hey
came across some wise words from tyler the creator, one of those artists who seem like they should be someone im aware of but who i know nothing about. not even opposed to the genre (indie hip hop / pop?) just was too preoccupied listening to all the music i found in 2025 and added to my deep pop playlist. playlists are funny, they let you save all the random tracks you discover, but you kind of need to have guardrails for what you add or they’ll get out of hand and become less listenable.
SPEAKING OF GUARDRAILS
the words of tyler are ‘create like a child, edit like a scientist, which struck me immediately as useful. they encapsulate something thats been growing on me the last few decades, the feeling that i need to make some slight, intentional tweaks to my process.
i think my own version of this idea, and one i want to put into practice, well, now, is ‘setup like a parent, create like a child, edit like a scientist.’
you see, the best success ive felt (“had” seems excessive) creatively has come when i have done things like write out what a song will sound like in words before starting on it, or formulating what an experience will be like before starting a project, or writing down what needs doing for my game in advance of jumping into the engine to fix/make things.
what mostly happens, though, is something less ideal.
for example, i might open the music software, ignore all previously created 4 bar files, play around a bit, find some great sounds and layer them together with a beat i love, close the software - only to repeat the process a week later and get no closer to my goals which dont exist because im scared shitless of defining them.
having parent mode is something i drastically need and struggle with. i guess its related to issues in executive function. i’ve rarely engaged it successfully, but the examples of success above came from coming close to being my own parent.
the funny thing is, im 46, still learning basic lessons no one thought to teach me. i mean there’s gotta be a higher proportion of creatives with ADHD than in the general population right? you’d think these things would be transferred like tribal wisdom from old to new. i feel like it should be the responsibility of established creatives to tell young ones that they will need to work on being their own parent. or perhaps the ones that make it to middle age with their ‘creative’ identity intact aren’t the ADHDers, they’re the ones with ample motivation and balanced brain chemistry. the ones like me are struggling in JB Hifi, hospitals or minimum wage careers, having given up their creative aspirations to consumption, friends, booze, whatever. i dont know - that would explain it. i have no idea.
the parent would be responsible for setting up the arena of play: the boundaries. with a roughly described outcome, or an initial idea ripe with latent energy throbbing in the frontal lobe, calmness must prevail and the concept must be mapped out in its most basic form. the ground for its creation must be prepared: what is needed? what instruments should be loaded? what would allow for fast experimentation and iteration? how will the play be recorded so that it isn’t lost and can be reassembled by the scientist?
the scientist is the editor - the one who makes sense of the cuts of a movie and injects his taste to ensure it feels right - the one who cuts low frequences from a synth because they aren’t essential to the sound and will just muddy the mix with inaudible noise - the one who picks up last weeks painting and suddenly knows what it should become.
aside from not having a parent, ive always struggled to separate the role of child and scientist. It’s always felt great to me to use both at the same time. i can say that i dont even like the child phase - it’s not what i gravitate to. im actually jealous of creatives who can experience the joy of the process. im always rushing to the end.
i’ll produce music as i go - it’s got to sound right.
i’ll quickly move from splashing paint onto a canvas to creating detailed shapes. i like ‘having made a painting’ more than painting.
game dev is where it comes closest to working: it’s technical, and creates something interactive not passively consumed. the play is in the making and testing cycle,. testing is playing. but now that i think of it, my game is a mess of loose logic and bugs - the way i approached the making phase did have a lot of playing. ok im not sure at this point how this metaphor applies to game dev (sorry!). delete this paragraph from your mind (leaving it in cos someone might be able to explain it to me). in any case, although it is creative, it’s obviously a bit different. as an afterthought, making music also can be a bit technical, whereas painting is less so.
ok, speaking of delineation, im beginning to understand… some forms of creativity naturally separate the phases better.
photography for example is pretty delineated: the parent sets up the camera, with its settings and exposure; the child looks at the world and finds the light and color; the scientist tweaks and finishes the photo on the computer.
music, as i have been doing it (on the computer, one part at a time) is a bit different. the parent might have intentions (usually not to be honest); the child gets to tinker with different sounds and meoldies; the scientist arranges a track and makes the sounds work together. but the delineation is not forced: the child can become the scientist the moment they think a sound would be better with a different filter, and starts playing around with the subtleties. there’s more back and forth. i think what happens here is that the overall creation is limited because there’s less spontaneity, there’s a break in the flow and less jiving around. the vibes dont come as easily from an evolving whole, they come from the parts bit by bit.
ill attempt to fit this metaphor to game dev although im currently pondering whether that field is really creative at all. my own definition of creativity is making something that doesnt yet exist, so in that sense yeah it’s a creative endeavour. but in this ive also highlighted something to myself: do we culturally think of what the child does when we think of creativity? is it a loaded term that ignores the work of the parent and scientist? is this why painting or making a song on guitar are clearly creative but game dev isn’t - because it’s less like play and more technical? even when these other roles are essential to bringing forth the new and without it we’d just be, well, playing? hrm. does trying to fit the identity of ‘a creative’ thus limit me, because i feel deficient at the play part, the part my identity should hinge on according to a loaded word i inherited?
well i honestly think that’s enough for now. i will check in later with some results. Ava has a song that was spontaneously invented this morning, and ill spend some time trying to be a parent and set intentions for what he’d like it to become, how we’ll capture it, where it could go. it’ll be helpful because in this example, i get to be the parent for the most part and can leave the playing to someone else.
i also kind of wonder if im just reinventing the wheel here, and am patently unable to learn things externally and have to reinvent every concept for myself in order to move forward.
did you enjoy this stream of consciousness? i enjoyed writing it: piecing together thoughts that occurred to me over weeks, months and years, on the fly. let me know with a like if you made it this far. there are seven people on this list, i’ll settle for three thumbs up.