Jordan Peterson - Why Creative People Fail At School 

Creative people don't fail at school. School fails creative people.

The education system wants you to be smart enough to follow orders but not enough to question them

I was at an art school in Munich. I had a different style of drawing compared to others in cladd. I was praised by my fellow students but my teacher was insisting that I'm not doing it the orthodox way. I was punished for being creative and having my own style. She actually managed to make me leave art and turn my creativity into media. Today I'm a successful filmmaker, photographer and Digital artist. I hate school

As someone who is considered creative, I struggled a lot in school. I think it was probably because I was always thinking of new ideas and stories. I used to draw quick sketches in class and once I got caught and was told to throw away my drawings. I literally cried because of that so during recess I said I had to use the bathroom but I snuck over to the trash can and pulled the still undamaged sketches out and took them home that afternoon. I still have them today 6 years later.

If a creative person shuts down or suppresses his creativity, he becomes destructive. If he cant destroy anything in the outside world, he turns on himself and become self-destructive. Creativity is like a severe itch, if you don't scratch it, you go crazy.

My fellow creatives, always remember the golden rule: be prolific, not perfect. Keep producing, and you'll make it.

Thank you! I am an artist and I struggled in school immensley. My father is a doctor, my brother a lawyer. My former husband a computer scientist. I always felt from another planet. I always was incredibly creative since childhood. But in my former jobs it was not welcome at all. Now I am 55 years old. I quitt my job, because I couldn`t take it anymore! Now I just paint, because I am an artist. And finally I am happy!!!

Im a creative person too. I had some trouble in high school because i didnt see any relevance to 90 percent of what was being taught. You are expected to cram useless knowledge into your head for years and i hated that. Also it was so boring and there was no individual approach to students because we are all different and we cant all learn the same way and the same subjects,especially not if they are boring to us.

To be creative you often have to have a very analytical mind. Sometimes it’s easy to overthink a simple question in an exam for example whereas in art you have so many considerations to observe before you produce a successful painting. You are thinking outside the box all the time.

This is why me and my 3 closest friends in school were at the top of the class in drafting. We almost never paid attention. We were in the back of the class making up things while the other kids were doing "exactly" what they were told. I also graduated at the bottom 7% of my high school class, and now make well over 100k per year consistently. I hated school and school hated me.

I struggled in school. Sensory overload. I loved drawing and writing stories. I could manage and predict the worlds I created in my mind.

“It’s like you put an extrovert into an isolated jail.” As an aspiring filmmaker studying software engineering, I’ve never felt more identified. At times I compare Engineering University to a jail because I can’t do my Stop Motion short films because of all the stupid stuff I have to do for university. I’m ridiculed for that, but I can’t do my creative stuff and that feels like a jail. It feels so liberating to actually sit down and create stories, and actually animate them. Hopefully one day I’ll become that filmmaker I aspire to be.

Absolutely everything he said! I found school boring so I ignored it. The teachers were so boring that I couldn't keep track of what they were say even if I tried. Homework? Nope! Classwork? Sort of! I did not care to solve the math problems in order to figure out the "secret" message. I got very used to passing time in school and no one knew how to motivate me. Shame wouldn't do it. My dad raging out at me didn't either. I had a few teachers that managed to engage my attention. A social studies teacher would bring a story every class and invite us to discuss it. A math teacher just said to me "You seem to manage yourself well so just keep doing what works". I actually learned in his class but was sabotaged later by a grand standing ego maniac math teacher. I could go on but there is a lot of pain and frustration back there.

My god, I have never heard myself summed up so perfectly. It brought tears to my eyes that for 80 years, I thought I was the odd one, the outlier, the one that just didn’t fit. How many times in elementary school I got sent home because I wasn’t listening. Then they gave me an IQ test and it was so high they didn’t tell my mother the results until I had graduated-barely.

It really depends on the discipline. You can use your creativity to feign intelligence. I studied Physics in college, I'm not that intelligent but I'm extremely creative. Turns out my creativity gave me the ability to solve very difficult physics problems that my fellow classmates that undoubtably had a higher IQ than me were incapable of solving.

Art is my very makeup. I sleep, dream, and breathe art. 24/7. No one fostered this in me a kid. It was just there. Always there. School stifled this so much. Now I have a grandson who doodles, draws, creates and gets in trouble for it. His mind is a constant idea. I am so sad to see it being diminished.

