Rational Creatives 🎨♟️ #004
switching between data and creativity, the science-based art of Salvador Dali, 8 illustrated steps to thinking critically
Hello friends,
Greetings from Louisiana! After a week-long vacation in Florida, I’m back home and ready to keep writing. During this trip, I had the opportunity to visit places I’d never been to and meet with old friends and family. It was a lot of fun, and even though it wasn’t a think week à la Bill Gates, it allowed me to unwind and come up with new ideas.
One picture I took from St. Pete Pier
Anyway, in this new issue of Rational Creatives I’m going to cover:
Switching between creativity and data
Salvador Dali: scientific artist
How to think critically
Now, without further ado…
Switching between data and creativity
I wasn’t very active on Twitter during my trip. I barely posted any content and tried to use the app as little as possible. However, in one of those quick, mindless checks, I came across this tweet by George Mack:
Reading this tweet felt particularly good because George was able to articulate an idea that’s been bouncing in my head for a while now. This is something I’ve been wanting to say but didn’t know how.
Although I think this is true, I don’t think it is true just for marketers. Nor is it just a temporary trend. I believe that becoming a Rational Creative or a Creative Rationalist will increasingly give a huge edge to all kind of professionals and entrepreneurs from most fields.
In a world where innovation drives economic growth and creators are independent businesses, everybody has to be able to question assumptions, come up with new and disruptive ideas and test them to see how valuable they really are. Otherwise, you’ll be professionally and economically dead.
Salvador Dali: scientific artist
During my stay in Tampa, I had the opportunity to go to neighboring city St. Petersburg and visit The Dali Museum.
Salvador Dali was one of the most eminent, influential and controversial artists of the 20th century. But I don’t bring him up to talk about his skills, his legacy or his eccentricities - it’s his polymathy what I want to highlight.
The Surrealist painter was a voracious reader and had a wide range of interests. As the lady who was explaining the museum exhibits said: “He was interested in everything”. And it was this curiosity combined with his outstanding technical skills what enabled him to create such remarkable artworks.
Dali was big into science and used to read all sorts of books and scientific magazines. Some of the topics that captivated him were: physics, quantum mechanics, the origins of life, evolution and mathematics. And you can see how his great interest in scientific matters played out in his work:
The painting Leda Atomica (1949) was the fruit of his reading and investigations on the Golden Ratio.
Crucifixion (1954) is one the most famous paintings of his Nuclear Mysticism period in which Dali combines religion, mysticism, science and mathematics.
In 1963, Dali painted Galacidalacidesoxyribonucleicacid, a tribute to Crick and Watson who discovered the structure of DNA and made a deep impression on him.
How to think critically
I’m a big fan of comics. Calvin and Hobbes along with Dilbert are a couple of my all-time favorites. I read them very often, and they always make me laugh and reflect.
A couple of months ago I was looking for new comics to read and I discovered a comic artist whose work I liked a lot and now check frequently.
Last week I was scrolling down his website and found this beautiful and insightful comic that I want to share with y’all who are interested in thinking better:
This week’s issue ended up being very visual. I wasn’t planning that, but I liked it. I hope you enjoyed the paintings and the comics as much as I did, and find value in this email.
Please shoot me a DM on Twitter, I’d really love to hear some feedback or just get in touch with you.
Until next time,
Daniel 🎨♟️