Why comparison kills creativity
do you know the feeling
when you have a clear idea in your mind
maybe you’re creating an artwork maybe
you’re writing something
or working on a project you know
how it’s supposed to look like but when
you put it on paper
maybe you paint it or you build it or
you write it down
you look at it and it’s not satisfying
you might even say it’s a complete
failure
what makes it even worse is that
everyone
around you does better work
you look at your peers maybe look online
see all the people you admire from your
field
and they all do better
work and that does not feel good right
it might feel even frustrating
have you ever experienced something like
that well if you have
it might be because of something called
the gap
what does that mean we heard the concept
of the gap
from ira glass a radio host and producer
this is how we understand it
when we start learning a new skill we
get exposed to a lot of good work
our theoretical knowledge develops fast
we learn how to recognize what’s good
and what isn’t
but our skill our ability to do it
develops much slower than that
and during the time when our skill
doesn’t match our expectations
we are in a perception gap
not only can’t we do it but we are
painfully aware
that whatever we produce just isn’t good
enough
and this can be unreassuring even
extremely discouraging
gaspar and i were in such a gap for a
long time
we learned to sketch from our professor
at university
he created these beautiful sketches in a
blink of an eye
and we saw how they should look like
and then we tried it out and they looked
nothing like that
and we were so frustrated
so we went out and looked for quick
solutions
one was we bought the same pen the
professor had used
because if we’d had this one pen our
work would look amazing
right wrong you might have guessed it
wasn’t the pen that was making the
difference
and despite that we kept on going
for a long while until eventually after
years of practice we started hating our
sketches less and less
and with time became comfortable with
the sketches we produced
we closed the gap but once we did
we set new goals for ourselves we
decided to learn how to use color
so we watched online tutorials we read
the books and we learned about color
theory
you know blue and yellow produce green
violet and yellow look good together
things like that and then we tried it
out but the results
looked horrible to us what had happened
well you guessed it we slipped into
another gap
because once you close one gap
you set yourself with a new set of goals
and expectations
and you start another cycle and then the
third one
and the fourth one we call this the
progress
dna the progress dna
is a series of gaps as time passes
we move from one gap period into another
and all this time our skill is improving
is this raising of expectations towards
ourselves that propels us forward
and there will be short periods of bliss
but
most of the time it will be
uncomfortable
what makes things even worse is there’s
internet
and social media we follow the leaders
in the industry
and their profiles you probably also
follow a few
right we see the amazing work
they produce and might think to
ourselves
our work just can’t keep up with it
so it might even discourage you to that
point
where you just stop creating what you
love to do
that is why comparison is the death of
creativity
the more you compare yourself to others
the bigger the gap will get
don’t compare yourself to others but to
you
from yesterday why is that important
others will always be better at
something than you are
for example i’m good at sketching trees
but whenever i try to draw a portrait
most of the time i will fail
miserably so if i compare myself to a
portrait artist
i might feel i’m an awful artist and if
i do this often enough
i might get discouraged to a point that
i will quit
a much better idea is to think of what
you do and here comparison
can be used as a positive tool for
example
can you think of something that took you
a long time to learn
like a skill or a craft you have it
okay so can you remember
how good were you when you were starting
out
you probably realized you progressed
you’re doing
well and if you look back at your work
you will also notice the
areas you can still work on and you can
improve in
so go through old stuff you might even
find some forgotten gems there
and remember stop comparing yourself to
others
instead compare yourself to you from
yesterday
meanwhile if you want to start
practicing
feeling comfortable in the get periods
on the progress dna we suggest an
exercise
it will rekindle that fun creativity
that got you starting started what you
love to do
in the first place it’s a drawing
exercise we do quite a lot
and all you need is a pen and paper
you don’t have to be an artist and
actually you don’t even have to know how
to draw
are you up for it together we’ll create
a couple of doodle monsters
it’s great exercise to practice
your visual thinking and imagination and
it will also help us let go of our
expectation
and perfectionism get your pen and paper
we’ll draw free blocks or shapes
let’s start let the shape be
as random as possible
great don’t think about it
there’s no right or wrong way to do this
once you’ve done with the first one
let’s
do the second one
