The apex predator of creative ideas is the delete key.

Before a sentence can even fully form, the delete key sends thousands of ideas back to nonexistence as heartlessly as a shark eats its prey.

Before writing the best-selling book on creativity Steal Like An Artist, Austin Kleon found his artistic spirit suffocating under the weight of the delete key.

He felt a disconnection from his work, like it was all abstract and stuck in a digital ether he couldn't touch. He found the computer was good for editing his work but, terrible for generating ideas.

"There are too many opportunities to hit the delete key. The computer brings out the uptight perfectionist in us–we start editing ideas before we have them."

He also found the computer to be rigid and linear which stifled his ability to enjoy making art. "All of the creative writing workshops had to be double-spaced and in Time New Roman font" he laments, "And my stuff was just terrible. Writing ceased to be any fun for me."

To produce creative work requires freedom from judgment and a willingness to explore. Creativity demands an openness to possibilities, not the cold calculations of probabilistic thinking about how likely an idea is going to perform.

The moment we start believing there's a right answer is the moment we stop exploring and start judging. We need the judge to make our work as good as it possibly can be but, not before a period of play.

For Kleon, bringing analog tools back into his process made making things fun again while also improving his work. He actively made the proces of writing his first book as "hands-on as possible."

He wrote a collection of poems by blacking out words in newspaper articles using a permanent marker. "The process engaged most of my senses: the feel of the newsprint in my hands, the sight of the words disappearing under my lines, the faint squeak of of the marker tip, the smell of the marker fumes–there was a kind of magic happening. When I was making poems, it didn't feel like work. It felt like play."

Only after this creative exploration phase did Kleon scan his poems into digital copies and begin the work of refinement. The process resulted in his first published book, Newspaper Blackout, and it established the creative process that later led to three best-selling books on creativity–analog for generating, digital for editing.

I like this process for a few reasons.

First, studies have consistently shown that writing by hand engages larger regions of the brain than typing, especially the motor cortex which is responsible for generating action. Higher motor cortex activity is often linked to higher creativity which partially explains why so many great ideas are born during long walks.

Second, there is a tangible freedom on paper that is unmatched by any digital tool in existence. You can write down thoughts, draw doodles, connect ideas with lines, and add commentary at the speed of thought. It's a physical process and immensely satisfying to the psyche when it sees itself sprawled out onto the page.

Finally, I agree that computers are at their best in the refinement stage. Being able to cut, copy, paste, and delete are incredible time-saving tools that truly lead to better work when used at the appropriate time.

It's not a digital vs analog debate; it's about sequencing the two phases in the proper order so the artist can express what they want to say before the craftsman comes in to refine the work because they desire nothing more than to do something well.

Not only is this beneficial to the work itself, but it's also beneficial for proving that is was you who did the work. In the AI era it's possible for people to exaggerate their abilities by having the tools do the work for them. Now more than ever employers and audiences want to know that it was actually you that made the thing.

I know I'm personally turned off the second I realize somebody used AI to do the creative work for them. I want to see the artist express themselves through their craft, not a digital simulacrum of what would've been expressed had they actually sat down to do the work. Call me old fashioned but I appreciate hard-earned skills, a committment to craft, and the courage to put yourself out there without hiding behind a tool.

This sentiment extends to the professional realm. When my wife recently got industry feedback on her interior design portfolio her mentor told her to include more of the documentation and early design process. Employers want to see the initial idea sketches and the technical drawings, not just the final renderings. They want to know that the person they're hiring can actually do what they say they can.

Even in the Age of AI, using your hands matters.

Austin Kleon recommends having two separate spaces for these two distinct phases: an analog play station and a digital work station. I do this by keeping my laptop set up in a different room seperate from my writing desk where I do all of my drawing, leatherworking, and writing in my notebooks.

Kleon also keeps a waste book–a dedicated space for unfiltered thinking on paper–which I wrote all about a couple of weeks ago. You can check it out here.

Prompt:

How does the delete key effect your creative process?