We all have creative urges. To remake the world in large ways and small. To dream and bring forth those dreams into a more lasting reality than ephemeral thought. To be a maker, a shaper, an artist.

    We all have these urges, but the world resists our shapings. The translation of thought to matter (or electrons) is not so easy, as every material and format has its own requirements, its own costs. The body begrudges creative work, as each such effort detracts from living resources, from time spent on physical needs or desires. The mind itself, though the source of creative need, may also be the main barrier to fulfilling that need.

    It is this last that I hope to explore further here. To find some detailing of the boundaries, or limits, of human creative effort. And perhaps to add a few words about how we might push back those boundaries; how we might do so and what it might cost.

    The first of these is, I think, distraction. Compared to the strict limitations of the body, the avenues of the mind are the next thing to limitless. Whereas the body is limited by time, space, and muscle control, the mind is only limited in facility of thought by the measure of its own complexity—by the convolutions or lack thereof of its imaginative faculty.

    But the very breadth of imaginative potential quite often leads to distracted efforts, especially when other creative limitations are considered. It remains easier to flit from one thought to another than to seize upon a single thought long enough to render it more real and to create it forth in the world. Even for those who do not find this to be the case, imaginative efforts are quite often stymied by distraction by the many other calls upon the mind, such as the needs of the body, the demands of other people, requirements of society, and so forth.

    I will name the second limit that of energy. Thought itself is difficult to accomplish and expensive in energy terms. Higher thought, such as creative effort requires, even more so. The mental structures required for complex thought can only be developed at the cost of much time and effort spent over an extended period of time. The bodily configurations necessary to furnish large steady amounts of energy and other resources to the brain carry their own burdens of time and energy.

    So there is a significant energy cost for creativity, especially when one considers needs over time to develop a refined creative ability, in any field of endeavor. This limit touches upon lifestyle limitations such as available food and what time and energy can be spared from other work, but also less straightforward matters like metabolic efficiency and even genetic inheritance. Which is not to say that any person is barred from creative work because of lineage, but rather that genetic heritage can play a significant part in body and brain energy efficiency and other energy limit matters. Then too the choices of an individual over the course of a lifetime can play an even larger part in such matters.

    Choices do, but also experience, which I will identify as a third creative limit. We may speak of experience as a store of wealth that an individual can amass, and indeed in creative work this is very much the case. The collected memory of an individual amounts to the building blocks of the imagination; more and more varied experiences become the treasure of memory and thus the inspiration of imagination. Imagination of course being a necessary mental tool for creative work.

    Though pushing back this limit is not so simple as gaining more experience. Thought spent dwelling upon limited experience may yield greater creative fruit than cursory reflection upon more varied experiences. Experience may be gained in different ways: spending a month living in the desert may offer unique understanding, but spending the same amount of time reading about deserts (or philosophy) will offer more in the way of collected human knowledge. We must also consider the relative value of a given type or amount of experience toward particular creative efforts. It is possible to reach beyond personal experience to an extent, but far more difficult than to remain within those bounds. Many creative works do extend past any possible human experience, which is all to the good, but they also generally rely upon facets of human experience for much support.

    Insights and intuitions, though much more random than knowledge or experience and not as easily explained, are another way that creative efforts are able to extend beyond certain knowledge. Quite often much of the value of a creative work stems from some insight of the creator or from an intuitive understanding that other people may lack—that is rare. This rarity shows a clear limit in creative work; the sharing of such special understandings makes a work significant, makes it valuable, but in turn this makes lack of such a barrier to creative efforts.

    So the artist, the creator, may require insight or intuition or both, but such things are not fully understood and nurturing such ability is not a straightforward matter. Attempting to do so seems to almost require a detachment from the practical matters of living, from much human endeavor that does not rely upon creative inspiration. Regardless, it is costly in some way or another.

    More straightforward, but perhaps even more costly, is the development of skill (fifth and final of the boundaries explored here) in a given area of creative endeavor. Steady skill can only be acquired with practice, yet every creative effort, practice or not, requires utilization of insight and experience and energy and all the effort necessary to push back the limits detailed above. Thus it is often the case that creative efforts are refined and somewhat redone throughout the lifetime of the creator; the expenses of pushing back these limits are budgeted over several works or even all of them.

    The skilled practitioner of an art has benefited from the experience furnished by previous efforts, though each such effort has come at cost. That which a given creator can spare to meet such costs, in time and energy and life, will always be limited and so too will the level of skill which may be acquired.

    This post has already run too long for the patience of many, I think, so I will not attempt a detailed exploration of pushing back the boundaries of creativity. Just a few stray thoughts that may be useful for the reader. Then again, time spent in thought upon the limits outlined above will bring solutions and answers unto the careful mind.

    Distractions are pulls upon the mind from without and within and may be limited by eliminating the source or by incorporating or otherwise reducing the urge. If one is reasonable about how one goes about this it can even be accomplished in a socially acceptable manner. The creative need not search out a cave or an island or an empty desert. I suggest also that the best approach is not to attempt to reduce all distraction away, but instead to develop an ordered framework of thought through will and self-discipline such that the mind may embrace all of the sensorium of the world while able to focus by choice upon a given matter of thought. It is easier to seek out quiet and peace, but more fruitful over time to develop the capacities of the conscious mind.

    Energy limitations are very complex, but can be simplified somewhat. Attempt to keep the body healthy and well nourished. Do not be wasteful of physical or mental resources. Avoid addictions and substance abuse as possible. I have noted that caffeine in particular tends to narrow the scope of the imagination (thus reducing overall creative potential) even as it seems to lend speed to thought. Most importantly, encourage the mind to be more efficient in utilizing the resources available to it. Over time this can be a very significant factor—the young in particular tend to stimulate creativity by turning up the energy tap (often with some chemical or behavioral aid), but such practices are wasteful and self-limiting in various ways.

    In regards to experience I wish to stress that dwelling upon the experiences one has already may be more valuable than seeking out new ones. In depth exploration of memory requires patience and will and is often neglected, but will amplify the value not only of previous experience but also all experiences thereafter. One should also note that experience and the memory that it becomes are scaled according to the capacity of perception of the beholder. Effort spent developing one's perceptions, one's ability to perceive the now, will pay many creative dividends.

    There is no easy path to insight or to intuition. Both can be gained from gaining understanding, of others, of the world, of the self. From time spent dwelling upon thought and memory. Thus the path is not easy, but it is nearly certain, for we all of us have access to these things.

    In a practical sense, skill (or skills) can only be acquired by those who have or have obtained the necessary mental and physical equipment and are willing and able to pay the costs. In short, creative skill requires sacrifice. Requires choosing the effort and expense to gain skill over all of the other things that one could be doing.

    Actually, creativity itself requires sacrifice. In the ways detailed above, yes, but also in a deeper sense. For the reasons given here and many more, the act of creation is a sacrifice of the self in order to make something new. Something that did not exist before. And so perhaps the ultimate boundary of creativity is that it should be something that is worth the sacrifices required to make it. It may be that this boundary can never be defined, but it is real nonetheless. It can be searched out by reason, tempered of course by our hopes for better things.

    -Joseph Jones, 09 March 2021
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