and maybe do it a bit differently this
time
let your hand flow freely
and let’s move to the third one
great you’ve made the first step
remember
it’s okay that it’s completely random
now
it’s time to turn on our imagination
let’s look at the first blop and imagine
it’s a small monster
let’s ask ourselves a few questions to
make it a bit more interesting
what kind of monster is it what kind of
character does it have
in what kind of mood is it right now
decide that
for your blob
this one is grampy i would say give it
two eyes
anywhere on the shape wherever it feels
right for your monster
a grumpy mouth
curving down
two legs
two horns
and a tail
congratulations you have created a small
monster
out of a random doodle this wasn’t too
hard right
let’s move to the next one how about
making this one happy let’s give it two
eyes
a happy smile
with the tongue sticking out
two legs
and two arms
remember keep it simple how do we feel
about the third one
let’s make it surprised
draw two big eyes
a round small mouth
maybe add some hair
and this time six legs
and we’re done
congratulations you just drawn some fun
and interesting
monsters be proud of yourself you can
put your pen down
rest and just listen and if you enjoyed
this exercise
you might also want to try doing some
smudge monsters
with coffee smudges or paint smudges at
home have fun with it
give your monsters names and you might
even want to invent backstories for them
this is a fun creativity exercise anyone
can do
no matter if you’re an artist or not it
rains
your imagination but most importantly
it makes you feel feel comfortable
in the gap do you still remember what we
said about the gap
it’s when you feel uncomfortable or even
frustrated because the results
don’t meet your expectations in this
exercise
you had to create something with
random doodles on paper you couldn’t
predict
the end result you were training
to feel comfortable while producing
unexpected monsters and for those of you
who want to keep improving and feeling
better
on the progress dna we have a challenge
would you be ready to give it a try you
already did the first step
with us by doing the doodle monsters
we call this the shitty art challenge
we did this with our students earlier
this year
what you do is you commit to doing bad
art or shitty art
every day for a certain amount of time
for a period of 30 days
now why intentionally create bad art
when you start creating something if you
do it with the intention
of turning out kind of shitty then this
completely removes the pressure of the
work having to be good
and this is fantastically liberating
and there’s more if you don’t care how
the work will turn
out then you give yourself the liberty
to experiment
maybe you want to experiment new
techniques new materials new ways of
thinking
you will break the boundaries you have
created for yourself
who are trying to create perfect work
so here are some examples we did during
our challenge
this is something i did
and here’s another example a horse with
a
bit of a strange leg you can see it from
the back here
and this is something sonia did
and these are some examples our students
did for the challenge
they’re all drawings here but they could
be anything they could be
shitty poems or photographs or paintings
whatever your creative field is we
committed to doing this every day
to create a habit because doing a little
bit of something every day
is much more effective than doing a lot
of something only once in a while
and by the end of the month sonia’s
challenge sheet
looked like this and
mine looked like this
i had to give myself five extra lives in
order to get through
we encourage you to try it out again you
don’t need to be an artist to do this
this exercise is great for anyone who
wants to
work on their perception gap it will
free you from comparing yourself to
anyone else because the
goal of shitty art is not to look good
or better
you can’t compare it and as we know
comparison is the depth of creativity
and you can already put the first cross
in your calendar
for doing the doodle monsters with us
today
so next time you’re mastering can you
skill remember it’s going to be a long
path
along the progress dna there will be
periods of gap
and periods of peace and each period
will pass and not to make the gap
periods too long
remember don’t compare yourself to
others
but to you from yesterday and if despite
that
a gap period might seem to take forever
keep the following in mind progress
comes
in form of jumps and plateaus
let me explain have you ever had the
feeling
that you’re improving too slowly and
maybe you’re not improving at all
well it might be that you’re just
standing on a progress plateau
and you’re missing the big picture your
next jump
might be around the corner so patience
is key here
bill gates once said most people
overestimate what they can do in a year
and underestimate what they can do in 10
years
so next time if you feel unsure of your
work
or frustrated remember you’re moving
through a progress dna
and if you do that you will become more
patient
you will be able to focus on yourself
and your work
instead of others and i bet you’ll be
more happy
and you will allow yourself to create
wondrous things
so keep on going compare yourself to you
from yesterday and you will stay
creative
thank you very much