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OT: Creative mess

TaozTaoz Posts: 9,972
edited September 2013 in The Commons

"These results have been confirmed by independent researchers at Northwestern University, who found that subjects in a messy room drew more creative pictures and were quicker to solve a challenging brainteaser puzzle than subjects in a tidy room."

Makes you wonder if messy runtimes also boosts creativity?

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/15/opinion/sunday/its-not-mess-its-creativity.html?src=me&ref=general

Post edited by Taoz on

Comments

  • scorpioscorpio Posts: 8,471
    edited December 1969

    So I'm not just untidy, but creative and can't really help it?:lol:

  • FirstBastionFirstBastion Posts: 7,830
    edited December 1969

    clutter brain is a powerful motivator for creativity.

  • LeatherGryphonLeatherGryphon Posts: 11,649
    edited December 1969

    It's probably a valid observation.

    I'm an engineer, not an artist. However, I do delight in playing my own creations on the piano rather than parroting someone else's music. It's unbelievable joy when I get lost in the music and "wake" to find much time has passed.

    But I don't make my living being artistically creative, but rather scientifically precise. Which may explain why I am obsessively neat. Everything must be in it's place and oriented correctly. I'm not as bad as "Mr. Monk". although items on my bathroom sink (toothbrush, toothpaste, razor, nail brush, Q-tip box, hand lotion, mouthwash) when I leave, must be dry, lined up in the same order, parallel, evenly spaced, and symmetrically oriented. 8-o

    My desk items are like my toilet items. Always in the same place, arranged logically and efficiently. There MUST be sufficient clean desktop areas to lay out books.

    I spend countless hours organizing and backing up my computer files.

    My kitchen items are always in the same place, even in the drawers. I keep four pots on my stove burners. My pots on the stove always have the handles oriented in the same direction when clean and in a different direction when dirty.

    I keep my bed made.

    My neatness however, doesn't extend to dusting or vacuuming. I vacuum the rugs once a year whether they need it or not. But the numerous small oriental rugs around the apartment MUST be square with the wall and each other and the fringe should be not crumpled excessively. Unfortunately they creep about a quarter inch every time I walk across them so I get my exercise bending down two or three times a day straightening them.

    I live alone so all this is possible. Heaven help a guest who puts an item back into the wrong place!

  • SockrateaseSockratease Posts: 813
    edited December 1969

    I'm an incredibly disorderly person.

    I have Cows cluttering every room of the house and just general junk everywhere. Not garbage or food trash, just toys, Cows, comic books, Cows, electronics components, Cows, Looney Tunes DVDs, Cows, Cat Toys, Cows, and Cows.

    I was once told that being a slob and making it difficult to even walk down the hallway without watching your step is the best defense against burglars there is. They don't want to have to untangle wires if they're stealing your TV or Computer, and they absolutely don't want to have to tread carefully on their way out! They want to be able to just grab your stuff and get out fast. My environment is just not conducive to that.

  • LeatherGryphonLeatherGryphon Posts: 11,649
    edited December 1969

    I once was given a tour of the headquarters building of a famous government think-tank. One of the stops on the tour was a peek into the office of one of the most prominent scientists of the organization. It was piled literally (in the strict sense of the word) to the ceiling with papers, magazines, boxes & pieces of electrical equipment. All arranged in chronological order by time of last access with oldest stuff being on the bottom. There was hardly room to enter the room and the chair was just barely visible amongst the clutter.

  • Dino GrampsDino Gramps Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    My poor fourth grade teacher was rendered speechless over the condition of my desk. She was trying to make a point that having an organized desk was one of the prerequisites of having an organized mind, hence doing better in school. Well, my grades were among the best in her class, and as she past my desk, she could not believe the mess. The lecture ended rather abruptly at that point as my desk was pointed out to her by myself and others.

    She was my favorite teacher of all my elementary school days. Encouraging and creative herself, she was influential in my desire to chose teaching as a profession, although it turned out to be in music, which I could not have predicted at the time.

    I always did well in school, except for half of the fifth grade, but always was creative. I guess the creative side of me was the dominant determiner of my organizational system for my desks and lockers. I always dreaded the last day of school, having to clean up the mess that my desk or locker had become over the year.

  • JohnDelaquioxJohnDelaquiox Posts: 1,195
    edited December 1969

    My brain is is a creative mess. And I have OCD.

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