Creativity versus Physical Fitness

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I have a question that's been on my mind for some time, and one for which I've found little in the way of considered answers.

Are creativity and physical fitness mutually exclusive?

Recently I asked the question on Quora...

Quora se fokken moer - tough to attract answers different from the likes of: "Obviously they are not exclusive, I'm a photographer and I run every day." So maybe I can describe what I'm seeing (or not seeing) slightly better here, because I still believe that they really are pretty much exclusive and we might just have to deal with this fact "going forward", and that I think there are practical implications that arise from this. From my own experience, which I believe counts, the two almost never occur simultaneously.

Here goes:

Despite plentiful evidence that physical fitness and wellbeing promote general mental health and productivity, it seems that, generally, there are not many very fit and simultaneously very creative people around. In fact I can't think of any, anywhere.

What I am not talking about are said people who "go for runs" or people who work in "broader creative fields". Also what I am not getting at is "My uncle is a champion boxer and paints." Painting itself is creative but I'm sure there are (selling) painters out there who paint what they see and haven't had a creative thought in years. Meditative maybe, but their work was probably not the start of a new movement.

I hope I'm making sense here - I'm talking about creativity that can create new shit. Ergo, needs to be kind of groundbreaking... and even slightly groundbreaking shit tends to come from a state of mind, mental habits, specific motivations and work prioritisation. Genuine creativity and extreme fitness are both extreme enough to warrant different ways of being in the world. Just ask Iron Mike or Oscar Wilde.

Some people have pointed to certain big name badasses: Richard Branson (presumably the famous photo of him waterskiing with a naked model on his back led them to believe that once a man of that age can do that he can simply do anything - and perhaps they're right), Mikhail Baryshnikov (probably the closest so far, still we need more examples like this I think) and even LeBron James.

Whilst all sport is, in a sense, fundamentally creative, for most professionals or top athletes it's about practicing the same thing millions of times for their entire life until they are "a master". This is clearly not the same cerebral creativity demanded by the arts, whose forms of creativity rely on creative differentiation and also seem to depend much more on someone identifying themselves as a creative person.

I'm more interested in everyday people and how they might strive for both creativity and fitness in their daily lives, assuming some rather dedicated focus.

I work in a creative field too, but this does not mean that I am creative by default or that I am having genuinely creative thoughts all day. I also know that I am reasonably fit right now, but I am certainly not very fit, and if I got substantially fitter, my motivation to be creative would dwindle.

For me this extends even to the length that I get my hair cut. Sure as shit, when I get a short haircut I feel like running or lifting weights - I feel aerodynamic (hydrodynamic in summer). And then as it grows longer I feel my creative juices begin to flow once more, the craziness returns, and the right brain becomes the bully in the equation.

When I feel that great physically, and I have at one or two points in my life, I just couldn't give a shit about being creative. "Who needs creativity when you feel like this?" I don't see some ridiculously tanned and hyper-fit Brazilian Jui-Juitsu expert just busting to go and write more of his critically acclaimed poetry. [As an aside these hyperfit specimens are typically far more at home with alcohol, if anything, when it comes to indulging, and it's very seldom that they look forward to acid trips on the weekend.]

Just think about even trying to strive super hard for both these things. One might think that adopting an American Psycho, type A vibe might do the trick. But have you ever seen it? And it's not because there are not enough hours in the day, but simply because doing both ceases to be a priority.

When you are very creative, the world is responding to it and your shit is peaking out, why on earth would you want to go and do an Ironman?

Lets assume that Baryshnikov has indeed achieved this sort of feat. Where the hell is everyone else? Are these not things that pretty much most people strive for day in and day out? Becoming more of both?

To me these seem (and quite logically in terms of evolution) to be polar opposites, and that the human brain would be stretched in quite opposing directions if one were to really strive for both. Help me here, not by thinking whether this idea is right or wrong yet, but by going out and just noticing people.

What's up with rugby fashion?

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As a former/part-time colony dweller, I've never been that impressed by the British. Except that one time when my mate Paul did a stand-up comedy set back in the Obz days and cracked some wicked-funny AIDS jokes. But that was then. So I'm a little curious as to the British shop aura about the intersection of Bleecker and Charles Streets in NYC. An intersection-aura, if you will.

