■1: How to kill creativity

Mar 23, 2026

How to kill creativity (in 2 easy steps)

So you’ve finally faced the truth. You’ve made daily art, traveled the world, read all the books, and all those books were actually YouTube videos, and now you realize the creative field just is not for you. You don’t have what it takes.

Don’t cry. People like you… you just don’t have it in you. But I’ve got some good news. Come a little closer.

That’s better.

The 20 highest-paying jobs don’t require any creativity at all. It’s true! In fact, creativity would get in the way. I don’t want an anesthesiologist with clever new ideas. That’s why you don’t want clever ideas either. To out-earn us creatives, you must keep your mind dull. And that’s exactly what you’ll learn in this post.

I see the look on your face. You think it will be hard. It won’t be. Not for you. You’ve read all the “books.” You know all the techniques already. Just flip them on their heads. The stairs going up also go down. Allow me to demonstrate.

1. Avoid becoming creative

Let’s try something. Close your eyes. But keep them open to continue reading. Now imagine an ordinary toothbrush, and think of five things you could use it for. If that was hard, you are in luck! You’re already well on your way. But to keep you uncreative, and me without competition, let’s find out how to stay that way. I have made you a personal three-step checklist.

Avoid all accidental research

Research is the enemy of the dull mind. Learning even just a tiny detail about something can be enough to spark inspiration. Sadly, you have to learn things in life, so this gets hard.

When you work on something, make sure never to learn more than what you absolutely need. Tell yourself that you already know basically how stuff works. You just need to look up this one thing. If you see a word you don’t know, it’s not important. Rabbit holes are for rabbits.

If you never learn anything new, you won’t have new thoughts. It is an important step on the path of dullness.

Seek inspiration

It sounds like a contradiction, right? But inspiration is not the same as research. Research is about sifting sand for gold dust. Inspiration is about scrolling ArtStation. If you don’t know ArtStation, it’s a site for stealing other people’s ideas so you don’t have to have your own.

The creative process starts as an inward journey. It’s discovering connections in your own mind. It’s sitting with eyes closed and letting the mind free to do its thing for a second.

So… Don’t do that.

Keep your mind occupied

Let’s be real. Boredom is a waste of time. Fill silence with music, idle time with TikTok. Creativity nests in an unstimulated mind. If you get restless and you feel like you’re wasting time, put on something that gives the illusion of productivity. Explainer videos on YouTube, podcast interviews with creatives. Pretty soon you’ll forget what it’s like to be creative yourself.

2. Kill your creativity

So you’ve fucked up. You’re a creative already. It’s in your blood, and you want it out. Our work just got a whole lot harder. Creativity hides a dark secret: The longer you keep it, the harder it fastens its cruel grip. No one said this was going to be easy. Let’s crack that skull open and get to work.

The next time you get a rush of inspiration, follow it. We can work with that. Inspiration isn’t creativity yet; it’s just a mush of things you’ve seen. What matters is how we treat it.

Go to the screen immediately. No planning first! A plan would give you structure. Try to make up that structure as you’re going. While you’re at it, focus on sourcing assets, aesthetics, phrasing, goals, and improving your workflow. Give that creativity as little space as possible.

Keep your end goal front of mind. You know what the end looks like—no point in experimenting. This way, any minor hindrance will stop you completely in your tracks. The thought we’re trying to produce is “Oh no! It’s not exactly as I imagined! What’s the point…”

Set your expectations sky-high. You must be original at all costs. Refuse all mediocrity. Every ugly pixel is a needle in the creative heart. Prod it enough, and in time it will stop beating. The work is done. Don’t look back. You’ll out-earn us all.

Some may think this article is satirical. Make no mistake; I do not advocate creative behavior as a result of reading any my work. Nor do I encourage supporting me on Patreon.

Tutorial: Cunningham’s law

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I just made a denoising video public. Turns out the audience knew of better ways to denoise than I did! So today’s tutorial is: the comment section of this video.

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