From a Steve Jobs interview: There's an old Hindu saying that comes into my mind occasionally: "For the first 30 years of your life, you make your habits. For the last 30 years of your life, your habits make you." As I'm going to be 30 in February, the thought has crossed my mind.
Distractions.<p>The internet[1] being the major one, occasionally video games or books. Somewhat unpleasantly I seem wired to seek new distractions whenever I don't have one currently occupying my mind.<p>I've been thinking of forcing myself to spend half an hour each day without stimulus, just thinking and writing on a paper notepad to get around this.<p>[1] I find posting on the internet much more distracting than surfing, because there's the constant desire to check back and see what responses you got.
Having to anticipate implementation problems kills my creativity. Instead of developing the application and solving problems as they arise, thinking and worrying in advance about potential roadblocks, showstoppers and lack of acceptance can be a cause that I don't even <i>start</i> a project, or be reluctant with it.
Just a few random thoughts<p>- Thinking too much how great you are<p>- Worrying too much about the progress of other people<p>- Ignore the original sources and look always for second
hand solutions<p>- Ignoring the "lazy" part of your brain<p>- Being too lazy<p>- Thing that books are only for people that do not act<p>- Dream day and night of how to make more money<p>- Never stop for a second to think out of the box
My day job. I have to build space into it and put interesting things into the space or it's nearly intolerable. But that is why I'm working on changing jobs. I'm 31.
Beer kills my creativity. I'm about to turn 30 so I need to cut back but now I'm in limbo at my job. So I get the "why not?" drink and from there it cascades until I'm 12 in and can't see straight. Feels bad, man.
It's not a habit but when I think 30 years back I'd actually say that what killed most of my creativity are computers and the Internet. They simply offer too many distractions and cannot replace the intimacy of working with pencil and unlined paper. But maybe it's just the way I use it -- e.g. that I answer questions like yours and follow sites like hn etc. They offer pleasant/stimulating distractions but on the whole ... Maybe it's a good idea to display your question as screen saver.<p>Nice quote although my habits were much better when I was 30 than they are now.
Latencies in communication. As long as I'm working on something that depends on other people's responses, I get drifting aloof while trying to figure out something sensible to do until I get my next piece. In contrast, programming a big task in a long-going flow almost demands me to distract myself away from the work so that I won't be totally consumed by it.
I don't think I really have any habits that kill my creativity. I spent many years deconstructing myself. I don't hesitate to question and discard something about myself that isn't working for me.<p>The two biggest obstacles to me getting more done are my job and my ongoing efforts to get well. They both take up a lot of my time and frequently leave me too tired, both mentally and physically, to spend the kind of time I would like to spend on other things. If I am 'mindlessly' surfing the web or something, it is because I am not together enough to do something more productive. Still, looking back, little by little, some things gradually make forward progress anyway, in spite of my constant lament that "I never get <i>anything</i> done!!"
To dodge the question: I don't often find creativity to be the bottleneck of my output. Execution is what takes time.<p>To answer the question: Probably beliefs that act as rules. It's written somewhere in a PG essay that it's best to not know what is "impossible." To generalize, if I believe that Google owns search and it's not possible to enter that market, then I'll subconsciously prune any ideas stemming from "search".
1. Exposing myself too much to the creative output of others.<p>This is bittersweet for obvious reasons.<p>Btw: check out thehackedbrain.com for similar discussions.
The biggest killer for me are distractions like Facebook and Twitter. I also tend to fall prey to the anxiety of influence. I start feeling like my work will never be as good as other's work and begin to withdraw from creating.
Adding too many feeds to my reader. A site like HN is tolerable, since I won't even notice if I've been away for a couple of days, but the unread count on my reader...
having the "i don't have enough time" mindset. there's no such thing as "no time." if it's important, if it's a priority, you'll have time and you'll get it done.
Thinking too much about what others think is the best "creativity killer".<p>I prefer to be the kid I am (I am 19) and free in thoughts - careless. That's what keeps my creativity up.<p>Make your question more specific?