The Industrial Model of Productivity is...over

CreativeRx: Why boredom is our superpower in a world of AI slop, the poem I can't stop thinking about, a formula for creative breakthroughs

CreativeRx is your dose of creative thinking in an exhausting world. Every week, I share observations on how creativity, play, and wonder interact with the world - think of it as a peek into my brain as a Creative Health Scientist.

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WE’RE ENTERING A NEW ERA: BOREDOM IS A FEATURE, NOT A BUG 👾

I know this isn’t an original thought, but lately I’ve been craving a 90’s life.

I don’t mean in a Carolyn Bessette Kennedy way (though yes, I am watching Love Story). I mean in a I-still-pick-up-physical-magazines-from-my-corner-bodega-and-actually-have-space-to-read-them way.

It started when I left my phone at home last weekend for what I thought was a quick, spontaneous swim at the beach, and ended up becoming an entire day affair. As the afternoon rolled in, the conversation died down and Dupi took a nap, so I was left with nothing to do.

No phone to scroll. No articles to read. I didn’t even have a book in my bag.

I found myself staring off into the distance daydreaming, feeling annoyed at first. Then, I started watching the clouds. And soon, I was imagining stories about the world and people around me.

As a Creative Health Scientist, observing this process was - fascinating - to say the least. I witnessed my creativity come online in only the way I’ve read about it in hundreds of peer-reviewed studies.

But honestly? In a “busy,” distracted life, I never fully gave myself the room to do myself.

At first, it was filled with friction. Frustration. Resistance. And then, with an abundance of time and little to distract me: The wonder, spontaneity and beauty started to take shape.

That is exactly what I mean: I’m craving boredom. And frankly, I don’t think we’ve left it in the past - I actually know it’s a major component of our future.

It may or may not be a coincidence that the first Field Note I wrote this past week was about the science behind creative breakthroughs - and what an integral role our brain’s Default Mode Network has in it.

Our capacity to mind-wander, daydream, make meaning about the inputs around us is not some unproductive bug in our brain’s operating system. It’s actually the entire point.

As we talked about in depth, starting in the mid-2000s research paper after research paper began to demonstrate the pivotal role that mind-wandering has on our Creative Health.

What they found? It’s actually the secret to unlocking creative insights. It’s what facilitates our creative process. And even more than that - it’s what restores our attention, inspiration and cognition.

Boredom - and subsequently, mind-wandering - is so important to our Creative Health, researchers have even dubbed it “The Shower Effect” (because yes, our best ideas really do come in the shower).

But, instead of seeing boredom as a skill to be protected, harnessed and amplified - we’ve squashed it.

In my view, that’s largely because we’ve spent the last ~200 years living in what I call The Industrial Model of Productivity: where everything laddered up to the amount of outputs you could create. In the old era, we needed to execute, optimize and repeat. We had limits on our physical creations.

But now? Like we explored in the Field Guide - our creative outputs are quite limitless. Limitless on the borderline of slop: With the click of a button, we can write code, edit a paper or “conduct a photoshoot.”

What will matter in our next era is the quality of our creative ideas. The quality of our creative brain. How restored, open and alive we are. How well we can harness the cyclicality of our own creative process.

So in my view, mind-wandering, boredom and daydreaming soon won’t be seen as unproductive. And, I promise I will fight to make sure they don’t become luxuries either.

Instead, I imagine we’ll begin to all appreciate it for what it is: Our natural, beautiful creative architecture “hard” at work. And by being here in this community, you’re already on the leading edge of embracing it.

From my brain to yours,

Katina, Creative Health Scientist & Daydreamers’ Co-founder + Chief Science Officer

Tell me what you think: Did this resonate? Comment below or hit reply - I read every response 🫶🏽

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1. The poem I’ve been daydreaming about: I never considered myself a poetry person, but I find myself returning to Song of the Open Road by Walt Whitman more times than I could count. I read it again this weekend (post-daydream at the beach) and I think it defrosted my creative brain. To me, it represents the freedom, flexibility and beauty of the creative journey - one that requires time and space. My favorite lines:

   “…I inhale great draughts of space,

   The east and the west are mine, and the north and the south are mine.

   I am larger, better than I thought,

   I did not know I held so much goodness.

   All seems beautiful to me…”

2. The opposite of mind-wandering - AI Brain Fry: Another paper in HBR just kind of proved that in our new era of unlimited creative outputs, we're not working less - we're working more intensely. More multi-tasking, fewer boundaries, higher demands = complete brain fry. From my POV, sticking with the Industrial Model in our new era isn't just old; it's actively harming us - here’s my take on it.

3. “No one cares about opera” - Or do they Timothée?: Tell me why I’ve been enjoying the many memes, articles and takes on Timothée Chalamet’s interview where he said the opera and ballet were things “no one cares about anymore.” As a Creative Health Scientist, I couldn’t disagree more. In fact, I think restoring our commitment to these institutions (that some see as boring + lame) are exactly how we protect and prioritize our well-being in this new era. Your thoughts?

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READ THE LATEST FIELD GUIDE 🌾

The Science Behind Creative Breakthroughs: Why your creative ideas don't come from "hard work" - and how to generate them on command

This Thursday, I published our first official Field Guide on the science behind creative breakthroughs. I have to say, it was one of the most relieving, rebellious and freeing pieces to write - because it flips nearly everything we know about productivity, creativity and achievement on its head.

The synopsis: Over the past decade, research papers have been demonstrating there’s real science behind how we generate “aha!” moments - and it’s not as mystical or magical as we’ve been taught. In fact, there’s a clear, codified process that any of us can follow. In this Field Guide we explore the latest research, the brain functions we need to activate and specific practices to start implementing in daily life to make creative breakthroughs a regular (not magical) thing.

An interesting idea from it for you to noodle on: The Brain Blink 🧠 A 2013 paper looked at exactly what happens in our brain when we come up with a creative idea. Our brain literally shuts off our visual cortex - blocking out the world - right before it happens. Makes the case for protecting our daydreaming breaks, right?

What’s ahead: I’ve been fascinated with the idea of originality, how we form opinions in an oversaturated world and what cognitive flexibility (i.e. our creative brain’s Salience Network) has to do with it. If you’re overwhelmed, lost or feel like the world is just too loud these days - you’re in the right place.