There’s the Known and there’s the Not-Known.

The Not-Known is THE NEW

The Not-Known came first. Before we knew anything — we knew nothing.

Before the legacy, before the skill, before the craft, before the knowledge — there was only the discovery. The unknown. The CREATIVITY.

Creativity comes always first. It has always came first. Before the foundation — foundation of the knowledge, foundation of the experience — there’s the true foundation — CREATIVITY.

 

It’s been chaotic. It’s been messy. Before we created our first wheel. Before we painted our first rendering of reality inside some cave. Before the painting inside the cave there first needed to be the cave (discovered) — there first needed to be the shelter.

Today we have every book under the sun. Every information at the tip of our fingers. And yet it is still nothing. It is nothing compared to what’s yet to be discovered. Nothing compared to what’s yet to be created.

We have the legacy. The knowledge. The know-how. The skill. The expertise. The craft.

We expand it.

Or we create new fields altogether. New movements altogether.

 

What is mediocrity?

Haven’t you wondered what makes given work mediocre? Given creative, given professional, mediocre?

Mediocre is simply the average. The unexceptional. Unexceptionally skillful. Unexceptionally creative.

The all-important question is — how to produce something better? Something substantial….?

The all-important question is — how do we push the envelope? And what does it mean to push it?

 

Does expertise alone push the envelope? Do skills push the envelope?

Clearly even the greatest discernment in a given field is still bounded by the intrinsic limitations of that field. Obviously it doesn’t “push the envelope”.

Your knowledge your understanding your wisdom your expertise your skill your craft — it’s all quite mediocre, really.

At the highest point of development, of great skill, of great knowledge, it is perhaps impressive, perhaps beautiful, even, and it is undoubtedly rare — but it’s still earthbound, it’s still sterile.

 

Does creativity push the envelope? How do you push the envelope? How are you creative? What do you create?

How does one encapsulate the unknown…?

Creativity alone is chaos.

It’s a positive chaos. But it’s chaos notwithstanding.

Creativity alone is being thrown into cosmos — with nothing to relate, no map, no guide.

Creativity alone is haphazard. It’s beautiful and liberated. But it is haphazard. WHATEVER EMERGES — it is unrelatable to the former systems.

Things derive meaning from their relations. Utility is how something relates to reality.

Whatever one stumbles upon via the process of pure exploration — is likely neither compatible with the former cultural background nor with the demands of the reality.

It is thus meaningless. And useless.

Humanity took a while to stumble upon the wheel. It’s utility was entirely from an outside paradigm — thus unrelatable — thus INVISIBLE to the perception.

Pure creativity is a herculean task of forging an entirely new paradigm. It’s a tall order.

 

Most of us are neither creative nor skilled.

Skill, knowledge, expertise — requires time and effort. Requires certain predispositions. And it obviously requires certain aptitude for organisation. Building understanding is like building any other structure. Bricks don’t just land in place by haphazardly throwing them around. Many people lack elementary inner discipline and organisation to systematically piece out the working of something. They must rely on teachers or rote-memorisation. The latter far more common then appears.

Creativity is even more rare. Notwithstanding our innate predisposition for creativity — very few of us are actually creative. Our culture is quite adverse to creativity. The school system outright seeks to destroy it. The world naturally rewards productivity over innovation. Whilst the innovative will ultimately be infinitely more productive — it may as well end up utterly barren. Creativity is difficult. We are conditioned to toe the line, fit into the system. Creativity escapes the system. We are trained to receive marks and rewards. Creativity is a reward on it’s own account. And it cannot be appraised – for the more creative it is – the less it is comparable to anything else.

 

Most of us are neither creative nor skilled — and one needs to be BOTH.

It appears the greater the expertise the lesser the creativity! The comfort of linearly expanding one’s knowledge, the evenly spaced out rewards, the habitual rhythm of the entire process — it’s a temptation! Once you have enough intelligence to follow through with the path — it becomes a trap. It is more self-aggrandising to linger within your area of expertise, never move out of it, never risk it. You become as uncreative as attached you are to your specialisation. Your mind becomes as closed to the NEW as it is filled with the old: the conclusions the ideas the beliefs the preconceptions. It is a vicious trap.

Conversely — it does seem some of the more creative creatives are particularly detached from the reality. Detached from the foundation. Detached from the modus operandi. Ignorant, one could say. Ignorant to the field they happen to be exploring, and ignorant to the general logic and rigour of conducting one’s pursuits, in ANY field. It is as thought the sterile monolith of past legacy repels them.

…and we need both. At once.

 

If only we were more conscious.

To one more conscious the vitality of creativity is obvious. He sees the dead end of specialisation, expertise, mere skill and knowledge and craft. He peers beyond the glimmering monuments of the past — looking forward into the future. And the future — it is not created by the uncreative. It is obviously created by the creative.

The one more conscious is not foolish in his creativity and blind. The one conscious is no fool! The one conscious is professional. The one conscious EXPANDS his TOOLKIT according to the needs of his creativity!

You want to be an expert AND a creative genius.

You want to be an expert OF your creative NICHE.

You want to be creator of the new paradigms, breaking the ground for the emergence of the new reality — with just enough roots in the current world not to be blown away.

 

Why is everyone so mediocre? Why are our experts and professors and teachers so useless? Why are most creative so clueless?

We need both! We need creative experts. We need skilled creatives. We need brilliant man with no bounds to their imagination but overarching intelligent organisation and practicality to their work.

Our teachers are narrow-minded and dull. Most of us are uncreative and the few creative are useless. Most of us are mediocre for we fail to go deep. Lack the discipline to piece out, lack the inspiration to explore. Finally, most of us are mediocre for we are not creative. We repeat the dead past over and over and over again, until it loses all it’s substance: both culturally, artistically and practically.

If you wonder why someone’s work is mediocre — be it a professional, an artist, a writer, a teacher — he has likely not enough skill, and CERTAINLY not enough CREATIVITY.

One needs both.

 

One needs both.

You want to be creative first — then rummage the entire mankind’s legacy in the service of your vision.

Does mediocrity involve vision? Obviously not.

Be creative first. Have VISION. Then execute, drawing on every possible resource you can access.

This is the way of excellence.

In ANY field. Business. Art. ANY field.

Take it in.