The Creative Process.

I stumbled across this 2022 interview over the weekend. It's a timely reminder of the importance of trusting the creative process and helping others transcend the immediate challenges and focus on the vision.

Reverence

"I think his understanding and reverence for the creative process was extraordinary. I mean, I think Tim and I learned so much, just going through the process with Steve. But I think that the way the process tended to work was there was thinking, which is why being intentional about your thinking, being very self-aware, but from your thinking, ideas emerge. And I think the one thing that, I mean, Tim and I talked about so much was the nature of ideas. Ideas are fragile; they're not resolved. If they were resolved, they wouldn't be ideas; they'd be products. And one of the things that happens, and I think one of the huge challenges, particularly amongst large groups, is that when you're talking about an idea, often the thing that is easiest to talk about, that is measurable, that's tangible, are the problems. And he was masterful at helping people not, of course not, ignore the problems, but to remain focused upon the promise, the vision of the actual idea. And there was that a wonderful reverence, I think, that he had for the creative process. And I think most artists and designers, even if it's self-preservation, I mean, if you're being expected to produce an idea and you know the ideas don't oblige you, you know, you can't predict when you're going to have a good idea, I think you tend to need to focus on process and the discipline of trying to increase the probability of a good idea."

You can watch the full session here.