To think that really boring people see highly creative people as children?

[Heroine]

I AM JUST SAYING..

I had a weird thing happen, I am quite creative and like decorative stuff and cool quirky things and someone who I thought was on the same wavelength gave me a real dressing down when I showed her some cool japanese quirky notebooks I bought - with that sort of stylised fluffy, hearty, pop=art style, she sais the thought it was childish and unprofessional. (!). i thought it was just fun..

It made me think that all the people who make the rules about what is 'professional' are really just all the really dull tedious unimaginative types and that is why they think creativity is likely to diminish performance - because they can't handle it and it freaks their boring little heads out.

(I know this might seem to conflict with my 'women who run fluffy novelty businesses' thread, but I'm just saying (and not explaining well) that the dull people seem to never be interested in anything, and seem to make the rules, and the people who went wild and got into interestingb things in their teens and 20s but had to droip them because the dull run the world, are seen by the dull people as 'only having childish ideas'.
It seems a bit sad - does anyone see what I mean?? It seems to be getting worse as women have more serious jobs - I get it but as I'm a bit 'consultant-ish' I can ride above it, but it seems that somewhere there is a book that says you can't be clever or get things done or reliable unless you think and dress in a dull boring way.. and that makes no sense to me..

sorry for going on, but I think there somethin in my uncomfortableness at being thought of as childish when I think of myself as an adult who has some sense of humour and creativity.

Am I being unreasonable??

Well, if you are in a meeting and you are sat there writing notes with a pink pen with a pompom on the end, yes well people will think you are a bit of a div.

yes but why does boring conventional and old fashioned read as 'sensible and mature' who made that rule up?? especially when google, apple etc run the world now??

I'm not saying that I'm saying that I am highly creative and so don't panic about buying cool notepads and I think they enhance who I am and are fun, but dull people think they reduce your skills and that if you buy them you can't work properly -

Blimey, you know some very strange 'dull' people don't you?

well you seem to have a bit of a knack for creating mild irritation and the need to yawn repeatedly

so yes, you ARE highly creative

IN fact, that is a good point by me :) fifteen years ago showing someone the apple front screen and angry birds would have had some senior exec going on about how childish and babyish the ideas were and what about spreadsheets.. I think I am right here about the dullards..

Anyway, why does it matter what downing else thinks as long as you are happy with how YOU think? And you complain that they are judgmental
But your stance against 'them' is judgmental too?

A note pad is a notepad and anyone who pays more than smart price for one is a mug. If all you have to think about is what is on the cover of your notepad then you really need to get out more.

almost every artists sketchbook you can buy has a plain black cover...

the person you were talking to was being rather rude, but it's not a creative/non creative thing, it's personal taste.

I'm a creative type in my work but I can't stand frilly stationery, it distracts me from the work.

Well, if you are in a meeting and you are sat there writing notes with a pink pen with a pompom on the end, yes well people will think you are a bit of a div.

My new contender for biggest laugh of the week.

Does Steve Jobs take notes at meetings using a Bart Simpson pen and Garfield notebook? Somehow I doubt it.

I love roland's post - I wonder how many years that 'oh like I'm like whatever' works in arguments?! try it at a board meeting!!

Why do you need to distract from the content of the book and the product of the pen with glitter and sparkles and bunnies?

Isn't creating something from your mind, from your heart, exciting enough?

maybe those people who work for Apple are too busy creating things to be distracted by something boinging about on the end of a pen, and so they save that money to create original things and use bic pens instead??

there is more to creativity that what you have in your hand, a world can exist in someone's mind and you won't guess it's content from their stationary

'Quirky' is just another marketing gimmick these days anyway - like all those "Keep me in the fridge for a couple of days" and "I'm full of yummy fruit" style messages and cartoons on the sides of food products made by huge corporations wanting to look like they're small cool businesses run by, like, really creative people.

Oh actually I had a notebook with big flowers on it, and I took really good notes in it and challenged a legal decision with it, when I got a slight quizzical look I said 'Oh this is the notebook I use to make people think I'm not serious, when I seriously am' it got a nervous snigger from the opposition which was worth taping! i forgot about that, thanks for helping me remember!

I'm sorry but your posts are coming across as a bit 'I know it all'!

Just because you think something is dull doesn't mean it is, and why do you get so worked up by it all? Be happy with you own creativity and making your own Mark and let others worry about themselves!

btw coldtits have you seen apple/google/microsoft offices? They aren't like 1970s royal bank of scotland branches you know!

My son isn't called Mark, what are you going on about? :) If I think something is dull it has to be pretty bloody dull because half my job is being dull and controlled, so not sure what that is all about. Perhaps to all dull people people who aren't dull come across as 'know it alls' that sounds like a particularly bitter English way to try and knock someone - in the same vein as 'she loves herself' yeah?! how can that be in insult??!

1970s bank of scotland?

I'm a creative person, I am very nearly 36 and as time goes by I increasingly wonder when I am going to grow up.

I frustrate myself, I am constantly looking to other people for guidance and affirmation that I am on the right track so Yes I think it is quite accurate, I am childstate.

Granted, sometimes with DS I can be a Controlling Parent and an Adult but a lot of the time I recognise the Compliant or Rebellious Child in myself and I don't like it.

"Oh this is the notebook I use to make people think I'm not serious"

Why do you need to do this? It seems ... well, a huge waste of energy. I hate the whole "I'm so quirky and different, you must be dull if you don't like my flowery stationery" thing. Mind games. Seems like a sign of massive insecurity. I doubt the genius Apple design bods you mention have much truck with that shite.

(And I do really despise the term "quirky" (I know I used it earlier, but was just echoing your OP) - it is massively over-used.)

'like all those "Keep me in the fridge for a couple of days" and "I'm full of yummy fruit" style messages and cartoons on the sides of food products made by huge corporations wanting to look like they're small cool businesses run by, like, really creative people.'

Very true Straight.
Who gets taken in by that shit?

'Email me, [email protected] in my yuurt to tell me what you guys think. Heeeeeeeeeeey'

OP - where are you from? Are you Finnish by any chance?

re coldtits, do you really think that really creative work is done by people in libraries in 1960s worksuits with grey pencils and white A4 marvelling over how bright their minds are??! I knew it was going to be uphill, but this??!
Do you really think smiling enjoying design etc is 'childish'

I've seen the inside of Apple offices, yes. They look like offices, not primary schools.

Have you considered a change of career? You sound thoroughly bored and peevish. It's not because you are "highly creative". It's because you have a ...youthful, bubbly outlook and need to be working with like-minded people. IMO. And stop dismissing as "boring" everyone who does a doubletake at a grown woman with a My Little Pony pencil case on her desk.