I'm now 80 yrs old, totally happy with decisions I made in my life, but the best advice I got from my guidence councilor, back in the 60s was get out of school,

Its amazing there's so many people speaking out about being creative. Ive had my own struggles as creative person and honestly it was hard and frustrating. I got diagnosed with depression in 2022 and currently im planning to practice self compassion for my depression, confidence, and trust in myself for me. Don't give up everyone and don't let people's words affect your mental state they don't understand what you're going through. You matter.

I always struggled in school from the very beginning. It wasn't until my adult years that I recognized that I wasn't stupid, but that my brain worked differently than the average person. That coupled with virtually non-existent parents and little discipline made for a crazy, painful childhood and school experience. My husband and I decided to home school our children and, along with them, I was permitted to have the school experience all over again. It was most marvelous and I enjoyed it immensely. My daughter-in-law recently told me that I was very creative, but I never saw myself that way. So, hey, maybe I really am!

School is where you are rewarded for memorizing information that may or may not be true. School is where you are indoctrinated to become compliant consumer/producers. School is a safe environment for angry adults who are legally allowed to torment helpless children. Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach...and resent the creative student with every cell inside them.

Back when I was in college, I often thought to myself that in college you are allowed to do almost anything you want except think. You are fine as long as you memorize what they tell you, question nothing, and give them back exactly the answers they want.

The same goes for creatively minded educators. They get crucified, branded as incompetent and worked out of the system. These same individuals are often adored by their students.

I had a part-time job teaching test prep for the GRE and the GMAT. Standardized tests are really good at measuring your ability to take standardized tests, but that's about all they really measure. Teaching my students about the grading criteria for the essay gave them a serious score boost, because graders were taught to look for a few specific things. Spelling and grammar were relatively minor concerns; they were more interested in arguments supported by 2-3 examples. Memorization of a few key Algebra and Geometry rules would save test takers loads of time too.

I'm a doctor of business administration, and for many years, I've said, "If somebody tells you you have a great idea, it may be good, but it won't be great. The great ideas are the ones everybody says are crazy until somebody makes them work." In 1854, when Colonel Edwin Drake said he was going to drill for oil, everybody laughed at him. Until Drake actually succeeded at it in 1856, nobody had every gotten oil from the ground; they got scooped it up when it bubbled to the surface in a swamp. Likewise, Walt Disney's business advisors urged him not to create a full-length animated movie. They said that nobody would watch a cartoon that long. I could give you many other examples.

There were a cluster of creatives growing up who were the ones who struggled in school and had overpowering anxiety, and then you had the cluster I was in where we could get the grades but we didn't pretend it meant much of anything--it always felt like robotic imitation rather than any understanding. Post-school life has it's pros and cons, but at least it leaves room for you to approach things your own way, which lets you actually get a grasp of the information you have to work with. During school I just turned off and coasted with indifference until those hours are up (and I learned best outside of school), but post-school I look back at it as something awful.

My problem is that I'm very creative while also having a proclivity to break rules. I've had many jobs in my life and my chief enjoyment in all of them was finding and exploiting the loopholes in their various rule structures, meaning that I'm really good at appearing to do everything that's asked of me while hardly doing anything at all. Creative people need an outlet. Mine just happens to be of the devious sort. I'm kind of a bastard really.

I went to a private college to become an illustrator. In my third year I entered seven pieces in the student exhibit. All seven won first place. At the end of my fourth year my professors told me ‘we don’t know what to do with you.’

I sucked at school. I knew I wasn't dumb because in the 9th grade they gave me a test to determine my skills, and I was tested at a sophomore college reading level. The test had determined that I would be a good musician or actor. I forget what the test was called, but it was accurate in its diagnosis of my creativity. I am a singer/songwriter/beat maker, EmCee, poet and novelist. I am 54 and now have an IQ of about 140. I am self taught, through reading and studying at Libraries. For years, I checked out books, sometimes 6 at a time. And I would go home and study. I would get educational videos and break them down as well, writing out what I have learned and quizing myself. I cant say I relearned science application and things like that, such as the mineral chart, etc... because I dont have an interest in those fields. This is where the indoctrination centers of America are doing it wrong! They treat all children the same academically. Its kinda like giving ALL WOMEN THE SAME SIZE BRA!!! People are very different from each other when it comes to interests, passions, desires and skillsets. What one person lacks in dexterity, another might excel in, and make the perfect athlete. One person might grasp music theory or algebra while another person struggles to understand it. The differences in us are phenomenal and yet, we are similar in so many other ways. I feel in order to properly educate... A persons personality and character traits must be acknowledged and stimulated first. Curriculum has been replaced with corporate agenda and indoctrination. Political and corporate agendas have no place in the classroom! Every person learns different and has different interests. Until this corporation we call a country recognizes that, we will continue to have an ineffective educational system.

