“Creativity,” I was told, “is knowing what to do when the rules run out.”
When the canvas is blank; when the engine fails; when the prompt returns void—creativity is the force that beckons you forward, putting a flashlight in one hand and a compass in the other.
But creativity is not just for when the rules run out. Creativity is greater than the rules, and it is just as liable to undo some as it is to make more of them. In all the world, there is nothing more dangerous to rules than creativity, just as there is nothing more disruptive to the status quo than imagination.
The concept of creativity is intimidating to some, as it conjures images of flinging paint, smithing words, or fiddling on an instrument. In other words, it is often associated with the arts, which is something that “non-creatives” feel vulnerable discussing. These people tend to talk about their lack of creativity in hushed and defeated tones, as though they were in a confessional vouchsafing some horrible, besetting sin or debilitating deficiency in their nature. This should not be.
Their low-grade sense of guilt is equal only to the rush of life which occurs when they are put in proximity to something generative. This is the first clue that these people are not as imaginatively bankrupt as they believe themselves to be. In my experience, creativity is like a strong wine—people respond considerably to even the tiniest taste.
It’s not the quality of a creative act that people necessarily respond to—it is the freedom that is represented in the act. The bendings of our culture lean so heavily toward criticism, consumption, and conformity that even the smallest hint of the alternative constitutes a mini-revolution. People who slant away from the well-worn paths tend to inspire others without even being conscious of it. When someone begins doing what they want—as opposed to just doing what they’re told—it gives courage for others to do the same.
For this reason, individuals who benefit from the status quo are often, but not always, against imagination. They are so invested in the maintenance and preservation of the way things are that they aim to discredit anything that might provoke an awareness of the alternatives. Every dominant power, be it in a market or culture, has a natural incentive to suppress innovations that might disrupt their incumbency. Unless kept sufficiently distracted, a rogue daydreamer might disrupt a monopoly’s entire five year plan or interrupt a political strongman’s play for power.
In business, this is closely related to what is known as the Innovator’s Dilemma: the phenomena where, in order to compete with a new competitor, an historically dominant firm is forced to cannibalize its own business. The Innovator’s Dilemma is why startups can gain advantages over even the largest and most successful companies—because the bigger you are, the more you have to lose, and the more difficult it becomes to adapt to change.
When you’re a fledgling company (or a starving artist), you have the latitude to make pivots with minimal risk, whereas the large companies are too complex to even know what is at stake. Hungry operators know that someone else’s cash cow always makes for the tastiest cheeseburger, and startups that can leverage their creative freedom to transform the playing field are the ones that get to feast.
Yet, truthfully, there are principles here that extend beyond the reaches of firms and markets. Innovation, revolution, rebellion—all are a little necessary, and all are a little more related than the capitalists, socialists, and anarchists might like to admit. They are all fundamentally expressions of creativity—the product of dreamers who don’t wait for the rules to run out, but who take a deliberate effort to think, and act, as though there are no rules. Not waiting for permission to be free, but choosing again and again “to defiantly insist on acting as if one is already free.”
Indeed, this is the very essence of agency, and this dispatch is a reminder that if you’re waiting for permission, you’ll be waiting forever.
So, as much as is up to you— don’t wait.
Delete the social media.
Pick up old hobbies.
Learn news skills.
Talk to strangers.
Reach out to old friends.
Take more vacation.
Start the 501c3.
Exit the group chat.
Buy fewer things.
Wear what makes you feel sexy.
Quit the job.
Pitch your proposal.
Attend the march.
Be loud about what’s right.
Have an unquenchable, indomitable thirst for life.
And don’t do it yourself, take others along. Let the way you live be an inspiration to the people who really know you. Be courageous. Be creative. Be rebellious. You don’t need permission—and you never will.
Feathers For The Footnotes (Bonus Links)
About the Author
Bradley Andrews is a hopeful rabble-rouser on a mission to inspire the world. Stay in touch with what he’s doing outside of Mercury’s Playbook by subscribing to a weekly digest of his activity through micro.blog. This will send you writing, photos, and other curiosities that extend beyond the scope of this newsletter.