think until you can think no more

i have this sentence from jonah lehrer’s "imagine: how creativity works" written down in my notebook: this is glaser’s fundamental method: he thinks until he can think no more. it describes milton glaser’s creative process. glaser doesn’t settle for the first idea or a surface level solution. he keeps pushing a concept from every angle. he questions it, refines it, breaks it down, and rebuilds it until he feels he has exhausted every possible thought about it. this is something i practice too when i know something is bothering me but i can’t quite pinpoint what it is. i write down every thought, every emotion, every what, why, which, and how. you could call it a form of creativity as well, because you keep digging until you finally pull the hidden thought to the surface, and then come up with a creative way of dealing with it. i noted the quote and then thought: what if living itself is an artistic practice? artists spend a lot of time sitting with uncertainty. they get frustrated,…