Why optimization culture is dead
CreativeRx: Embracing spontaneity is the gateway to play, creative fulfillment and ultimately, the future.
CreativeRx is your dose of creative thinking - no matter if you’re an artist or not. Every week Creative Health Scientist, Katina Bajaj, shares how to incorporate our most essential survival skills - play, wonder and critical thinking - into everyday life.
WE DON’T NEED MORE HACKS - WE NEED MORE CREATIVE FREEDOM
Last week, I saw a video (while I was scrolling, of course) that stopped me in my tracks. It was a repeat of many I’ve actively avoided for months - but for some reason I got roped into this one.
The creator was talking about how, in this new era, he and his team needed to not just 10x - but 100x their productivity. In fact, they needed to actively fire themselves every single day…by creating AI agents to do their jobs.
Writing this out loud seems laughable - but listen, I grew up in 2010 hustle culture. I know hyper-optimization when I see it.
This flavor though seems different. It feels like we’re not only proactively signing up to become machines - but we’re training them to live in our place.
I’ll disclose: For those of you who don’t know, I live in San Francisco and have my own startup called Daydreamers. I’ve been around AI culture for years. So to me, as a Creative Health Scientist, this situation is a small mirror of the larger paradigm shift I think we’re living through.
But, I think we’ve finally lost the plot: We’re currently in a race to the bottom of optimizing for endless efficiency, Because scientifically, the real basis for originality, aliveness and even success isn’t found in more optimization.
It’s actually found in the opposite: Spontaneity.
And, as readers of this newsletter (+ by proxy, people who are deeply curious about their Creative Health) - you already know that the folks who will be succeeding in this new era won’t be 100x more productive.
They will be flexible, curious and able to harness their creative brain’s natural improvisation architecture. Here’s what I mean.
To take a quick step back: Last week, I wrote a Field Guide (my version of a scientific Deep Dive) on one of the most fundamental building blocks of adult play, and ultimately, our Creative Health: The neuroscience of spontaneity.
In it, we went really deep into one of my favorite scientific studies ever - Charles Limb’s 2007 paper on the neural correlates of improvisation.
I chose it, because I think it makes an incredibly powerful case for all of us, whether you consider yourself creative or not, to begin strengthening our brain’s innate power to improvise. To sit in the unknown. To do things without knowing exactly where they’ll lead - the exact skills we’ve engineered away from our daily lives.
I won’t go into full depth of the findings here (you should definitely read the full piece!) - but Limb and team set the groundwork for what we know about how our creative brain works.
By studying jazz musicians and what’s happening when they freely create, they helped illuminate what most of us experience when we’re fully alive: Improvisation is where our most authentic, self-expressed voice lights up.
On the other hand - the more we control, force, optimize and plan - the more our Inner Critic (or our dorsal lateral pre-frontal cortex) wakes up. The more brittle, rigid and lonely we become.
Like I shared in the Field Guide: The people we often look to as “successful” are usually the most creatively depleted.
And we all know - even those 100x optimizers - that creativity always has been, and definitely will be, our human superpower.
So, going forward, we don’t need to 10x, 100x, 1000x our productivity (or whatever they might come up with next). We actually need to inject more randomness, spontaneity and creative freedom into our daily lives.
In my view: Hyper-optimization, like any form of productivity culture, breeds fear.
I’m here to remind you that you have everything you need to succeed, and ultimately, feel alive. You just need to clear your calendar a bit to harness 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 🫶🏽
This might be the absolute coolest way to use an EEG machine - as art: I came across this installation called the Wave UFO by Mariko Mori from 2003 this week - and I went down a curiosity rabbit hole. Imagine seeing your thoughts literally come to life? Talk about spontaneous creating! 🧠
A peek in Charles Limb’s brain (how cool is he): We went hard on breaking down what happens in your brain when you are spontaneous - and why it’s so important to our Creative Health. Charles Limb is one of the pioneering researchers in this space, and even though his paper was published almost 20 years ago, he’s still chatting about music + the brain. Highly recommend this interview with him - it’s fascinating!
Extra curious about creativity and the brain? Join the leading researchers on it at the Society of Neuroscience for Creativity: I’m currently on the Organizing Committee of SfNC and it’s like being around the rockstars of neuroscience research 🤓 It’s our annual conference this week - see below for how you can take part below. And, dig into the past webinars for more!
In case you missed it: The latest Field Guide from last week is a fascinating look at the neuroscience of spontaneity - and why it is one of the most underrated elements of our Creative Health. We dive deep into Charles Limb, the brains of jazz musicians and freestyle rappers and why discipline is the key to creative freedom. It’s one of the most liberating pieces I’ve written so far:
The Opposite of Optimization: How The Neuroscience of Spontaneity Unlocks Your Creative Freedom
Field Notes is my private research lab where we’re building the field of Creative Health in real time. It’s where I break down the latest scientific research on creativity and flourishing, dissect exactly how it impacts your daily life - and then, we
What’s coming next: Over the next few weeks, we’re going to keep diving deep into the building blocks of play - spontaneity, friction and wonder. Up next is how we harness the magic of friction, and why constraints aren’t limiting, but where our creativity comes alive. We’ll also have our next IRL learning session soon - so make sure you’re part of our community for more!
Updates: This week, I’m heading to the annual conference for Society of Neuroscience of Creativity (where I’m on the Organizing Committee!). It’s honestly going to be amazing - the lineup is this incredible mix of artists, neuroscientists and thinkers leading the future of our creative brain. I’ll be sharing live on social about my time there, so stay tuned if you want to nerd out!
“whether you consider yourself creative or not, to begin strengthening our brain’s innate power to improvise. To sit in the unknown. To do things without knowing exactly where they’ll lead - the exact skills we’ve engineered away from our daily lives.”
This is such a welcome statement that you wrote.And in relation to spontaneity,improvisation in all things including music,I think it is the equivalent of breathing….one new intake at a time. To remain open to what comes next,and the thing after that…and after that. Without hurrying or squeezing the life out of the incoming idea or “song”.This way of being is ridiculously radical when it shouldn’t be. Inherently we were born as unplanned and open and pure. My desire is to reclaim this “inheritance “. On a more personal note, I am still living in a temporary apartment while my regular one is undergoing renovation. The experience has forced me to invent and reinvent my days and what I am making as an artist. Because plans are always changing and I have to adapt. The result,which I am still living in,is my having to “follow” new ideas and thoughts as the fluid things they are. The result is a sense of belonging more to my real self…because I only have to engage with the adventure of it all.And this is freedom.