OC 3 – Back Matter – Afterword by the Author

«My deep thanks to all the muses in this world — and beyond it. Thank you very much.»
Daniel Wessel

This book has its origins in my presentation on organizing creativity at the «MinD-Akademie»1 in 2007. That presentation led to the first edition of «Organizing Creativity» in 2008 and to the blog in 2009. In 2012, I wrote a much improved second edition, though it was still more a large collection of useful tips than a coherent framework.

A great deal changed afterwards, both generally and privately.

I worked for a decade in human-centered design and advised or graded more than a hundred student theses in media and computer science. Each of them was a small creative project and, taken together, they provided a great deal of practical experience. Powerful LLMs became publicly available and made unusually deep discussion and revision possible. And over time I began to develop the underlying framework that gave organizing creativity more structure.

When my father died in 2020, I was reminded that — for all we can create and for all the new things we can bring into the world — there are also the things we only have for a time. I am glad that I spent some time with him before he died. Even so, it left a void. This book is one way for me to remember him — and to remind myself why I am doing what I do.

During a privately financed sabbatical, I formalized the implicit creative system into an applicable framework. I then invested more than half of that sabbatical into turning that model into this third edition.

And that is the book you are holding in your hands.

This book is meant to make the creative system visible. By seeing more clearly what you are already doing when you create, you can change it deliberately and improve the quality and quantity of work that is new and useful. The framework is usable across domains — from the hard sciences to inspiration-heavy art to everyday creativity.

What you do with it depends on you. That is the satisfying and demanding aspect of creative work. It is easy to imagine. It is harder to move from an initial idea to a realized project. There may be obstacles on the way. And even when you realize something, the gulf between imagination and realization may be wider than you would like, or people may react differently than you expected.

But no matter the reaction, you created something that was not there before, and that is something nobody can take away from you. Even if the work turns out differently than intended, is misunderstood, discarded, rejected, or outright censored or destroyed, you still did something difficult. You likely changed in the process. Your creative system likely changed as well. And that changed situation can guide your next project.

Your creative system worked — and that is something to celebrate.

When ideas are realized, they do change the world. It does not matter whether you «just» want to bring a smile to the face of someone you love, or whether you want to tackle one of humanity’s larger problems. Good ideas have to be realized if anything is to improve.

Your talents are your gifts. What you do with them depends on you. It is your creativity, after all. And if this book helped you use it better, then it has done its job.

Daniel Wessel

Endnotes

  1. The «MinD-Akademie» is the university-related part of Mensa in Germany. I am no longer a member, but I still remember those presentations fondly and the unusually curious and engaged students there. ↩

 

 

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