The Super Project: Part II (Late Night with Justin Wexler)

Part I of this post describes how I- unbeknownst to me at the time- used the if at first you don't succeed live-with to get focused on the task at hand.  I was able to use this strategy to begin working productively on the assignment, but that's not to say that completing the project went from unsurmountable to a cakewalk thanks to the brains at Stanford.  I still had quite a bit of work a head of me, only now I was confident that I had a shot of completing the assignment.

As discussed in my last post, I worked all day on the finance assignment; that is up until 4:30p, when I headed downtown for another engrossing marketing class.  Who would have thought that a TiVO discussion would get everyone all riled up?  After class I headed straight to bed knowing that I'd need every ounce of energy for the day that was ahead of me.  And boy was I right...

Tuesday:

- wake up
- work
- and the fun begins...

After work I headed straight to the downtown UCENT, knowing that I'd be much more productive there than at home.  After a quick stop at Starbucks, I headed to the library and got to work.

In one of my past posts I discussed my opinion on the affects being tired has on creativity.  Now I would like to revisit the topic as I have a real life example fresh in my memory.  My friend Scott commented on the post and made a great point.  He basically disagreed with my opinion, drawing from his own experience as an architect.  He argues that, in some situations, exhaustion can bring about levels of creativity that are unavailable to the well-rested mind.  For everyone out there who doesn't know Scott, I can confirm that throughout his career as an architect, he has put in his fair share of all-nighters, so he's without a doubt a reliable source on the subject (http://theexpatarchitect.blogspot.com/).

This being said, I don't think I have experienced the same creativity that he speaks of.  My experience with late night or tired creativity is that it is simply a muted version of my "regular" creativity.  And my work on this finance assignment displays that.  I worked until 2:00am this Tuesday on the assignment, so despite my best efforts to fight of the desire to sleep (i.e. coffee, coffee, and more coffee), I was getting tired as the night wore on.  As this yearning to call it a night grew stronger, I felt my work become less imaginative and more to the point.  I was no longer trying my best to find the links between the data, but rather I was just trying to get the damn thing over with.

None the less, I am interested type of thinking that Scott feels when his body and mind are at less than 100%.  Maybe it's simply a difference in the type of creativity needed in business and school vs. the type of creativity needed in architecture, which is traditionally considered a more "artsy" profession.  I wonder what all you artist folk think about the subject.  Does exhaustion help or hurt creativity?  Does it have an affect (if any) in all or just some cases?

Just a little bit more on the Super project, in a bit...