A worry I have is that I spend too much time consuming stuff rather than creating or producing the kind of things I want to make. I don't just want to be an "idea person". I want to be able to make stuff, but I find it very difficult. That's because making new and excellent stuff is HARD, of course.
For me to be most creative, I need other people around me who also have the creator mindset with a taste for entrepreneurial exploration. See adventurous creativity.
Kinds of Drives
As I'm thinking about the difference between creators and consumers, I wonder if it's possible to identify traits that might help understand the difference further? Here's an off-the-cuff hot take on possible drives:
- action drivers - want to make something happen by their own hand
- creator drive - to create something that didn't exist before and pursuing it
- consumer drive - the desire to acquire efficiently for greater-than-unity reward
- skill drives - mavens, fixers that like contributing critically relevant skills
- supporter drive - help through general personal support, wrangling,
- social needs drive - desire to be connected, and will contribute in way they can to feel
- self-sufficiency drive - desire to do everything as independently as possible, or have that choice
- control drive - desire to make everyone and everything work as expected/desire
- security drive - desire to avoid scary things or be sure of their safety/resources
- sex drive - desire for sexual relations with people in the group
References
- On Being a Creator (2010) - musings on the nature of being a creator rather than a consumer
- Balancing Consuming with Producing (2014) - a time-tracked experiment in creating versus consuming