The second phase of creativity is critiquing.
It seems counter-intuitive, and possibly even contradictory, but there you have it. Although, perhaps to clarify the second phase of being creative involves being able to turn your inner critic on and off at will. Shutting it off is pretty much key to phase one, the coming up with ideas part. Knowing when to turn it back on is the hard part, and knowing where to aim it even harder. After having six or seven stupid ideas, it’s only natural to direct your inner critic at yourself.
Don’t.
And don’t let your kid do it either.
It’s one thing to attack a thought, another thing entirely to attack the thinker, but sadly there seems to be a tendency for people to do just that. I once had a friend (actually an ex-girlfriend if truth be told) who couldn’t make that distinction. Any time anyone (especially me) disagreed with her ideas, she interpreted that as a personal attack on herself. As you might expect, she seldom gave voice to any of her thoughts and spent a lot of time sulking. We didn’t go out very long. My point is: her inner critic had grown so powerful and undisciplined that she was unnecessarily self-critical and assumed everyone else viewed her with equal scrutiny. She was a prisoner of her own attitude.
On the other hand, I remember a guy from high school (and I think everybody knows someone like this at some point) who was full of ideas. All the time. He had no idea which ones were good and which were monstrously dangerous so he assumed they were all good. I heard he got arrested a few years ago, but that may just be a rumor.
But that’s it. The second phase of creativity is being selectively critical.
Tomorrow, the final phase.
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