Home Is Where The Art Is

I believe virtual idea-generation is better than in-person idea-generation. I admit it’s not an intuitive notion (and even debated a skeptical host Justin Brady on his podcast about it), but that’s exactly what I have experienced for the last ten years developing the Ideasicle X platform. Four freelancers working together vs two, each reduced to a typeface so no human bias can get in the way, allowing creativity to happen when it wants, etc. Well, here’s another one. Creativity increases when you are at home and freelancers tend to be, you guessed it, working from home.

Or so says Donald M. Rattner, Architect, in his “9 Reasons Why You Get Your Best Ideas at Home” from The Startup. After reading each reason in his list, I would think, “Yes!” or “Of course!” It’s one of those articles I wish I thought of and I encourage all of you to check out the whole thing.

Below, however, I’m going to focus on three of his reasons simply because they resonated the most with me and I thought we could all relate.

#1: Your home is a safe space.

On the surface this one sounds super intuitive, but there’s an important element to it when it comes to creativity. Because creativity can feel dangerous and intimidating sometimes.

From the article:

When we feel safe we feel relaxed; when we feel relaxed, we’re more willing to engage in risky behavior, explore the unknown, and open up ourselves to criticism and failure — all hallmarks of a creative mindset.

One thing I’ve learned over the years is that fear is creativity’s kryptonite. If you are in an environment where you feel any apprehension at all with respect to voicing your thoughts and ideas, then it’s not conducive to creativity. The creative process requires safety because it disarms our fears.

#4. You do a lot of mindless stuff at home.

This is one of my favorites and is the result of a process in our brains I often refer to when explaining how to increase our creativity. A little thing called our “working memory” gets in the way of creativity because it’s designed to keep us focused. Focusing, by definition, weeds out “irrelevant information,” which cuts creativity off at the knees. Creativity requires all kinds of information to collide with the hope that one of those collisions will lead to an idea. If fear is the kryptonite, then focusing is the Lex Luthor.

From the article:

Doing boring chores demanding minimal focus does come with an upside: it frees the rest of the mind to wander where it will without us having to worry about hurting ourselves through inattention…Now think about this: if your mind roamed aimlessly half the time you spent at the office, you’d probably get fired. Do the same at home, and you could well come up with the Next Great Idea.

I am a shower guy as it relates to idea generation. There are no showers in the office. Nuff said.

#5. Home is where you sleep.

When it comes to ideas, so much happens when we sleep. Our subconscious mind is working on things, making sense, making new connections, cementing old ones. It’s a wonder we feel refreshed in the mornings with all the work our brains are doing. So it makes sense, then, that if one is working at home during the day, rolling out of bed with a mind racing with the aftermath of this personal storm is likely good priming.

From the article:

The common conception of sleep as a period of general and creative inactivity turns out to be off the mark. Instead, as several studies demonstrate, your brain is turning over information acquired during the day, integrating it with your existing knowledge base, and then searching for potential connections among them in an effort to solve whatever problems are sloshing around in your head.

When we were developing the Ideasicle X platform, we weren’t doing it in reaction to Covid, the lockdowns, and remote work. We were doing it because we’ve found virtual idea generation is just plain better.

Allowing our freelancers to come up with ideas while being in the safety of their home is yet another reason why.