Within about a 25m radius of one another there is a Ralph Lauren Rugby store, a Gant Rugger store (amusing) and a Burberry Brit store (in case Burberry wasn't British enough for you already it's now more British) . These are not seasonal clothing collections, they are fully fledged sub-brands. Actually Gant Rugger looks more like American-preppy-plaid-tending-toward-baseball but I nevertheless sense that there is some unspoken and rather permanent equity to being British right now, at least in the US.

I won't say it's a trend because I haven't really seen people adopting the look quite as much as I have seen stores popping up, so I can only describe this as a rather insistent aesthetic.


Try not to laugh... I mean, cool logo bro.


Nobody's laughing now


"Mine's just a few blocks from here - what do you say? Did I mention I'm British?"

That Slimy Bastard

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I love the Barbie and Ken campaign on billboards around NYC. And I think it's because they only show Ken.

I mean... I like girls, but there's just so much left to the imagination. It takes the whole Barbie concept from being just an object and a doll, to reminding people of the captivating soap operas that once took place inside so many little girl's rooms around the world.

Not so sure about the inevitably-cheesy-as-shit reality show Genuine Ken that is associated with the campaign (the real cash cow) but it's otherwise a great way to get people thinking and remembering.

Anyway, I always knew Ken would make a comeback.

Everybody is betting their life on something

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I came across another smart person saying smart things again - on one of those smart people websites with the videos. He said: "Everybody is betting their life on something."

Man. It really is one of the most succinct, and frankly mindblowing thoughts I've heard in ages. Some tight copy right there.

Life is a gamble in many ways, and so often risk is the one thing that determines results and success more than anything. For instance, you cannot question someone else's love for you without first committing your own (another thing that brands ought to have learned by now). It's like a signal to the universe stating your intention to live, and deep down you know it's a gamble you have to take. Quite likely that the more risky option is to not risk anything at all, as people often can see the intention behind the action and find that all the more endearing.

But these are mostly not guesses or blind gambles. Like the quote says, the bet is on something, and that thing is inside you, like a skill or personality trait or worldview. Most likely it is a composite of those things, a broader intuition of life that grows and refines as you age. You say to yourself "I think I get it, and that's why I'm going to live like this, because that way will get me far.

Maybe you're super driven, maybe you just want to be a good person. It's about understanding and then believing, then forgetting everything you learned and going ahead and laying your shit on the line.

And I find that fascinating.

People I like

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People try not to judge others, but we all do. A few days ago I was sitting on the train when I realised I think I know the way in which I judge people, when I first see them.

I judge people by whether or not they look like they are staying with or trying to break out of their allotted socio-economic place in life. You can tell, by body language, posture, expression on their face, or the way they speak relative to their apparent education.

On that train you may also see the relatively poor father of five, going to work a crap job, but he's dressed in the best suit he can afford, contemplating the day ahead. He wants to get that next promotion, and is thinking about what flowers to get his wife. He wants to get to the next level - even if it means being at the bottom of that next level.

But right next to him is the guy of the same age, same background, who has the same amount of money, but is dressed in tattier clothes, texting away on his cellphone, shouting at his buddy. He appears happy to be at the top of the lower level. Why? Because it's the top. He's happy there.

People who are prepared to constantly be at the bottom of a strata, be it socially or in their career are normally the ones moving up that quickly. Those who are out of their comfort zone most are learning the most.

People impress and interest me if they look like they're making an effort to get to whatever their next level is, or to be out of their comfort zone in some way all the time. How else do you learn unless you're at the bottom? For me it plays a big part in informing your general attitude towards life.

"A great man is always willing to be little." Ralph Waldo Emerson

New vibe: hollow ice

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The weather outside is 32 degrees and at 100% humidity. Which means it's the same inside, I guess.

As I sit in my bedroom in Brooklyn, fan blowing loudly, ass stuck to the chair, I finally made it to the kitchen to get some water. Of course the ice in the freezer had not frozen through yet, but I did notice how it was in fact exactly half-frozen.

Which is actually pretty awesome. You get to have not just a top layer frozen, mind, but a complete hard shell of ice. While the almost frozen water from the center you can pour into your glass, making the overall temperature lower than if you had used just regular tap water. Do you know how much better hollow ice sounds in the glass?

Those perfect little shards stay so beautifully frozen for the entire duration of my beverage sipping, and make me feel like a James Bond villain in a Lanvin suit, uh... whose ass is not stuck to a chair.