How frustration can make us more creative | Tim Harford

Challenges and problems can derail your creative process ... or they can make you more creative than ever. In the surprising story behind the best-selling solo piano album of all time, Tim Harford may just convince you of the advantages of having to work with a little mess.

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[irjonesy]

"They could think outside the box because their box was full of holes." Great line.

[andyan]

in fewer words: "restrictions breed creativity"
i love TED talks on creativity. It is a subject I'm passionate about.
I've thrown disruption into my problems before, but I had not thought to make sure the disruption was severe enough.

[SonaliMankaSingh]

Hope this explains why I do well when I do things last minute.

[FlowEckurt]

Thank you for telling us about this wonderful moment that led to one of the best improvisation evenings.

As a big Jarrett fan I would like to add the following.
A "Bösendorfer Imperial", one of the best grand pianos, was planned for the concert and was also in the opera. But it was behind fire doors, so they couldn't find it.
Jarrett imitated the gong of the Cologne opera with the opening notes, so you can hear people laughing at the beginning of the recording.

[Paulagoulart]

As someone with adhd this is utterly beautiful. We are constantly trying to fit in with everybody else's definition of hapiness, success, performance and productivity. We can't and we definitely shouldn't. This TED Talk just made my day, thank you!

[DMTFLTV]

amazingly eerie that I should watch this on a morning of frustration,
considering that I'm obsessed with the ECM label and just downloaded a
Keith Jarrett album as the first album to christen the new computer (the
source of frustration). full circle synchronicity <3 great TED talk

[ewknees]

Well, it's pretty natural to go after a task that is within our own comfort zone. I think what reinforces that even more now is the fact that we cannot afford time (and the vapid educational system) in this ever-industrializing world. Everything is about efficiency, about how the most can be achieved within the shortest period of time. Precisely because we "cannot" afford the time - we experience no frustration since everything is running in accordance to your plan and therefore, there is no need to think of alternatives or be creative.

[marley]

"They could think outside the box because their box was full of holes"
I think that is officially one of my favorite quotes now

[eroliva]

"Como la frustración nos hace más creativos" es una excelente charla de Tim harford que nos ejemplifica porque no debemos evitar los obstaculos.

[lynne]

I absolutely love this Ted talk! Thank you Tim Harford. Embrace my lack of ability to filter, as a gift.... ♥ in my creative process. Stupid things that shouldn't work.... Welcome!

[alwaysuseless]

This advice applies to everyone, not just to sensitive musicians or people who can't filter out extraneous stimulus, or have some condition such as OCD ADD, ADHD, etc. And not only is it universally applicable; it's universally difficult to do, because it requires us to do things we don't want to do and see as unnecessary. Also, the speaker is not talking about the obstacles we may habitually create for ourselves, such as not paying attention, balking at what we need to do, being over- or under-prepared, or procrastination. The randomness & unnecessary obstacles work far better when they're not any that we'd be naturally inclined to include. We need to embrace what we're resisting, and initially we may not even know what that is. In the speaker's examples, the added difficulties were imposed by a stranger &/or circumstances not of the participants' choosing. So whom are we going to turn to or how are we going to find these challenging ingredients, when we know what we want and think the most efficient route is a straight line? Well, damn, if we want to be more creative, we first need to be creative about that. We can do that, though. It's not a catch-22. Calling it that is just an excuse to stay comfortable & less creative. So, I have a couple of projects I want to pursue, and I'm tingling with the unexpected question of how to make them messier. And I already feel more alive, because life feels more like an experiment. It always was, but I'm more in the game & no longer assume I know the rules. Thanks, Tim Harford & TED talks for this!

[acarcadia]

Truly love this concept of random messiness generating creative results. It's such a great way to think outside of the box, test your own capabilities and motivation to do some rather unusual collaborations.

[eliad]

As a person with ADHD, this explains quite a lot :D
Outside of creative processes I try to avoid mess because it frustrates me, and doesn't help. But in creative processes it still frustrates me, despite being helpful in its own weird way. It's a matter of what's more important: Enjoying the creative process or having a very good outcome.

[peterchin]

I'm just getting started of my journey in performing arts, and this is precisely the piece of advice I needed.

thanks, Tim 😃😃

[srinivasanraghunathan]

Contrary to the popular belief, in this talk, Tim Harford explains the how the 'disruptions' actually help us to make more creative. Citing various interesting psychological studies and real-life incidents, he gives us a riveting talk. Highly recommended.

[TomHamRomero]

It's not frustration, it's the fact that you're limited - if your palette is restricted, which can be an instrument, (condition of the instrument in this case) theme / motif - time, sound, colour of paint, type of medium etc etc, basically whatever, you become more creative.

[MrCMPUTR]

What I learned from this video: my code isn't a mess, it's just creative :D

[ambseyyy]

That was so helpful! I really needed that

[tristramgardner]

This was really interesting and enjoyable, thanks! These talks are useful, but they're like an art as well..

[fwd]

Very nice TED talk, something which is rare at TED these days. :)