Would you rather be Die-Hard Creative or Down-To-Earth Practical?
Let me start off with an example:
Say you want to buy a latest gadget: say a Smartphone or a Laptop.
You imagine you can accomplish milestones if you have this gadget with you.
The creative juices in your mind makes you go through the long list of smartphones/laptops available for sale. You are attracted to their features and often give-away certain specifications for the sake of budget. Your mind tells you that this is the one for you.
But the truth is, your mind is just being creative over a new technology that will soon fade away with time - irrespective of the fact whether you use/don't use the gadget for the purpose that you bought it for.
eg:
1. Buying a laptop for learning animation, but never getting the time to do it, even after 2 years.
2. Buying a DSLR camera for learning photography, but not really using it after that.
(Other appropriate examples can also be suggested).
Same goes with any other materialistic object that you seek on earth for a comfortable lifestyle.
My question:
1. Would you rather be die-hard creative and go with what your mind tells you to do, or would you be more practical and go for what you 'need' rather than what you 'want'?
eg: A Macbook Pro is a waste of money if you don't use it to it's maximum specifications, before the next edition of Macbook Pros started coming out.
2. Is being practical (a.k.a 'less creative' in this contest) overrated in some cases atleast?
eg: Steve Ballmer was a bit off-league when the iPhone started it's production; so while iPhone made real progress for over 6 years, Microsoft was still stuck with other gadgets - and they lost by far in the race. But now that Microsoft has acquired Nokia, there could be a change!
3. Would you rather live your life no matter what, or just live to survive?
P.S.: Inspired by people who do things out of the ordinary
eg: Climb mountains, Break world records doing crazy stuff you'd never imagine doing, and basically those who just think outside the box.
Say you want to buy a latest gadget: say a Smartphone or a Laptop.
You imagine you can accomplish milestones if you have this gadget with you.
The creative juices in your mind makes you go through the long list of smartphones/laptops available for sale. You are attracted to their features and often give-away certain specifications for the sake of budget. Your mind tells you that this is the one for you.
But the truth is, your mind is just being creative over a new technology that will soon fade away with time - irrespective of the fact whether you use/don't use the gadget for the purpose that you bought it for.
eg:
1. Buying a laptop for learning animation, but never getting the time to do it, even after 2 years.
2. Buying a DSLR camera for learning photography, but not really using it after that.
(Other appropriate examples can also be suggested).
Same goes with any other materialistic object that you seek on earth for a comfortable lifestyle.
My question:
1. Would you rather be die-hard creative and go with what your mind tells you to do, or would you be more practical and go for what you 'need' rather than what you 'want'?
eg: A Macbook Pro is a waste of money if you don't use it to it's maximum specifications, before the next edition of Macbook Pros started coming out.
2. Is being practical (a.k.a 'less creative' in this contest) overrated in some cases atleast?
eg: Steve Ballmer was a bit off-league when the iPhone started it's production; so while iPhone made real progress for over 6 years, Microsoft was still stuck with other gadgets - and they lost by far in the race. But now that Microsoft has acquired Nokia, there could be a change!
3. Would you rather live your life no matter what, or just live to survive?
P.S.: Inspired by people who do things out of the ordinary
eg: Climb mountains, Break world records doing crazy stuff you'd never imagine doing, and basically those who just think outside the box.
Replies
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Kaustubh Katdare@#-Link-Snipped-# - first of all, I totally enjoy and love the debate topics you start! Hats off to you for coming up with great debate topics!
I've been through such situations and can perfectly related to whatever you wrote in your post. The thing that works the best is that you can't be an extremest all the times. Especially when choosing between a die hard creative or a down to earth practical person; the extremes will lead to undesirable situations or achievements.
In my opinion; it would be great if you are a die-hard creative in your thinking, and somewhat practical in your actions. Note that I wrote 'somewhat'; because one needs to understand clearly when to be practical and when not.
'Practical' could be interpreted differently by different people. I left my job to put CE on the right track when I had no other source of income. That decision would have been a totally non-practical one for others looking at me. However, in my mind, I was damn creative about implementing the ideas I had for the site; learning to move server, shifting platforms et al. Had I let my actions be perfectly 'practical', I'd have never quit. What I did was - figure out what worse could happen to me and prepared myself mentally for it. At the back of my mind, I knew that I'd find a job if things didn't work out. Money was never an issue and I kept my expenses very low.
The examples you've taken are interesting. I bought an iMac 27" as my primary workstation because I knew I'd use it 8+ hours a day for years to come. I can confidently say that I've made the most use of it and all the money invested in buying the machine has been paid off. I couldn't have asked for more from the machine. Same goes with trying to learn Guitar - it's not an easy thing to do; and its 100x easier to quit. If you think 'practically' - one must spend at least 2 years to be able to play Guitar and if you think creatively, those two years won't look like 'T-W-O Y-E-A-R-S". I think I've made my point.
"Living Life" is often equated with doing something extra-ordinary. I think that's not the point. Being able to do what you really enjoy doing and deriving sense of pride & achievement through it throughout your life is I think the basic idea. But the first step to all is, IMHO, knowing what you really love doing.
More later. 😉 -
Ramani AswathThe two need not be mutually exclusive. I avoid getting things. When I do get things I invariably read the IFU fully, even if it is a fry pan. Quite often I am involved in creating the IFU for products. That does require getting into the mind of users and what all foreseeable (or even unforseeable) misuse and hurt themselves or others.
One is generally practical about routine things like tying the shoelace. I prefer out of the ordinary in many other things where I alone am involved.
As Kaustubh says:Being able to do what you really enjoy doing
is the key. It greatly annoys others too, which is a bonus.
All in all, just be selfish.
You are reading an archived discussion.
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