a note:
This was going to be a whole research paper at first, with all these theories and papers and whatnot. But then I had an insight: I have no idea what I’m talking about, and I am nowhere near qualified to talk about this with any sort of scientific nuance.
So I changed the structure of this whole thing. All I can really provide are my own experiences and thoughts.
I find this topic really interesting, and I’m not completely done with it.
Are creative people more disorganized? And conversely, are less creative people more organized?
This is a question that I’ve been wondering for a long time, and after hearing this quote by Einstein,
If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk a sign?
I felt a bit sheepish. I don’t want to say the world’s most famous genius was wrong, but… c’mon, man. Really?
(I honestly don’t have a reliable source on if Einstein actually said this, but the point still stands. It’s a view that a lot of people have and one that I think needs to change)
dirtiness vs messiness
Okayyyy, Einstein didn’t say “organization” anywhere in this quote. And that’s super important: definitions make or break this discussion, so let’s define what I mean by organization:
Organization is structure. It’s order. It’s “everything in its place.” It’s “this is my references folder, and this is my working files folder.”
So what did Einstein mean by cluttered? Because I’m sure he didn’t mean grime and dust and ants crawling around. That’s dirty. That’s not facilitating any creativity, that’s facilitating a very bad lifestyle. It also probably smells really bad. Cluttered relates to organization—a cluttered workspace is disorganized. Disorganization is when things don’t have an apparent place, like when there are stacks of paper lying loosely on a desk.
Just because something is disorganized, it doesn’t mean that it’s dirty. And vice versa. What I mean by “messiness” is not dirtiness or uncleanliness. It’s untidiness, the lack of apparent structure or order. The lack of neatness. That’s what I’m talking about.
Alright, I hope I didn’t confuse you further…
So, are creative people neat?
the thing about organization
Now, I’ll be honest here, I’m not one for super clean, minimal, neat setups. I get their aesthetic, but minimalism can quickly become soulless and corporate, and the question becomes “what will look nice?” instead of “what will improve this setup/my life.” The simplicity can quickly dissolve into simplemindedness.
(I’m using minimalism as an example here… I don’t hate it.)
But there’s an interesting tidbit here: I would say that I’m a pretty organized person. So why do I, as an apparently organized person, not like an organized aesthetic?
Well, that’s because that’s exactly what it is: an aesthetic. It’s subjective and doesn’t have a monolithic source. There isn’t “The Structure” when it comes to organizing your desk setup. You can have structure in many different ways. And this is what people miss about it. All these different structures and workflows have different advantages and disadvantages.
traditional structure
It may seem that creative people lack structure. But that’s impossible since a complete lack of structure would mean that nothing would get done, ever. However, it’s a different type of structure. A lack of a traditional structure, if you will. One that better helps the synthesis of new ideas.
Instead of papers being organized into files, they’re organized into piles. While one may seem traditionally more “disorganized” at first, they’re actually both equally organized. They’re both in structures. It seems like it comes down to the fact that creative people don’t like to be constrained by these traditional structures. They come up with new ones—they experiment.
If you are classically “disorganized” but know where everything is—you’re not actually disorganized. You’re just organized in a different structure. Creativity is about making connections, and whatever helps facilitate that is good, and is part of the process. People say that in clean and organized environments, they’re constrained and can’t think creatively. Honestly, this is just a matter of personal preference, as for a lot of people and artists, messiness inhibits creativity by a large margin.
As I said, creativity is LINKING different ideas. There are multiple ways to do that. You can get ideas from a messy desk, but you can also get ideas through meticulously organized reference folders. It works either way.
a quick note about perfectionism
I think it’s important to mention perfectionism, as I think has a link to organization. Perfectionism is to chase the impossible structure of reality, to sort it to your own understanding. To create The Structure.
There may be something about perfectionism and organization—people who are perfectionists want things to be perfectly organized. But it’s not linked to creativity. It’s linked to anxiety.
conclusion
I think that creative people who tend to be organized should try to live without that traditional structure, at least for a little bit, and see what happens. And the other way around, too. Even if it turns out it doesn’t work, it’s worth a try.
Here’s a great example: I wrote this article in a very traditionally disorganized manner. When I did research, I would throw it all into a bullet point list and then move on. Ironically, that has lead me to do a LOT of research and end up with a lot of information and insights that are overwhelming to process.
But hey, I learned that this process that I came up with (dumping everything on a single, bullet-point list) doesn’t work. And it’s made me more authentic when writing this. I don’t know if I will use it next time, or ever, but it was good to experiment with.
There’s a lecture by Betty S. Flowers, Director of the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library, called “Madman, Architect, Carpenter, Judge: Roles and the Writing Process.” There are a lot of great things to take away from it, and is definetely worth a read. My insight after reading it was this, which is my own simplified version of the lecture:
There should be at least two sides to a creative person: One who has childlike wonder and the power of experimentation, and the other who curates the mess that the child leaves behind. The Child and the Curator.
It’s a nice example, mostly because of the alliteration.