I don't usually like to just post links to articles, but I found this particular treatise fascinating.
https://getpocket.com/explore/item/secrets-of-the-creative-brain-651487502
Some of us like to think we're highly creative - in the radio shows that we run, in the words that we write, or the music that we're associated with.
Others of us like to think that our creativity runs in the arena of science and technology, whether it be antennas or electronics or whatever.
It may be that there's not much difference between the highly creative in both of these (and other) fields.
Good Choice
Earlier this morning I also ran across this excellent article about creativity and read it all the way through. It is so well written and the research behind it is top quality.
This is another example of higher thought that relates meaningfully to hobby radio, and by now perhaps the relationship no longer needs to be explained and defended.
It'll be informative to hear what other members say about it.
A part of this article gives reference to some form of mental illness and creativity or genius going hand in hand.
I believe this to be true as if you look at the people who you would call a genius they are lacking somewhere else or are just plain nuts.
I don't know how this relates to hobby radio but look at some of the people we could call musical geniuses. Michael Jackson, gifted yes but mentally ill?, to mutilate himself like he did? and spend his time with kids?
Brian Wilson, a musical genius but also went nuts, besides staying in bed for years! There was mental illness there.
John Lennon, besides being a creative musical genius, he was a nut also.
Elvis, my lifelong idol, born with talent but a nut also but a lot of his mental illness was caused by his own fame and the kind of life it forced him to live.
A few classical composers....gifted to write what they did but I forget which one or two were also not all there in other ways.
Billy Holiday, Judy Garland and on up into the rock and roll era, too many to name but all the most talented and creative had other mental issues as the drugs that befell a lot of them, including Judy Garland and Billy Holiday. It was, in my opinion a form of mental illness to abuse yourself like that when you have so much going for you.
It seems that the brain takes something from somewhere else to make you this gifted person.
Even champion chess players that have the extraordinary mind to play at that level are kooks or lacking in other parts of their life.
Mark Has a Creative Reply
Several things Mark said: "A few classical composers….gifted to write what they did but I forget which one or two were also not all there in other ways."
What a deep pit so many composers fell into and even ordinary musicians. An orchestra I got to know told me they had the highest psychiatry bill of any U.S. orchestra.
"It seems that the brain takes something from somewhere else to make you this gifted person."
That statement from Mark sounds deeply insightful to me and might be something the author might want to quote in her book.
Finally "I don’t know how this relates to hobby radio but look at some of the people we could call musical geniuses."
You've answered your own question! MOST hobby radio stations are about music, and musical geniuses become part of our business. Their mental health is something we encounter.
It's commonly acknowledged that the most creative people are very neurotic.
My psychology teacher told us that when i was in college.
"It’s commonly acknowledged that the most creative people are very neurotic."
Yeah, I am ... ;^D
On Golden Ponder
Having thought about the situation for over 2-minutes, I see the emotions of a creative person as a large pendulum which swings farther than the norm into creative mentality but deeper than the norm into the darker depths of the dark night of the soul.