Cake Advice

[Architect]

Cake Advice

Dear CAKE,

I am currently a third year undergraduate mechanical engineering student. I enjoy my field of study, but I don't necessarily feel like it's my passion. Engineering at times feels like a soulless pursuit. I long to be an artist of some sort, but I don't know what my medium would be. I envy people who can write books or music or create pieces of art that evoke a powerful response within the reader, listener or viewer. Certainly, my talents as an artist are slim at best, but to me, the pinnacle of achievement would be to create something that could leave an impression upon someone the way artists have left impressions upon me. Can you, as professional artists, give me any suggestions for ways to express myself artistically while pursuing a professional career in a totally unrelated field?

Thanks,

Paul


Answer

Dear Paul,

When the Pythagoreans invented math in the 6th century B.C., their creativity was way off the charts! To realize, in retrospect, the immense inspiration they must have experienced in order to create something so advanced and important for the advancement of human civilization, is difficult. As a message to the latent genius inside of you, please consider that from ancient times all the way through to the Middle Ages, bursts of mathematical creativity were often followed by centuries of stagnation. Were you were experiencing a lapse of inspiration when you wrote your letter to us? With experience and a hard-won shift of perspective, you will gain ingenuity and creativity that will generously integrate with the technical knowledge you have worked so hard to acquire.

Innovative technologies will continue to leave an impression on people to a much greater degree than a book or piece of music most often does. Keep on top of learning the basics. You will integrate your love of the arts with your mastery of science. Logic will serve your imagination. You will find that the field of mechanical engineering holds a great deal of allure.

Good Luck,

CAKE

 

[Jennywocky]

That's an interesting answer, but... it's all pretty much boiling down to, "Don't fret! Just keep trying, you'll use creativity to solve problems!"

IOW, I'm not sure if it gives the poor kid anything to go on. Not that you can explain in great detail much in that kind of answer forum, but....

 

[Architect]

For me it beautifully expresses the middle ground and fusion between art and science which is so important for INTP's. INTJ's & SJ's are the true scientists, ISFP's & NF's the artists, and we live in between worlds, yet with the main foot firmly in the world of science.

 

[computerhxr]

I have always considered science and art to be one in the same. I am an engineer by profession, but an artist at heart (and profession).

The sad thing is that engineering is in much greater demand than art. I am transitioning to more art and marketing and less engineering because it is an extremely taxing profession. I recharge by artistic expression which makes be a better engineer.

Steve Jobs headed Pixar which is why it was so successful. Google is following in suit with their Epicurean society. They allow technical people to be creative and they do it better than anyone else. Corporations and government corporations typically have a huge disconnect between the management and workers. This creates a bi-polar environment, and schizophrenic corporate behavior (or social dissonance).

By neglecting this artistic side, you are essentially choosing to strangulate the right side of your brain. The right side of your brain isn't the artistic side, it's the abstract side. Abstractions are common tools used by programmers on a regular basis. Both the left and right side are capable of being artistic, but the right side has more freedom of expression which many associate as creativity.

In Egypt, there is this diagram that pretty much everyone says illustrates how to build a light bulb. In my opinion (no one else shares my opinion on this), it is to illustrate how to use both sides of your brain more effectively.

My hypothesis is that this represents the left and right sides of the brain. The left is the guiding hand, and the right is the expressive hand. If you spin pottery on a wheel, you use your left hand to stabilize the glob of clay, and the right hand to pull and reshape it. If you're writing a paper, you hold it with your left, and draw with the right. The Serpent(s) in the diagram is the Aether running through both sides of the brain. When your brain is unbalanced, you have a difficult time making connections between abstract and concrete ideas.

This is illustrated in every advanced civilization in the past. These civilizations die when they become too left brain dependent and reject the right side as myth. Myths are simply abstractions of concrete ideas. This bi-polar environment causes a repeatable cycle throughout history where the left and the right brained society’s battle over concrete and abstract beliefs in the same ideas. It's science vs. religion essentially.