The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.

-- Albert Einstein

Creativity is like energy. One can build it as potential creativity as well as exert it as kinetic creativity. And like energy, the sum of creativity in a system more or less remains the same. There's what goes in, what goes out, and you in between. If you take in more and put out more, the process will inevitably make you smarter and more imaginative proportional to your throughput.

Creativity must have a source of input. To be recognized as creative is to become a unique source of output.

We All Work Hard Damn It

The answer to creativity is not "to work harder". Someone who does the work of 100 years in 1 year didn't do it because they worked 100x harder. Anyone who believes this has drastically oversimplified the problem, and is at risk of seriously undermining what it really means to be creative. Not only that, but they could end up wasting a lot of effort. Creativity requires a source, not brute force. And the way to achieve 100x is by being 100x more resourceful, not forceful.

Your goal is not even 100 years of work. Rather, it is achieving that which only you could possibly achieve, then and there, when the stars align and your output peaks. Exceptional output is not a function of effort. It is an explosion. It is more about timing that in is about time. It is about overcoming the need to work harder and achieving an equilibrium between your past, present and future, with the past being what makes you special, the present being exceptionally productive, and the future being highly rewarding.

Working hard is a given, and it's easy if you're passionate about your work. We all work hard. The thought of some of us able to push the boundaries of effort is appealing because we've all hit that wall and imagined overcoming it. But sometimes we do and sometimes we don't. We're all more or less the same in this regard. The only way to gain a real advantage with effort is sacrifice, and by that I mean drastic sacrifice (moderate sacrifice is a given). Can you sacrifice your social life, your family, your health? Sacrifice can give anyone an edge, but you pay the price. For some feats I do not doubt it to be necessary. But out of all the creative minds we value and envy, sacrifice is by no means a common denominator. Happiness and creativity are not mutually exclusive, and sacrifice remains a choice. It makes for great drama, but not for a great life.

If creativity is not a function of extreme effort, then what? The following are 3 potential sources of creativity worth consideration:

1. Work ethic = habit + discipline + passion. The first two are acquired through focus and training. The last by character and your natural dispositions.
2. Strategy = education + design + approach. It's about how you value intelligence and experimentation. Intelligence stacks and ideas are progressive. How high can you make it and how far can you go? This requires rigorous strategy and a genuine appreciation of consequence by design.
3. Imagination = input - prejudice. Our imagination expands proportionally to what we are focused on and for how long (input), minus what we throw away.

And here are 3 tentative laws of creative energy:

1. What has potential has kinetic potential.
2. With added energy, if nothing kinetic releases, potential increases.
3. Potential creativity will eventually exert itself.

Generally, when we possess potential creativity, we can feel it. We feel an itch and a sense of urgency to make something happen, and to make our imagination a reality. So look at where that energy is coming from and where it is going. Observe and absorb. If you are making mistakes, they need to be making you smarter. If you are succeeding, those successes need to stack towards something greater. These are all elements of strategy.

Most importantly, to be creative is to become recognized as a unique source. That is why no two creative geniuses are alike. Pick a path, any path. Pursue it far enough, and you will eventually be alone. That part is not that difficult. The real challenge is to make others give a damn. Here are three ways of achieving just that:

1. Make people emotional: If your creations move people, they will leave a lasting impression, and you will get noticed.
2. Make something useful: If your creations solve problems, increase our capabilities, are cited in papers, or is genuinely something useful, they will be valuable and you will get noticed.
3. Be successful: There are many scenarios in which success is predefined. If you are in entertainment, there are critics, awards, ratings, etc. If you are in sports, you just have to win. In business, you just have to make money. If your creations make you successful, you will get noticed. But even better is to make others successful.

Hone Your Imagination

With the exception of accidents, everything we create we imagine first.

There's what goes in, what goes out, and you in between. And what you have is the gift of an imagination. No one has a crippled imagination. Direct it towards fiction and it will grow in any direction. You still require a source. However, you possess the uncanny ability to fuel your imagination by applying your own energy. Your creativity will increase with what you put in.

Some tips:

1. Accept everything. Never reject or discriminate. Tolerance and indecision are the essence of an open mind. Don't judge thoughts or observations, especially your own. With every judgement, possibilities collapse, and your imagination will shrink. Intolerance is intentional blindness. Allow everything its rightful place. If your cup is full, the cup will grow.
2. Be obsessive. Feed your mind with what you are passionate about. Pursue your aspirations. Dream big and dream often. Like a gold fish grows to fit its tank, your imagination will grow to fit your dreams.
3. Think beyond words. Words are low bandwidth. See in photographs and motion pictures. Practice seeing and feeling the entire experience. Think in memories, but of the future. Try to remember what it could be like. Words will always follow. But can you experience it first?

We are all equipped with an extremely powerful and potent imagination. It is an integral part of our reproduction and survival. Even the least imaginative of us has no problem imagining an object of desire naked, or envisioning a life with them with children, or obsessing to the point where it feels like it already happened (even if we're just peeping from a window).

Imagination is also what breaths life into reality. We render everything with our minds. We fill in gaps. We experience our intuitions. Our senses build our experiences, and our imagination lets us see the possible futures that may stem from them.

Ultimately our imagination expands proportionally to what we are focused on and for how long.

Imagination = Focus x Time x Knowledge / Intolerance

where:

• Focus is focus on a specific subject.
• Time is time focused with your eyes closed.
• Knowledge is what you know and should continue to feed.
• Intolerance is what you exclude from the picture.

Never admit to being unimaginative. It's just an excuse to not be creative, and we hear it all the time. All anyone needs is more time alone with their thoughts. An unimaginative person is someone afraid of being alone or who just can't stop talking.

--

BONUS
More quotes from Einstein:

• If at first, the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it.
• We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.
• The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.
• Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.
• The important thing is to not stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.
• The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education.
• Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life's coming attractions.
• I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.
• Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.
• The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.
• The mere formulation of a problem is far more essential than its solution, which may be merely a matter of mathematical or experimental skills. To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle requires creative imagination and marks real advances in science.
• Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex... It takes a touch of genius - and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction.
  
• All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree.
• A man should look for what is, and not for what he thinks should be.
• A question that sometimes drives me hazy: am I or are the others crazy?