The article is talking about deep creativity. Things that changed the world forever, that are still loved hundreds of years later.
No one will remember your two creative lines of code within a couple of months. Stop comparing yourself with real creative geniuses.
For me, observing the world, it's the: "aha!" moment. Simply realizing that this made some pieces fall together. When I discovered GAs in 1989, I had a jaw-dropping to the floor, hit-the-library-right-now for 120 sleepless-hours kind of moment. When I understood Moby Dick to be the American Bhagavad Gita, I had a similar moment.
But, for when I, myself, create - it's been very rare. Probably because I am not a creative genius. At best, I am a poly-something-or-other synthesist. Applying Claude Shannon to evolution was about my peak.
I could say that my moment of creativity came when I was borderline losing it - certainly unstable - maybe insane - probably not recognizably sad.
What is it like for you?
It's not about solving problems or finding more elegant solutions... It's about creating something almost from nowhere, as if it were magic.
And it has to be unrepeatable. Beethoven himself wouldn't be able to create the same piece twice. It's just that one-time miracle in a moment of inspiration that you'll always look back in awe...
> Be civil.
Despite potentially being correct, I think the downvotes are merited, and not coming from pointing out an instance of groupthink, but coming because the comment was not civil. (This was my personal reason for downvoting him.) The comment is worded to attack and deprecate those people it targets — this was not necessary in order to make the point about groupthink.
I knew it wasn't a very popular opinion, so I didn't want to invest a lot of time trying to make it sound nicer. I'm terribly uncivil by nature, unfortunately.
I'm really sorry, but I appreciate that at least one person was able to take something from it and share his empathy with me! (Thanks, reddytowns!)
Can you tell me what, exactly, was uncivil? I ask you, because you seem civil, and I'm hoping you won't criticize me for simply not seeing it. (fwiw - I'm a native speaker of the English language in the North American tradition, but I do get out of practice from time-to-time in my travels)