This episode discusses the “dark side” of creativity–things to be aware of and cautious about. Everything we do in life has risks and rewards, and creativity is no different. Things that potentially have the highest highs carry the highest risks and therefore the possibility of the lowest lows.

Episode 10: The Dark Side of Creativity [ 13:38 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Creativity is morally neutral; it is neither inherently moral or immoral. It is how you use it that gives it its moral character. Morality is usually subjective, depending on the person making the judgment and when they make it.

Some possible dark sides, or down sides, of creativity or of being creative:

• Collaborating with the wrong person. Be careful who you collaborate with and how you collaborate with them. The podcast episode offers some suggestions on how to avoid partering with the wrong person:
  • Look for obvious red flags: do they have a history of being active, do they have basic business behavior, do they network, do they have the energy to contribute, are they overly paranoid or defensive.
  • Do a background check and a credit check.
  • Use the services of a good business attorney (not some other kind of attorney) to get a buy-sell agreement in place, corporate by-laws indicating what the expectations of everyone is, etc.
  • When in doubt, just don’t do it. Other opportunities will come.
• Working when tired, creating more problems than you solve.
• Drug use to be creative, whether sleeping pills or other drugs.
• Being open to bad or harmful ideas.
• Being affected by over-negative or over-positive emotions. Be careful of “Compliance Practitioners” who try to manipulate you.
• Lack of critical thinking. It’s good to inhibit critical thinking for creativity purposes, just don’t turn it off permanently.

References used in this episode:

• Leaders, by Richard Nixon, page 330 on leadership and morality.
• Google motto of “Don’t Be Evil”
• The Power of a Positive No: Save The Deal Save The Relationship and Still Say No, by William Ury, pages 12-13.
• Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, by Robert Cialdini.
• Masaru Emoto and his water experiment.
• Quantum Entanglement.
• Particle Wave Function.