I think that a rational path for creative people who do’t want to starve in a hovel while creating their art is “micro-creativity” in a useful skill. This would entail building a skill set in some practical, in-demand field and then, once established, taking a creative approach to executing the craft and problem solving. Thus the creative will have an outlet for their creativity, to say nothing about the funds necessary to carry on with their “macro-creative” pursuits on their own terms (on their own time, on their own dime). The hazard with this approach is that so much mental energy is spent on the practical pursuit that there is little left for the purely creative pursuit. But this can be consciously managed.

I'm a creative person. I loved to draw and paint. I absolutely hated school. I was so glad when I finally graduated. Because I thought I'd never go back. But my maternal grandmother who raised me, enrolled me in a local community College that I really didn't want to go to, using some money set aside for my education, by my biological father. I find this to be very true. I completely agree with Jordan Peterson on this. I knew exactly what I wanted to do with my life, but never had any opportunity. Thank you.

Wow, this video hit me on so many levels. So many analogies and tidbits that are exactly me. I'm a creative problem solver that would love to invent things (I have SOOO many ideas) but I don't have the network available to develop them or the finances available to pay people to help me create them. But sooner or later my exact idea comes out and gets me zero credit or reward. I love FINDING problems so I keep having projects for solutions that are within my grasp. It's what keeps me going. I'm also an extrovert too!

I have been told by many that I am a phenomenally accomplished person. My forthcoming book catalogues all of it. I left school in my senior year of college because my academic advisor (PhD) told me to “Have a more realistic goal” after I explained my career goals.

Thank You, there's no words to describe how validated I felt watching this video. I was always just barely passing my grades and felt frustrated that I wasnt gonna amount to anything, thankfully, because of this feeling I started to start writing a book online as a last ditch effort and man, did it felt therapeutic to express my creativity for the first time in a productive way. Still writing and posting chapters to this day and I have no regrets. Thank you for this video, here's my like and subscribe

Always drew in school. In and out of art classes. I’d always draw in my books. Other subjects other than art I struggled in. Always been good at art, puzzles etc. Always had learning difficulties, needed extra help, had those extra learning, “special needs” ish sessions with other people who struggled with learning too. Got picked up from school early in the day for a couple hours to a learning clinic to help my brain keep up. All fine now at 23.

When I was a very young Lad in second grade. I began to exhibit these creative traits. Plus all the later excepted Short attention with high curiosity in Artistic thoughts. But, they stuck me in the " special class ", Rode the short bus, after testing me. What I learn was, " to have DISDAIN for not only education, but teachers. I was beaten and ridiculed for my expressive thinking. To this day, I hate school. I am A poet and rail against those in " go along get along types ".

I totally agree with you, it’s very hard for a creator to leave an idea just because people don’t understand it, because at the moment he/she share the idea, a massive amount of thinking has been spend on it; and I think that’s why sometimes they become unhappy because others don’t perceive things as the creator who think it’s simple. I think we better work in a term, where some will be responsible to translate the idea in a more social and community terms. Because most creators, don’t do well explaining their work in a simple terms. Any way; good talk

I know exactly what you mean. I was always the divergent type. Not like all the rest. Making me a loner in school. Interacting with all groups but never belonging to one. The out of the box thinking and also creative solutions is what has made me a great consultant and standing out from the crowd. As I am like nobody else. Also in job interviews people don’t want yes-sayers, but critical thinkers.

Thank you so so much for providing such an amazing video. I appreciate your efforts 😊.

I'm creative but I was also very academic and did well at school. I did a test a few years ago and it turns out my brain operates at 50/50. So I'm equally creative as much as I am logical.

