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.'
More from Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
All quotes →It is not the skills we actually have that determine how we feel but the ones we think we have.
Mihaly CsikszentmihalyiRead
To know oneself is the first step toward making flow a part of one's entire life. But just as there is no free lunch in the material economy, nothing comes free in the psychic one. If one is not willing to invest psychic energy in the internal reality of consciousness, and instead squanders it in chasing external rewards, one loses mastery of one's life, and ends up becoming a puppet of circumstances.
Mihaly CsikszentmihalyiRead
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
The only way to maximize group creativity—to make the whole more than the sum of its parts—is to encourage a candid discussion of mistakes. In part, this is because the acceptance of error reduces cost. When you believe your flaws will be quickly corrected by the group, you're less worried about perfecting your contribution, which leads to a more candid conversation. We can only get it right when we talk about what we got wrong.
Jonah LehrerRead
Whatever the creative industry, when you're confronted with the challenge of coming up with a Big Idea, always work with the most talented, innovative mind available. Hopefully... that's you.
George LoisRead
Ideas are cheap. Always be passionate about ideas and communicating those ideas and discoveries to others in the things you make.
Charles EamesRead
There are two ways of being creative. One can sing and dance. Or one can create an environment in which singers and dancers flourish.
Warren G. BennisRead
I guess my comfort zone as a writer is diametrically opposed to my comfort zone as a human being.
Jennifer EganRead
After so many years, I've learned that being creative is a full-time job with its own daily patterns. That's why writers, for example, like to establish routines for themselves.
Twyla TharpRead