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It is no accident that art, and music, and literature, and mathematics, and physics, and chemistry, and biology, and computer science, ended up here in Creative Studies. They ended up here by design. Because they are the same thing. Because the ability to create new things in art and the ability to create new things in mathematics are the same thing. And creation is the point of everything.
When I got out of graduate school and started working at IBM Research, I thought the world worked like this. Clever people had good ideas and turned them into scientific papers, or paintings, or concertos. Other people recognized this goodness and picked them up, and ... well, stuff happened. That was it. That's how good ideas changed the world.
That turns out to be completely wrong. Completely wrong. Do you know how it really works? The way it really works is that clever people have good ideas and turn them into scientific papers, or paintings, or concertos. Then everyone else tells them that what they're doing is impossible, or impractical, or irrelevant, or wrong...
What it takes to change the world - and the thing that will distinguish you in your career - is not intelligence. There are lots of smart people in the world. It's not talent. Plenty of people are more talented that you. What it takes - and what will distinguish you - is stubbornness, your refusal to give up on your vision - on your dream - when everyone tells you it's impossible, or impractical, or irrelevant, or wrong. You will have to work with people who can't possibly do what you do. You will have to do their jobs for them. You will have to be willing for them to forget that it was your idea. You will have to make them think it was their idea in the first place. You will have to win their hearts as well as their minds. You will have to do whatever it takes to champion your creative vision.
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