Is it Possible to Automate Creativity?
I found a tool that may make it possible to automate my creativity.
Writing blog posts is difficult.
Any type of creative pursuit has a process. That process can be divvyed up into individual parts that if filled with new information can generate new ideas, things, and perspectives.
Whether you paint, make music, take photos, code, write, or express yourself in another way, there’s a process that you follow to make a final, creative product. Writing creatively, in particular, is especially difficult to do. Writing without guidance can seem like a dead-end.
Searching your mind, like a library full of unmarked books, creates exhaustion and frustration.
To write creatively, you need to have a primary question that needs answering. From another angle, you need a problem that needs solving or at the very least, explaining.
Within your mind, there are many interlocking, dynamic bits of information, that if combined in a certain format, can produce highly valuable thought processes that make the world a little bit less uncertain and traversable.
My question is, how do you automate those creative questions and perspectives on an already trodden subject? How do you enhance your ability to lock-in on a topic and press into it until it turns irrelevant coal into a pertinent diamond?
What type of process makes writing easier, and ultimately, more valuable after all is said and done?
I may have found tool that could intersect the many concepts within my head into a workable and searchable format. Its called Obsidian.
What is Obsidian?
No, its not the remains of volcanic magma flow, but that sounds cool nonetheless.
Obsidian is an app that makes note-taking & writing fun, searchable, and workable.
I’ve only been using it a few months and I can understand the potential it has for improving my creative writing process.
I’ll explain the basics.
The basics
Obsidian at its most basic is a note-taking app. All of the “nodes” you see in the image above, if clicked, open up into their own note-pad that has information relevant to the title of the node.
Taking notes with Obsidian is different from how school taught us to take notes, by subject, and oddly the new way Obsidian promotes makes a lot more sense and is invariably, more creative in the long-term.
Essentially that means: notes you use after writing them.
Instead of taking notes by subject, in Obsidian, notes are taken conceptually. Every time a note is created you create a place for a “concept”. That “concept” is not bound by the normalized subjects that schools and society have instated. Instead the note is free as its own “node” that can then be expounded upon by connected relevant conceptual nodes.
Each node is connected via localized hyperlinks. A link on the internet functions identically, with the only exception of it being public. Obsidian in another view, is a localized “web” of ideas, not unlike the internet, but instead in this case, the web of ideas are all a part of your mind, a second brain if you will.
Overall, Obsidian as its used, becomes a ever-expanding network of concepts that all interconnect in new ways as you make the connections. You can strategize with this web to expound on your current ideas and find new ones.
The Implications Obsidian has For Automating Creativity
Using Obsidian I’ve been able to find more unique connects than if I were to use a normal piece of paper.
Obsidian has a vast array of dedicatees that introduce new ways of leveraging and enhancing its functions for different contexts like scientific research, creative writing, or for becoming more original in your thinking.
Obsidian is extremely flexible, fundamentally understandable, and if set-up correctly, can become an invaluable tool for systemizing creative writing and other like-pursuits.
I’ll be using Obsidian for my daily writing workflow so they content you’re reading right now only increases in quality. That is my grand plan.
What could you automate with Obsidian? What connections can you make? Where is your brain going?