A personal manifesto of creativity

A skateboard. A card game. At least 15 different types of robots. A newspaper.

You know what all these are? Some of my inventions and creations. Before I turned 12.

And guess what I have created in the last 15 or so years? Near zero. I have been slightly lucky with my career though – wrote hardware programs earlier and now create presentations and process documents. But other than that, nothing much to write about.

On the other hand, I can talk a lot about my consumption. Movies, books, TV shows, news, Facebook, email forwards.

Isn’t the ratio pretty skewed? The consumption itself is not a problem. I have learnt a lot due to the knowledge explosion caused by technology. But why has creation gone down so significantly?

What changed? What was different in my childhood? Introspection revealed 3 things.

• Self-doubt was missing. Both internal and external. What will people say? Is my creation good enough? At the age of 12, I was probably not even aware what self-doubt meant.
• There were no expectations. The creation itself gave joy.
• I seemed to have a lot of free time on my hands. With hardly any ready stimulation available (cable TV and internet came when I was about 14), all I remember doing is getting bored, playing and creating random things.

Which brings me back to the present. What should I do now? Continue with high consumption and low creation? Or make some changes?

I am taking a decision. I am no artist. I am no Edison. But, that will not discourage me.

I WILL CREATE, no matter the doubts. I need to get back in touch. WITH THAT JOY. OF CREATION.