Do you rely on inspiration or discipline to make work?

Originally asked

The Creative Independent, to working artists, its interview series

A repeated Creative Independent tension, asked as inspiration, muse, discipline, ritual, or the requirement to show up.

You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.

Recorded Jensen Huang said elsewhere, not written here
Well, I work from the moment I wake up to the moment I go to bed. And I work seven days a week.

Patrick Collison, Stripe Sessions 2024, 2024 source ↗

Others on this question

View all 48 →
Carlos Fuentes Novelist and essayist; Mexico's ambassador to France
A writer is no different than a bricklayer or a bus driver in that sense. You must have discipline. Oscar Wilde said that writing is 10 percent genius, 90 percent discipline. You must have discipline for writing. It is not an easy task. It is very lonely. You’re all alone. You are not in company. You are not enjoying yourself in that sense. You are enjoying yourself in another sense. You are delving into your depths, but you are profoundly lonely. It is one of the loneliest careers in the world. In the theater, you are with companions, with directors, actors. In film. In an office. In writing, you are alone. That takes a lot of strength and a lot of will to do it. You must really be in love with what you’re doing to tolerate the huge loneliness of writing.
Recorded Academy of Achievement interview, Los Angeles, California, 2 June 2006 source ↗
Chris Cole Professional skateboarder; twice Thrasher Skater of the Year
I did it because that’s what it was going to take. I really wanted it. I had an older brother, and he was bigger and smarter, and when you’re a kid, you’re trying to catch up all the time. I think that that’s where it kind of came from, just that little brother syndrome. I was just trying to be something, trying to make myself worth something. It was proving it to other people and proving it to myself at the same time. I needed that.
Recorded The Talks, published interview, 11 November 2015 source ↗
Cheryl Strayed Author of Wild and Tiny Beautiful Things
I’m a binge writer.…I'm not an everyday writer.
Recorded Marie Forleo, MarieTV, Marie Forleo source ↗
François Ozon Film director and screenwriter
It’s a long journey, you know. I really believe in the work of the unconscious. You have an idea, you think about it. You dream about it. But, for me, it’s my way of working, it depends on writing of course. I don’t need to go every day in front of my computer and write something. It’s always a surprise. In the moment, it’s a necessity. You need to write, so you write a thing.
Recorded Filmmaker Magazine, March 2013 source ↗

More from Jensen Huang

View profile →
Question What is the thing you are best at that nobody watching can see? Craft & work
Of all of the things that I value most about my abilities, intelligence is not top of that list. My ability to endure pain and suffering, my ability to work on something for a very, very long period of time, my ability to handle setbacks and see the opportunity just around the corner I consider to be my superpowers, and I hope they're yours.
Recorded California Institute of Technology 130th Annual Commencement, YouTube (recording of the Caltech commencement address), 14 June 2024 source ↗

More on craft & work

Also answered this

Hiroshi Mikitani, Denton Cooley, Agnès Varda, Derek Sivers, Ahmed Zewail, Margaret Atwood

Search the directory for somebody in particular.

Explore further

Report this answer