Elizabeth Gilbert’s TEDTalk on Artists and Geniuses
The author of Eat, Pray, Love talks about the creative pursuit and a different way to think about the notion of ‘genius.’ Chills.
All I could do was roll my eyes through most of this spiel. The idea of “creative people like us” in itself made me want to shoot myself. In the end, though, I think she gets it mostly right. The way to eliminate the anxiety of seeking results is to focus on process, ya know, showing up to work every day and doing the best you can. My problem is that the psychological construct of genius as disembodied from the person as an aid in alleviating performance anxiety is that it still engages in this kind of dramatization and mystification of creativity/genius. Genius is not a quality of a person given by god, nor is it a buddy that kicks it with you and gives you ideas, it’s some coincidence of talent, hard work, and luck. Yesterday I watched Flash of Genius, which is about the guy who invented the intermittent windshield wiper, had his idea stolen by Ford (and other automakers), and spent the greater part of the rest of his life vindicating his rights in court. In the movie, he says to the jury something like, “I walked into court wearing a badge, maybe you couldn’t see it, but it said, inventor, and contributor to society.” That’s the kind of workmanlike perspective I’m impressed by, not all this excited chatter about how to cope with being so great because the premise itself suggests superiority or at least difference.
