Posts Tagged ‘social activist’

Bono and Elon Musk on Creativity

Friday, January 17th, 2014

The day after Christmas, I told the story of the two Kents, each with a different process for writing novels or stories. Last week, Fareed Zakaria interviewed two talented individuals carved on two sides of the coin of creativity.

Bono and Elon Musk experience creativity as differently as the two Kents experience writing. You are familiar with Bono, the musician and social activist. Musk is the creator of the Tesla electric car and Space X. The questions at hand: “How are you creative? What does it mean to you? How does your creativity work?”

For Bono, creativity is that magical, flaming flash of creation surfacing from the well of God. Lyrics may appear full blown in the early morning, in the night. Musk, on the other hand, sees creativity as hard work–pushing until the brain hurts. Two men, two sets of experiences. Both with bountiful creativity.

I’ve heard people say: “I’m not creative because it doesn’t come easy, in flashes. I have to work too hard.” Yet, clearly, there isn’t a “right” way to write, to think, or to create. How does creativity happen for you?

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