Hi All, long time haven’t post anything, now i’m back to do the analysis on 10 paradoxes of Mihaly. I’m gonna use English for this post.
These are 10 Paradoxes that was stated by Mihaly followed by my analysis:
1. Creative people have a great deal of physical energy, but they’re also often quiet and at rest.
In my opinion, it is true that some creative people have big physical energy such as some of them can work until 24 hours and even some only sleep about 4 hours a day since they always have something to do and think about. However, they are not always talkative to express their creativity to other people. Some very creative people that I know are usually quiet when they hear people talk about something even if my friend is the expert in it. They not always try to impress people. Moreover, I think there is negative side from this behavior since they could be more benefits they will have if they could also express their opinion on certain discussions.
2. Creative people tend to be smart yet naive at the same time.
I agree with this statement of Mihaly. I see that some creative people are naive. Some of them may think that they are the smartest and feel that they can do everything on their own and sometimes too theoretically in thinking. On the other hand, I see this as an opportunity for entrepreneurs like I am intending to be one. I think with good communication and management skills, I can organize creative people to work for my future company and collaborate them with other creative people.
3. Creative people combine playfulness and discipline, or responsibility and irresponsibility.
I see this as good behavior of creative people. I like creative people who are smart but always enjoy of what they do. There are people who are smart but spend too much effort or focus only on one context in life such as if they have assignment, they are too focus on it. It may be good but I think such people must also balanced their focus and efforts by doing playful activities with friends so they do look socially attractive yet smart.
4. Creative people alternate between imagination and fantasy, and a rooted sense of reality.
This is what interesting about creative people. They have big fantasy and imagination. Some of the good ones can even turn their imagination into reality. For example, people who work in Ideo who are very creative in doing their projects might give their ideas as free as they are willing. They never say “no” to an opinion but always save all the opinion. These ‘draft’ opinions are ones that then actually become success on the projects. Most of the drafts are also based on imagination but at the and could turn into real things.
5. Creative people trend to be both extroverted and introverted.
This is nearly the same as statement number 1. Some creative people are eager enough to express their knowledge and creativity. However, in some cases they can look introvert. This is usually caused by their way of thinking which usually strong. Creative people are usually think deeply about things before they finally express in the form of creativity and innovation in their life.
6. Creative people are humble and proud at the same time.
Creative people have their way in behave towards others. The good ones could be both humble and proud at the same time and this behavior usually make people attracted to them. They can be talkative while humble at communicating at the same time. They can talk about things, their specialty and creations but not too ‘speaking’ and heard as annoying by people around them.
7. Creative people, to an extent, escape rigid gender role stereotyping.
Creative people likes to think out of the box and sometimes they break the rules. In this case, gender role is not actually that rigid in their point of view. So, creative people can think differently about how gender role works and should work in their life.
8. Creative people are both rebellious and conservative.
Creative people like I’ve stated at the analysis above like to break the rules and sometimes act rebellious. However, they also coul be seen as conservative that some of them may not always that open to ideas which are really different to their principal in thinking. Creative people however, shoul be able to manage when they have to act rebellious and conservative based on certain condition.
9. Most creative people are very passionate about their work, yet they can be extremely objective about it as well.
Creative people loves what they do, this is one reason why some of them always enjoy working even they erase some of their relax time. However, some of them might have conservative way of thinking and become very objective in the way they see their work.
10. Creative people’s openness and sensitivity often exposes them to suffering and pain, yet also to a great deal of enjoyment.
Some good creative people are open enough to people’s ideas and opinion while others can’t. However, for those who are open enough, people’s opinion can bring pain to them such as when people see their creativity as annoying. However, with their openness they could take the opinion as a compliment so that they could still enjoy working whether it is to fix the objects which they’ve received complaints from people or to continue creating new objects.
That was my analysis for the 10 Paradoxes which quoted from Creativity: The Work and Lives of 91 Eminent People, by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, published by HarperCollins, 1996. See you all at my next posts ; )
