every week. There are at least three that come to mind, but perhaps more.
Read moreFeeling more creative, part 2: Life-systems for creativity
As I have sought to invite the feeling of creativity into my life this year, I have encountered a lot of advice on “how to be more creative.” In truth, I have been reading such advice for years now, typically in the search for enhanced “productivity,” which I as an overwhelmed graduate student saw as a panacea to all my ills. In fact, there is a great deal of overlap between creativity and productivity advice. There are good reasons for this, but they are a bit beyond the scope here.
Read moreFeeling more creative, part 1: The role of rest
I wrote recently about different models of the creative process and how remarkably similar they all are. One of the most important similarities among them is the importance of rest in the process. On the surface, it seems obvious: generating novelty, like many other activities, is easiest when well-rested. But at a deeper level, creative insights appear to be born from idleness.
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