The Craft of Creativity
The craft of creativity lives in a discipline that is attentive, aware, sensitive and true.
All of us move in patterns.
Familiar, comfortable, predictable and often unconscious.
These patterns are learned. They’re efficient. They help us move through the day without decision fatigue. In Kahneman’s language, this is System 1 — fast, intuitive, automatic thinking.
And yet, nestled within these patterns lies the very discipline that creativity demands. Because creativity isn’t just about thinking outside the box of patterns. It’s about knowing the box so well that you can choose exactly how and when to step outside it — just enough to create ‘moments of surprise’ to make something feel fresh, surprising, alive.
That’s the craft — a trained ability to orchestrate surprise on demand.
A dancer who breaks a rhythm just enough to make you feel something unexpected.
A writer who disrupts a sentence in just the right place.
A strategist who shifts the frame of a problem and opens up a new path.
Each one is tuning the dial — knowing when to stay within form, and when to let go.
For me, honing creative craft means practicing that balance every day — between repetition and rupture, habit and intuition.
And it’s not just for artists or designers.
Anyone solving problems, telling stories, building teams, or leading change, you would need to build the same practice.
The question is: Are you paying attention to your patterns?
And do you know when it’s time to gently break them?
