Your elusive creative genius | Elizabeth Gilbert

TED · 5.4M views · 2009-02-09 · 19:29

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Overview

Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love, reflects on the pressure placed on artists to be geniuses. She proposes the older idea that creative people have a genius that visits them rather than being one.

On Hacker News

HN people link it in threads about creativity, late bloomers and creative burnout as a humble, relatable take on where inspiration comes from.

Recommended by 2 HN people across 1 months · HN mentions 2011–2021

Topics

Literature & writing craft Psychology & human behavior

What people said

wglb · 2012-07 · Recommendation
This is really quite germane: [VIDEO] . While she talks about writing, I think it applies to the kind of thing you are talking about here.
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bgilroy26 · 2012-07 · Recommendation
This TED talk by the author of Eat, Pray, Love addresses the very question at hand: "Who/What is responsible for creativity?". It approaches the question from a very subjective point of view. I haven't read her book, but she is humble and relatable in the video. [VIDEO]
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hyperpallium2 · 2021-08 · Reference
The idea of a "muse", and "genius" is something that visits you (not something you are). IIRC, this TED talk is about it [VIDEO]
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Sources

Video by TED, played through YouTube.

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