Creativity requires inefficiency
Doing nothing is part of the work
Playground readers,
A short and summery one today.
While working through some transcripts and conversations from earlier this year, I came across a thought from Italy-raised, Sweden-based architect Emanuele Stamuli that really resonated with me right now.
I met him in Stockholm in April while moderating a panel, where we talked about the ins and outs of architects’ lives, inspiration, the design industry and events. When asked how creativity shows up in his everyday life and at his architecture firm, Stamuli, he responded with the thought below – one I have not been able to let go of for the past few months, and wanted to share with you.
“Creativity, to me, is strongly linked to inefficiency.
Inefficiency is a luxury that a studio, especially a start-up, or whatever you want to call it, often does not have.
Inefficiency costs a lot of money.
People talk a lot about how to make a company efficient, which is fantastic, but the reality is that a creative company needs to have a component of inefficiency.
The management of inefficiency is the big question for me, and I have not cracked the code. I apply it only to myself.
You are always emotionally torn by the same dilemma: am I wasting my time, or am I on the edge of reaching a conclusion? I never know. So, I am freewheeling here. But that is the place where I am.”
– Emanuele Stamuli, owner & architect, Stamuli
At a moment when we are surrounded by “how to make this your most creative summer yet” and “how to make your summertime efficient”, this could not have rung more loudly for me.
Everything at the intersection of creativity and business fascinates me.
As the team and I continue with shorter summertime hours and Fridays off at the studio, I find myself partly guilty about working less, and partly incredibly impressed by what time away does to both my brain and my creative work.
Only when I get some distance – and do nothing – do the best things come up. And isn’t that what creative work should be all about?
The creative economy, charged by hours and days, makes this feel inefficient. But what if my best ideas come in the shower or on a walk? Or after waking up from the strangest dream because I slept for too long?
We try to capitalise on our time – even our time for creativity.
Yes, there are tips and tricks for unlocking it.
But maybe restarting, resetting plans and doing nothing are the best things that can happen to a creative business.
If you live a life led by curiosity – sponge-like, smelling things, trying things and visiting places – then allowing yourself to have days with no plans is just as important. And not only on holiday, but simply as part of being. Giving yourself time to release it all matters so much too.
I hope you are having some inefficient time this summer. If not, maybe it is time to do so this August.
Doing nothing is part of the creative work.
Until the next one,
Auste from studio playground
I think about this tension between efficiency and creativity A LOT.
On the one hand: I have so many things I want to do– a list too long for one human life–and optimization helps to stretch my capacity and increase the possibility that I'll be able to do more of these things. A way of cheating time.
On the other hand: when the efficiency mode dominates my decision making and pace, I find myself losing joy (and patience) for the winding ambiguity of creative process and I don't get to lose myself in the making of the things I want to be making...which is the fun part.