On Discipline of Creation

Engineering is at its core a creative endeavor. Entrepreneurship as well. To excel at either is to be fundamentally good at consistently creating solutions to problems, at creating semantic understandings of problems, and to communicate one’s work well.

The Need for Creative Training

It is critical for engineers and entrepreneurs to train their creativity. Like any skill there is some degree of talent involved, but discipline and daily practice account for the majority of ability in the majority of people. Just as one practices and accumulates technical skills, one can also practice and accumulate creative acumen.

The Path to Creative Development

Step 1: Active Consumption

The first step in training one’s ability to output creative work is to train one’s ability to consume it first. In today’s world of passive media consumption, it’s crucial to:

  • Keep track of consumed media (TV, movies, music)
  • Note design elements in everyday objects (furniture, photographs)
  • Recognize what makes good design resonate with you
  • Develop a personal sense of taste
  • Challenge and analyze the creative work you encounter

Step 2: Daily Creation

Just as an athlete trains daily, develop a habit of creating something that speaks to your understanding of taste:

  • Draw
  • Write
  • Build furniture
  • Make music
  • Start small but stay consistent
  • Focus on the practice, not the output
  • Accept that most work will be for personal growth

Essential Skills to Develop

Through this practice, you’ll cultivate several crucial abilities:

  1. Mental flexibility to seek new alternative approaches
  2. Self-discipline to judge your work against broader standards
  3. Comfort in developing and sharing unique work, even with uncertainty
  4. A personal process for generating good ideas
  5. Capacity to develop broad theses and connect them to specific details

Personal Practice

For me, this means:

  • Writing daily (though rarely published)
  • Designing and building furniture
  • Regular doodling

None of these activities are too serious, but they’ve had a meaningful impact on my other endeavors.

The Broader Impact

This creative practice isn’t just about making art or writing blog posts - it’s about developing a mindset that enhances problem-solving abilities across all domains. Whether you’re architecting software systems or building a startup, the ability to think creatively and execute consistently is invaluable.