Do debates affect your creativity negatively

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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.

This has inspired me to ask the above question.

At times it does. At other times, they actually inspire me.

Interesting question. Wonder what inspired it?

Like you, I get both sorts of reaction, which makes me wonder why there are only two reply options, in 'Manichean' fashion.

And again, questions of what constitutes a 'Debate' can arise.....

Debates usually stimulate my brain into crystallising out what my take on the subject is. If people are arguing in a way that doesn't make much sense to me, or seem mostly opposed to my opinions, I can feel a little dismayed and frustrated, but I don't think that has much impact on my creativity.

Who or what is Birdie?

Birdie is a nice member here.

^ Agreed.

You should have had another option for "It Depends."

Because it does. The "debate" I've been having with my cousin on facebook hasn't hampered my creativity, but it has affected me rather negatively. Any time my words are twisted to mean something that goes against my beliefs and I'm accused of being a hate monger gets me horribly depressed, but I find that my creativity loves depression. I can come up with all sorts of crazy things.

But then there are some debates that eat away at my mind and I can think of nothing else and I have no drive to do my art... No drive to daydream even. That's when I know it's gotten bad.

Aggression and stress negatively affect my creativity.

Angry diatribes and exhortations to violence in the guise of debate can negatively affect my mood and creativity.

Real debate usually either isn't interesting or inspires to some degree.

If the topic is something I don't care about, then I just tune it out, but if it is something I am at all interested in, I enjoy the exposure to the thinking of others.

A completely open, free, and playful exploration of ideas and emotions is the state that most supports my creativity. Debates and thinking in that spirit are like rocket fuel for my creativity.

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.

Comfort is the enemy of creativity.

When I'm writing in an RPG sim and people don't seem to accept me, it helps me write epic posts. I've just been made a moderator on a Star Trek role-playing forum by one of the forum's founders, as a matter of fact. Will this make me popular there? No. But it's an acknowledgement of my writing ability.

If somebody criticizes a piece of my artwork ... that's the piece I submit to the art gallery.
Because if it got someone's attention to the point where they felt the need to comment on it,
good or bad ... the important thing is
it got someone's attention.

So bring on the debate!

...

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.

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