Creativity is Selfish

Manifesto Part 6: Share as Much as You Can

Hi,

This is the sixth piece in a series of deep dives into the Everyone's Creative Manifesto. You can read the other parts by following the linked headings here.

Share as Much as You Can

Don't hoard ideas or resources. Make things other people can use.

Demystifying the Process, part 5 of the Everyone's Creative Manifesto is about embracing the idea that what you do isn't magic. It's about sharing how you work, so we can all benefit from realizing that creativity really is universal – that it's just something people do.

Hand-in-hand with Demystifying the Process is sharing. Sharing how you work is one thing you can share, but this is about more than that – it's about embracing sharing as a fundamental value in everything you do creatively. It's about creating for more that just yourself.

Creativity is Selfish

Nobody asked to be born. That means creating someone can't be for their benefit, so... it must be for you?

Building on that simple, fundamental truth, I'd argue that all creation is ultimately a self-indulgence. There isn't necessarily anything wrong with that, but acknowledging it means that all our further impulses toward self-indulgence in the things we make are compounding on the selfishness inherent to making things. Basically, making something is already kind of selfish, so why be extra selfish on top of that?

Creativity takes up resources. It uses energy or material, your attention and time. What we do with that material says something about how we value those resources. Now, I'm not saying you should do a cost-benefit analysis before you use up a scrap of paper to draw a picture for the love of your life. That would be a bit intense. Instead, I think we could all stand to embrace a more collectively oriented view of creativity – of who we create for – if we're going to choose to create at all. That's what sharing is all about.

One way we over-indulge our selfishness is in our refusal to show anyone our work. That's part of what Demystifying the Process is about – it's about taking the ideas, lessons, methods and techniques that contribute to your work and giving other people access to it. But what point is there in sharing your process if you're barely even sharing your work?

Bring it Home

Andy J. Pizza of the Creative Pep Talk podcast talks about this idea when he talks about art making being like the Hero's Journey – your creative hero's journey. The key part of the journey isn't just the adventure – it's the return home. When the hero goes out, has an adventure, overcomes adversity and ultimately claims their prize, they need to finish the cycle. They need to bring it home. Otherwise what was the journey for?

This is the main way creative people indulge their selfishness. It's a self-conscious indulgence that keeps us from completing the loop – we have to share what we make because making things needs to be about more that yourself. You use up resources to create things, so you have to give it back when you're done. You have to share it with the world.

Don't get me wrong, though, there's plenty of space for you to be selective about what you make and how you share it. This isn't a declaration that you should live-stream every second of your life and publish every thought that comes into your head. But too many of us (myself included) allow ourselves to hide away and protect our egos from scrutiny while we work on our little ideas, hoarding them for ourselves. The problem with this is that we don't exist in a vacuum. Your creativity doesn't just use physical resources – it uses creative ones, too.

The Cycle of Inspiration

A lot has been discussed since the rise of Generative AI on the difference between human "inspiration" and training machine learning algorithms. I'm acknowledging this now because I don't actually think it's relevant to what I'm discussing – this isn't about "intellectual property" or copyright law or even the underlying mechanics of cognition and inspiration. This is about energy. The energy you get when you see someone else make anything.

The cycle of inspiration in creativity is how any of us are motivated to make anything in the first place. We see great works of art – listen to music, watch a movie, read a book, whatever – and we know someone (or many someones) created that thing. Regardless of how we feel about the work, the fact of the creation means something to us. I can't be the only person who's seen a movie or read something and immediately wanted to go make something myself. That's what the cycle is about, and it only works if the work is shared with the world.

I can't tell you when the cycle started, but it needs people to participate in it or it will run out of momentum. Every artist, crafts-person, journalist, computer programmer, scientist – anyone – was motivated to create something because of something someone created before them. It can't happen on its own (or if it can, it's extremely rare). That means that when you see something someone created and that energy pours into you, you have the chance to move it forward into someone else. Your creativity comes from someone else, and it can move into another, too.

When we indulge in our selfish self-consciousness and hide those ideas away, we're disrupting that cycle. We're taking energy in but we aren't letting it back out. It just dissipates. It isn't being used for anything. That's why sharing is so important.

Sharing what you can.

I'm not saying you owe anyone anything. I am saying that your work has value beyond its own goals and purpose as a mere act of creation. Part of that is as a perpetuation of this creative energy, but maybe it's also as a more practical tool that can be used by someone else.

Software developers are great at this. The entire concept of open-source software embodies what I'm trying to express. Open-source software is transparent and, depending on the licensing, free to use. That doesn't just mean free to use as intended, either. It's free to be dismantled, taken apart, and repurposed for something else. What I love about this mentality is how honest it is – nobody can just create everything they need to finish a complicated project. But if someone shares something they made with you, maybe you'll be a bit closer to finishing an idea.

Visual artists are not always great at this. Especially because of the financial predicament most artists find themselves in – we've been scared into protecting every little idea we have just in case someone else might be able to make money off of it. This has caused us to hoard ideas, only sharing them once we've made sure to lock them down with watermarks and trademarks and copyright. This is understandable, but it's not ideal. You can't copyright the creative energy someone might get from your work, but if we can't use each other's work for anything else, then we'll always be stuck starting from scratch.

Share as Much as You Can means asking what you can provide to people. Maybe you've created a tool that others can use, or a shortcut that might save others time. Maybe you can compel others to make something just by sharing your work and the fact that you made something at all. Maybe you can create something specifically to give it away, and so then you don't need to worry about someone stealing it. All of this depends on you having enough to share, which means the burden of this idea rests on those of us who are stable, secure and likely already have enough for ourselves.

The energy you get from sharing.

The funny thing about this idea is that it defies logic a bit. If you share your breakfast with someone, then you'll have less breakfast. If you share your money with someone, you'll have less money. But if you share your creativity with someone, and they use it, you're more likely to end up with more creativity in return.

I experienced this very strongly when I taught. Sharing my methods, ideas, processes and the lessons I was taught in school was incredibly energizing. When I saw students using what I had shared with them – especially when it was just that energy, and I could tell they were enthusiastic about creating something because of what I had shared – I was energized in return. It's not something that's easy to describe, but it's powerful and I think it's one of the most important things we can do as creative people. It's why I'm writing this right now.

I hope you get some energy from this (from everything I do here) and use it to make something for yourself. But I also hope you share that thing – whatever it is and however you are able. I guarantee you'll get something out of it – even if it's just a bit more energy to create some more.

Have a wonderful day!

Love,
Simon 🐒