Pancake creativity

As I have mentioned before, I have never been particularly good at ”creativity on demand.”

Most of the time, my best ideas for writing come to me when I'm doing something completely different from writing.

The same holds true for art. I seldom just sit down with the intention of creating something; it happens accidentally, and spur-of-the-moment. Sadly, getting inspiration to do your work by not doing your work is not really a marketable skill!

Over the years, I've given this different names, most often I call it "pancake creativity" because many of my good ideas come to me while I'm standing in the kitchen cooking pancakes and just doing something relatively mindless like watching the pancake griddle.

I think the reason why doing menial tasks can be such a great trigger for creativity as the fact that they allow our minds to wander. We're doing something that doesn't really require a lot of brain power or actual presence, but we are keeping our hands busy so that gives us time to think about stuff.

In an "Inception-esque" sort of way, I sometimes find myself pondering the process of pondering, itself.

I found myself thinking about the task of keeping a blog going and some basic amount of interesting, after having already sent more than 2,600 posts out into the ethers. It's probably best not to ponder such things...

But let's get back to creativity: Does creativity actually do anyone any good, in this world of ours? I look around me and I see "creative types" mostly struggle endlessly, while those who just mechantically and robotically move through life, according to some pre-set structure, seem to fare suprisingly well.

Or maybe that's actually not all that surprising.

The world — that is, the post Industrial Revolution world as we know it — is essentially structured for those who do the same thing over and over, mindlessly following a pre-set course because the word is that "it's the right way to navigate life."

I remember pondering — when I was "fresh off the boat" from Europe and starting University in Texas — the seeming contradiction of how much value is placed on individuality here in the US, while at the same time also requiring a high level of conformity in order to not be pushed out into left field as some kind of "deviant."

"Conforming, in an individualistic way..."

Is that even a thing?

For 25 years, my blogs have been non-conforming in the sense that they are an endless muddle of personal observations mixed with practical stuff mixed with instructionals, mixed with other stuff.

I'm told that's not how you build a "successful" blog. I guess that part was never important enough for me to care... so I go forth with my sporadic creativity, and it will just have to do!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great remainder of your weekend!

Comments, feedback and other interaction is invited and welcomed! Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment — share your experiences — be part of the conversation! I do my best to answer comments, even if it sometimes takes a few days!

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Created at 2025.03.23 01:15 PDT
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