Are creative types messy? Personally, I’m quite creative, if I do say so myself, and I am more than quite messy. I don’t replace stuff immediately after using them in order to not ruin my concentration on the task at hand. Stuff end up piling up all around and I usually dedicate some time to clearing up after everything is done and this clearing up process is sometimes quite cathartic.
I’ve long striven to be super-organised with everything around arranged in a tidy yet aesthetically pleasing manner. It’s been an uphill battle.
I came across, randomly, somewhere, that creative types are messy people and this got me curious. Quick googling came up with a bunch of hits and I find that this topic is not a novelty:
“But contrarian voices can be heard in the wilderness. An anti-anticlutter movement is afoot, one that says yes to mess and urges you to embrace your disorder. Studies are piling up that show that messy desks are the vivid signatures of people with creative, limber minds…” – NY Times
Malcolm Gladwell says “… their lives and their brains, their brains are messy. Their imaginations are messy. Why, because they don’t want to throw anything out. Why don’t they want to throw anything out? Because they believe on some level that there is always something of interest or value in whatever they encounter. They know enough about how mysterious and serendipitous and unpredictable the creative process is that they realize that it’s dangerous to kind of make too hasty a judgment about the value of anything that they come across. ”
image: Sofia Coppola’s office back in the day (ca. The Virgin Suicides & the founding of MilkFed) | via matchbookmag {source}
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