The Creative Society

I think we are moving into a creative society where increasingly everyone has to 'create' in one way or another. When you are dealing with well-educated artistic people who can only be creative when they are operating in harmony and are 'flowing' in their activities, you have to provide a very different organizational structure and have to have a very different company culture and working environments. Computer technology costs are approaching zero over time, information has become free, the only way to add value as a human being in future decades and centuries is to develop your soul connection. The members of this community should be well-positioned for this social and economic shift.

You can find a nice description of this idea in Richard Florida, 'The Rise of the Creative Class' who developed this idea first. Though the missing dimension in this book is the spiritual angle. If all that matters in the end is communication, creativity and connectivity, spiritual path travelers should have a comparative advantage over the less connected folks. Eventually, our education system should pick up on this theme as well and probably already is.

My Job Has Made Me Whole

You probably know the brain theory by heart (an oxymoron?) by now: the left is the analytical, logical and linear mind, while the right side is the holistic, non-linear and pattern-oriented artistic half. I have been working as a strategist for a financial firm and have gone the whole circle from starting out with a scientific approach to becoming an artist in pattern recognition. (The world is a deterministic system with a little randomness sprinkled around to confuse the non-creative folks!) Add to that that I am paid to connect with people and you are left with a good description of a spiritual path. Just imagine my surprise when one day I woke up and realized that I am getting paid for traveling my spiritual path! 

I want to leave you with one economic prediction: the world is moving into a knowledge-based society with a handsome reward for artistic minds. Travel your spiritual path and express yourself creatively at work and you will have a hard time speparating work from hobby. For those of you who want to pursue this theme a little more there are a couple of excellent books I would refer you to. "A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future", by Daniel H. Pink and "The Rise of the Creative Class", by Richard Florida.

The Creative Society

I read Richard Florida's The Rise of the Creative Class a long time ago and it left a lasting impression on me. His point is that we steadily migrate into a society in which we simply have to become creators. Our work hours become more flexible, our work arrangements more connected with other creative people. Technology is on our side too, we may have an important client video connection right out of a Starbucks location. As every creative person knows, stress is not helpful, the lust for power is distracting, all you need to do is to love what you are doing, enjoy the colleague you are working with, and just be in the flow.

Actually, it is almost a spiritual theme. Computers and robots get smarter all the time, so we human beings have to specialize in what we do best, namely being. Actually, I consider myself part of this wave. All I have to do at work is to measure the pulse of our societies, our economies and what others think about it. The more I step back from everything, the sharper my insights become. Stress is just not helpful; if I consider my colleagues as collaboraters and friends, I am miles more creative than if I consider them as competition. The other day I came up with a slogan for how I would define my current role: I am a creative analyst, having fun is my job description.