Creative Rebellion Essays: the polymath’s dilemma

The term Renaissance is derived from French renaissance, from re- ‘back, again’ and naissance ‘birth’ (from Latin nascentia, from nasci ‘be born’). The Renaissance is, of course, the period of transition in Europe from the Middle Ages (5th to 15th centuries) to Modernity. The Age of Reason and Enlightenment ran from about the 17th and 18th centuries. What these periods had in common was a movement away from a controlled information society in which one did not question authority or religious doctrine towards a period of inquiry and thinking.

Creativity, Communication, Books, ArtJohn CouchAugust 7, 2020polymath, Design Thinking

Creative Rebellion Essays: The Exquisite Utility of the Useless

We often spend our days, and our lives, focused on “adult” issues that have been deemed by society to be proper engagements. There’s an underlying calculus to what we do: we work because we need money (obviously); we spend quality time with our families (well, we should); we work out to keep our bodies in shape (again, we should); we attend to the spiritual ceremonies that help us deal with the big questions. All these efforts have some kind of outcome that is quantifiable and we feel good about them. Very utilitarian. And all this is fine and good and we should be providers for ourselves and our loved ones. We should be strong community-focused, citizens who provide value, monetarily as well as in civil society.

Creative Rebellion, Creativity, Books, ArtJohn CouchMay 14, 2020creative rebellion, uselessness, rock and roll

Creative Rebellion Essays: Focus and Reading

Our focus is fragmented. Our naked attention is destroyed by bite-sized piranhas of dopamine-producing social media and cortisol inducing news alerts. When we relax, we rarely just sit and do nothing (or meditate). We are looking for another distraction. Usually, that means a TV show or movie. But we can get our story fix through another medium, one in which our focus is sharpened: reading books.

Creativity, Books, ContemplationJohn CouchApril 29, 2020focus, reading, Books

Creative Rebellion Essays: Who are you?

We can’t control how we are born: our gender, our race, the country of our birth. However, we are highly influenced by societal and family influences as we grow up. Our creation myths are provided to us – this is your religion, this is your nationality, this is your sexuality, this is how we think about things because, well, it’s “always been that way.” Any supposed aberration from the established rules is considered a threat, which is why homophobia, xenophobia, racism, misogyny tend to flourish in closed environments. Different = bad. It’s probably a biological survival leftover from our ancestors, wherein conformity to the tribe and its needs superseded the needs of the individual. A nonconformist could, in fact, be a threat to the health of the group. Any kind of questioning of the status quo was dangerous. Rebels were dangerous.

Creative Rebellion Essays: Actively. Doing. Nothing.

During these times, I often hear from friends and associates that they are either bored or feel like they have to write the great American novel or develop the next great startup idea given that Airbnb, Pinterest, Uber, Square, et al arose out of the ashes of the great recession of 2008. Oh, and Sir Isaac Newton spent his bubonic plague time working from home on things like inventing calculus, analyzing color, light and the spectrum as well as studying gravity which led to his creation of the laws of motion.

Creative Rebellion Essays: Dealing with uncertainty

Coronavirus, political strife, wild swings in the stock market, and climate change (fires in Australia still rage and the west coast of the US will deal with it again soon). Compound all of these issues with a barrage of media hammering us from our smartphones as well as misinformation from the right and left and it’s no wonder that the world is more stressed than ever. Add to this the daily challenges of taking care of family, financial and work stresses, health issues, just getting to and from work, it’s no wonder that the world suffers from anxiety and depression. Therapy and prescription medications can provide some help. Alcohol and drugs only provide temporary relief and exacerbate the underlying issues. Religion and philosophy can provide a framework for handling the great unknowns (why are we here and what happens when we die) but ultimately the amygdala (two almond-shaped clusters deep in the brain) which is responsible for processing emotional responses works far faster than the logical frontal lobes.

Communication, BooksJohn CouchMarch 8, 2020zen, writing, coronavirus, uncertainty

Creative Rebellion Essays: Putting yourself out there

In my experience, designers, artists, and writers tend to be an introverted lot who prefer to work behind the scenes. Of course, there are always the exceptions to the rule: Yayoi Kusama is as recognizable as her incredible body of work, Takashi Murakami looks like a character from one of his own artworks and the colorful and sartorially elegant Karim Rashid is as visually recognizable as his astonishing furniture designs.

But, in general, most of my creative friends prefer to just make things rather than promote them. But without promoting your work, it has about as much chance of making it as blindly posting an audio file to SoundCloud and just hoping someone stumbles into it. Of course, you could get lucky like 14-year old Billie Eilish was when she uploaded “Ocean Eyes” to SoundCloud one night in 2016 and woke up to find it had gone viral. But this is the exception, not the rule.

Communication, Creative Rebellion, BooksJohn CouchMarch 1, 2020public speaking, introversion, courage

Creative Rebellion Essays: Dealing with Grief

It’s been a week since a helicopter went down in Calabasas, taking the lives of 9 passengers, along with Kobe Bryant and his daughter, Gianna. The world felt this one, as Kobe was one of those mythical figures, like Prince or John Lennon, whose contributions and excellence in their respective fields meant so much to so many. And when shooting stars die young, we feel the additional loss of their unfulfilled and unexpressed potential; there was so much they were going to do to make this world a more beautiful and wondrous place.

Design Thinking, Books, GoalsJohn CouchFebruary 2, 2020grief, extraordinary

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