"Whatever the difference between brilliant and average brains, we are all creative. And through practice and study we can enhance our skills and talents"
About this Quote
Hawkins is doing something quietly radical here: he’s yanking creativity out of the “genius” display case and putting it back in the workshop. As an inventor, he knows the modern myth that keeps whole industries humming - the idea that innovation arrives as lightning, delivered to a few blessed brains. His line flips that narrative without denying talent. Yes, there are “brilliant and average brains,” he concedes, but he refuses to let that difference become destiny.
The subtext is an argument for agency, and it’s aimed at two audiences at once. To the intimidated: you’re not disqualified from making things because you weren’t born incandescent. To the complacent: raw horsepower isn’t a substitute for reps. “Practice and study” reads like a deliberate demotion of inspiration, repositioning creativity as a skill stack - something you cultivate the way you build a prototype, debug a system, or iterate a design.
Context matters: Hawkins comes out of a tech culture that fetishizes the prodigy-founder while also preaching “learn to code” optimism. His quote tries to reconcile those opposing impulses. It’s egalitarian, but not naive; he acknowledges cognitive variance while insisting it doesn’t monopolize originality.
The intent is motivational, but also political in a small-p sense: if creativity is common and trainable, then schools, workplaces, and gatekeepers lose the excuse to treat it as a rare resource. Innovation stops being a personality trait and starts looking like infrastructure: time, mentorship, tools, and permission to fail publicly.
The subtext is an argument for agency, and it’s aimed at two audiences at once. To the intimidated: you’re not disqualified from making things because you weren’t born incandescent. To the complacent: raw horsepower isn’t a substitute for reps. “Practice and study” reads like a deliberate demotion of inspiration, repositioning creativity as a skill stack - something you cultivate the way you build a prototype, debug a system, or iterate a design.
Context matters: Hawkins comes out of a tech culture that fetishizes the prodigy-founder while also preaching “learn to code” optimism. His quote tries to reconcile those opposing impulses. It’s egalitarian, but not naive; he acknowledges cognitive variance while insisting it doesn’t monopolize originality.
The intent is motivational, but also political in a small-p sense: if creativity is common and trainable, then schools, workplaces, and gatekeepers lose the excuse to treat it as a rare resource. Innovation stops being a personality trait and starts looking like infrastructure: time, mentorship, tools, and permission to fail publicly.
Quote Details
| Topic | Self-Improvement |
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