Thinking creatively

March 26th, 2024 (7 months ago) • 2 minutes

Creative people think differently. I believe you can differentiate them by the way they think and converse. They are people who have a strong preference in their opinions and are not afraid to express them.

I came to think about how to train yourself to think creatively, or at least to think differently. In my mind, it's down to two things: curiosity for the world and taste.

You have to be inherently curious about everything around you. No matter what context or subject it is in, you have this insatiable hunger to know more. Otherwise, you just can't sleep. When I get an idea, I usually dig and research a bunch about it, trying to connect it with other things I know so that I can get a bigger picture. To be curious is to be open to new ideas and perspectives.

You also have to have taste. This is subjective to each person, so you can't really learn it. You know when you have taste when you start to have a preference: why this color over another, preferred typography, music genre, etc. Equipped with this sense, you can then start to create things that are unique to you. This act of creation helps to put your thoughts into reality and to share it with others. It helps to cultivate your taste and to refine it.