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Do debates affect your creativity negatively

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Do Debates affect your creativity negatively?
Yes 26%  26%  [ 5 ]
No 74%  74%  [ 14 ]
Total votes : 19

Adamantium
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30 Jul 2015, 8:49 am

ToughDiamond wrote:
Interesting. Stress and anger don't seem to harm my creativity. I was often pretty wound up during the most creative phase of my life so far, but the musical ideas still poured out of me. In fact I've heard that creativity is diminished by too much comfort. And debate is such a theoretical thing for me that any tension it gives me is much easier to handle and more transient than real-life altercations, which can feel a lot more dangerous because they often have serious consequences.

The only time I've noticed anything like it is when I'm trying to argue my case in real life about something important to me - I can then suddenly lose my powers of expression if I get too scared. I've always put that down to adrenaline etc. switching my mind and body over to primitive fight-or-flight mode when what I really need is intellect mode. I always thought the reason for that is that our bodies haven't evolved to cope with the modern world.


Being "wound up" is natural when you are passionately engaged in anything and I don't think you can be very creative without passionate engagement. But that's a very different thing than experiencing anger directed at you or fear for your safety, which is what I was thinking of.

I would not be spurred to creativity by a confrontation with neo-nazis in crowd of their supporters, for instance--and your speculation about adrenaline and other stress responses seems likely correct.

A good debate, in contrast, is a stimulating thing.



kraftiekortie
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30 Jul 2015, 8:51 am

A debate about the nature of Art could, most definitely, cause your creative side to be evoked.



Jacoby
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30 Jul 2015, 8:55 am

I would say no, debate brings better understanding of other people and their perspectives. I think it makes you more creative if anything.



Adamantium
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30 Jul 2015, 8:56 am

kraftiekortie wrote:
Some good stuff does emanate from homeless people.

The problems with it being publicized

1. Organization--sometimes, the creativity needs to be honed. There's lots of substance, yet no rhyme or reason at least some of the time.

2. Distribution.


Another problem is execution. It's hard to compose a symphony with no access to piano.

I don't make any claim that homeless people can't be creative, but rather observe that the vast majority of creative people with significant bodies of work live in relative comfort. They tend to be people who have secured their primary needs for food, shelter from the elements and some degree of physical safety. I think this falsifies the notion that "comfort is the enemy of creativity"--except for certain values of comfort that presuppose a fairly comfortable existence.



kraftiekortie
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30 Jul 2015, 8:58 am

Yep...Maslow's "Hierarchy of Needs" definitely has an impact.



Raleigh
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30 Jul 2015, 9:01 am

Ok. Don't explain.


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kraftiekortie
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30 Jul 2015, 9:03 am

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, basically, states, that one must have food and shelter before one could fulfill a need, such as "friendship," which is located on a "higher rung" of the "needs pyramid"-



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30 Jul 2015, 9:04 am

ToughDiamond wrote:
the_phoenix wrote:
Comfort is the enemy of creativity.
...

I've heard it both ways.


Or, as the young poet Tonio Kröger says in Thomas Mann's eponymous novella: 'Good work comes out under pressure of a bad life'.



kraftiekortie
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30 Jul 2015, 9:08 am

That's definitely true for people like Balzac and Dostoyevsky, to name only two!



Adamantium
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30 Jul 2015, 9:28 am

Hyperborean wrote:
ToughDiamond wrote:
the_phoenix wrote:
Comfort is the enemy of creativity.
...

I've heard it both ways.


Or, as the young poet Tonio Kröger says in Thomas Mann's eponymous novella: 'Good work comes out under pressure of a bad life'.


That's Thomas Mann, of the Hanseatic Mann Family. Here's the family crest:
Image
Thomas Mann who worked for an insurance company and married the wealthy daughter of an industrialist family...
Deets here (check out the nice pic of the summer house!): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Mann

Thomas Mann talking about the bad life is like Karl Marx talking about the proletariat: theory from a comfortable remove.



kraftiekortie
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30 Jul 2015, 9:33 am

Then you have the people who speak about creativity/philosophy when they are in the midst of what they advocate.

One example: Juvenal.

He lived amidst the Romans. He satirized the Romans, based upon his associations. He wasn't "removed" from them in some "ivory tower."

There are many more and better examples.



Adamantium
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30 Jul 2015, 9:37 am

kraftiekortie wrote:
People are just people, Birdie.

You know what you're about. People will always have opinions--it's just the nature of the Beast.

The thing to do is beat people with your charm. :wink:

This has inspired me to ask the above question.


I missed whatever thread and conversation sparked this one.... can you explain the idea behind the question?
What kind of debates did you have in mind?



kraftiekortie
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30 Jul 2015, 9:40 am

In another thread, Birdie took exception to something someone said. She felt disgusted by people criticizing her. She felt weary of WP because of this. Then I started thinking: Acrimonious debates can cause weariness, which cuts into creative inceptive. Then I conceived this poll.



Adamantium
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30 Jul 2015, 9:45 am

kraftiekortie wrote:
Then you have the people who speak about creativity/philosophy when they are in the midst of what they advocate.

One example: Juvenal.

He lived amidst the Romans. He satirized the Romans, based upon his associations. He wasn't "removed" from them in some "ivory tower."

There are many more and better examples.


I don't know much about Juvenal, but I think he was doing ok in terms of Maslow's hierarchy. Wikipedia tells me his daddy was rich (was his momma good lookin'?) and since he practiced rhetoric and was familiar with the roman courts, it seems probable he was one of those blessed children who has "got his own."

kraftiekortie wrote:
In another thread, Birdie took exception to something someone said. She felt disgusted by people criticizing her. She felt weary of WP because of this. Then I started thinking: Acrimonious debates can cause weariness, which cuts into creative inceptive. Then I conceived this poll.

I think the acrimony is toxic to creativity. Debate is fine.
Anger felt internally can fuel creativity--but being blasted with the anger of others stifles it, I think.



kraftiekortie
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30 Jul 2015, 10:49 am

True about Juvenal. I was speaking about him as having practical knowledge, rather than knowledge derived from reading books In a bedroom detached from the "real world."



ToughDiamond
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30 Jul 2015, 11:55 am

Raleigh wrote:
I'm confused. What do debates have to do with creativity? Please explain.

I too don't see any obvious mechanism by which debates would affect creativity negatively, apart from when coming off worst in a debate caused depression.