The purpose of creativity

it's time to break out your old sketch pad.

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Meet Captain Christophe.

Captain Christophe adores the sea. He spends his days sailing the open waters in search of treasure.

He’s always the first to get the newest, fanciest gadgets to measure wind speed, enhance his navigation, and slice through stormy waves like butter.

When his friends gather, they often talk about how prepared and ambitious he is.

In his spare time, he devours every book he can get his hands on. He reads about boats, and knots, and sailing, and even the thrilling tales of explorers past.

He is a scholar of the sea.

But he doesn’t do all this studying just for the fun of it, no. There is a greater purpose. Captain Christophe is searching for a mighty treasure!

So he decided the best way to do that, was to study from the past, to acquire the best navigation tools, and practice his sailing each and every day.

Now say hi to Jennifer!

Jennifer is an amateur scuba diver.

She’s loved the water ever since she was a kid, but more importantly, she loves diving.

Jennifer is not a master by any means—she actually only started diving a few months ago—and just like Captain Christophe, she’s looking for treasure.

However, she takes a bit of an unconventional approach.

Jennifer is foolhardy, and does only the minimum amount of preparation to get her head under water.

Her friends often whisper about her behind her back. Saying things like “She’s not a Master Diver yet” and “She really shouldn’t be looking for treasure at all”. Maybe if she spent a few more years in scuba school, her quest for treasure would make more sense to them. 

Jennifer doesn’t know much about the sea in the conventional sense, but she knows one thing for sure—treasure is found beneath the waves.

So she dives a lot.

Most of the time, she finds little coins. Many times she finds nothing at all. But every once and a while, she stumbles upon something truly unique.

Captain Christophe on the other hand, spends his days tortuously traversing mile upon mile of open sea.

He knows that one day—after he’s memorized all of his books, and upgraded his ship to its fullest potential—he’ll find the treasure he’s looking for.

But with each passing day, Captain Christophe turns up empty handed.

The months wear on.

Captain Christophe has traveled to far away lands, and yet, there are no riches in sight.

Years pass, and still nothing.

Captain Christophe decides that the problem is obviously his ship. It’s too slow. If he could just sail faster, then he would surely find his treasure.

So he decides to invest in himself and his equipment. It’s time to take this quest seriously!

And boy, does he.

Captain Christophe’s ship is now faster than the winds!

Nowhere is too far. No destination, too remote. He’ll take this quest to the end of the Earth if he has to, and this new ship is just what he needed to do so!

Meanwhile, curious Jennifer is at it again. 

As a beginner, her first few dives were shallow, only a few feet under the surface. But with practice, Jennifer has built the confidence to go deeper and deeper into the belly of the sea.

Now—after years of exploration—Jennifer hit the mother lode. She finds a true, life-changing treasure.

She never went back to dive school to become a Master Diver, but no one questions her anymore. Her treasure speaks for itself.

Unfortunately for Captain Christophe, the years of scouring the sea at full speed have taken their toll. His boat is destroyed.

He searched everywhere and never found a single fleck of treasure.

Had he only looked below the surface of the waves, and he might have noticed what he’d been looking for all along. 

The Pursuit of Insight

I spent the first 30 years of my life thinking that I wanted to be Captain Christophe. A venerated member of the academic elite. A proverbial “wise man”.

I thought that if I could just study difficult material, use rare vocabulary words, master the best tools, and read the most popular books, I would find my own treasure.

But the reality is, I just got better—and faster—at skimming the surface. I inhabited the world of facts, when instead I was searching for the treasures of insights.

The thing about insights are, it doesn’t take much to find them.

Often times, they’re just inches under the surface. But in order to get there, you have to dive. You have to be willing to go to a place that is uncomfortable, unsafe, and unconventional.

You have to journey below the surface of information consumption, and plunge beneath the curated facts you’ve studied your whole life. Diving below—with the aim of retrieving an insight—is a bold act. A rare act. It’s the act of clarifying your own thoughts.

Doing this is much more unsettling than studying the tidy ideas of your favorite author.

Seeking facts is comfortably reading 1,000 books.

Seeking insights is arduously writing 1 paragraph.

When I was young I resolved that—in order to become wise—I would read 50 books each year. How I arrived at that number is anyone's guess, but I decided on 50.

I continued doing this for 6 years. By honing my ability to devour information quickly, I had become an information glutton.

But here’s the problem. Of the 300+ books I scarfed down, how many do I remember? Maybe 15.

Now curiously enough, in the past 11 months, I’ve written 26 articles. And I can say with confidence, I remember damn near every one. Each essay was a synthesis of years of ideas, articles, books, conversations, podcasts, and phone calls.

Each essay was an insight.

My own personal treasure.

A treasure that required me to dive into the depths of my mind to retrieve. Writing was the tool that helped me penetrate the surface. It let me break through the barrier between facts and insights.

How to dive for insights

Between the comfortable facts of daily life, and the deeper insights that give life meaning, is a thin barrier. One we must pass through any time we seek to derive significance from our knowledge. 

This frothy top of the sea is called Creativity. 

Creativity is what grants us passage, from the surface world of trivia and facts, to the depths of insight. It’s what deepens our connection to all other forms of knowledge—including our own experiences, and relationships with other people.

But all too often we let Captain Christophe stifle creative action. We get caught up in the specifics. The tools and the preparation. We focus too much on the boat, and not enough about getting our heads under water.

This manifests when we ask ourselves questions like:

Should I go back to school and get a Master’s degree?

Am I qualified enough to talk about this topic?

Maybe I should watch one more tutorial?

Mastery of tools, processes, and knowledge give us the illusion of progress. They delude us into thinking that we’re preparing for the depths—but really, we’re delaying the one single act that will get us under water.

Creation. 

What’s stopping you from reaching new insights

Tools, more often than not, act as a buffer between us and the water. They buoy us just above the surface, and prevent us from ever dipping our toes into creativity.

The accumulation of knowledge is an effortful distraction. Too often we perceive this effort, and are fooled into believing we’re actually making progress towards insight.

Yet despite this—we’re no closer than when we first set out.

If you fancy yourself a treasure hunter, and are seeking deeper meaning from the world around you, then it is imperative for you to get underwater.

Zero preparation is often times the best option.

But I’m not creative

Your act of creation will be unique to you. It can be something as small as making a cross-stitch or painting a picture, to something as complex as writing a book or starting a business. 

These are all creative acts, and will all grant you passageway to the treasures that lurk just below the surface.

It will be tempting to study everything there is to know about your field. To learn more about productivity tools, and the knowledge of those who came before you. But proceed with caution. 

Your goal isn’t to have the fastest ship, or cover the most ground. But rather, to become comfortable underwater. To unabashedly dive for insights–even when everyone else is telling you that you’re not ready or qualified. 

Putting something, anything, into the world is better than sitting idly by and studying it. 

Remember, knowledge without insight is a sterile existence. One full of haste, but devoid of meaning. Everything is just another fact to be consumed. 

The opposite is far more rewarding. Insight without knowledge is the bliss of childlike discovery. A life full of creation and observation. 

A life full of treasure.

—Zac

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