This so reminds me of when I was in college. I was in the advertising program and I had a very different way of creating, my professor actually said that’s not the way it’s done (and of course he gave me a lower grade). Then years later the same style I had created in college began being used in ad agencies.

I’m so grateful hearing this whole thing 🙏 hallelujah

"The correlation between creativity and grades is zero." I think people are overlooking this?😅 It means how creative you are doesn't affect your grades at all

When I was a creative teenager, my parents always told me to "have something to fall back on" like a business degree...even back then I knew that was not an option for me.

0:40 so basically in order to assess people in certain categories, rather than looking purely at results you generally have to evaluate what is common. So you dont get creativity, you get the people who are best at doing what is expected, not necessarily the people who are THE best.

I'm both conscientious and creative. It's a rare dual ability. Like, I follow rules. To give you an example, I was in a Creative Writing course--it's amazing that the perfect opportunity to share this story arises the day after I think about it--and my one poem was written on a system of criteria. He was telling us a thing to write, for each one, and I had written it into a narrative structure. And mind you, the criteria was graded on following the pattern he gave. So, each of the ten points, would be docked if you didn't follow one of them. So... He gave it, and I had written it into a narrative structure, and then he said "Write a line that doesn't make sense." And, I chose not to follow that. He looked at it, docked my paper one point. And then came up to me the next day, and said, "You didn't follow this one rule, so I knocked off one point." I was perfectly okay with that, because the exercise was to teach you discipline. Which, is something a Grand Master artist gains. And that I was okay with--I still got an A for the project, and an A for the course--but that was an interesting point. I still follow that measure today, when I build outlines, or do creative things, I follow a structure of rules and create within those rules. I'll break them occasionally, when the artistic merit needs it too... But, I've spent 20 years learning grammar, syntax, punctuation, I can diagram a sentence, can correctly describe about 100 different philosophies, have knowledge on all the most significant religions, and some dead ones. I am well studied on Ancient History, and British and American History--up the point of the War of 1812, which is where I think I ended my one long poem, which is going to be expanded when I have the creative juice to do it. Like, you have to be disciplined as an artist, and I'd think the truly gifted artists, like Michelangelo or Leonardo, weren't just creative, but also conscientious. Or someone like Tolstoy or such. Goethe is another fine example of a conscientious artist. Or Dali was very conscientious, though highly neurotic.

I am, or was a very creative person. I could learn creative/artistic abilities instantly after 1 try and usually mastered it. School was torture for me. I was always singled out, constantly ridiculed and bullied because I was different. Thus, my journey into true failure began. I was never seen as valuable in the workplace nor were my ideas listened to or the good ideas were stolen by psychopaths who'd backstab anyone to get ahead. Now I've no inspiration or creative spark any more. I'm kicked away in my room watching what remains of my pathetic existence pass me by. I guess all that's left is to just whither away and die. All hope is lost. 😢

I was thinking this for some years, of course on a simplistic way, but its awesome that someone confirms it in detail.

A great example of this happened to me not long ago. I was in Year 12 Orientation and getting ready for the Media subject. The teacher provided us with some simple techniques for Idea Generation as we were starting our media projects (which could be short films, photo series, music videos, etc) like brainstorming, SCAMPER, forced relationships, rapid ideation and zero drafts. Which was great, what went wrong was that we were then eventually told that we HAD to use these methods and we were going to get graded by how well we work with these methods. Just conscientiousness and working with the only things they're familiar with.

I love this. It drains creativity until I am a not creative of thought now as it has been drummed out of me by concrete thinkers.

It’s cuz it’s hard to learn math when you’re doodling all day… but you get really good at doodling.

Absolutely brilliant and true! Thank God for Dr Peterson 👏🏻👏🏻

This really resonated with me. I've spent my entire life struggling to fit in or find a way to contribute creatively as an independent.

I am probably in the creative category and I was historically a poor student. I loved writing stories and drawing pictures when I was a kid and then as a a teen I developed a love of making music and I still do. I did poorly throughout school until high school and college (maybe making music made me more conscientious). I think the reason I did well in my undergraduate degree is mostly because I found shortcuts to teach myself material (e.g. I would force myself to sit in the front row of class and I recorded lectures and listened to them on my drive home or when going to sleep). I would have liked to go onto graduate school but it was a gamble financially and I was tired of being a broke student. I work in a job that is the antithesis of creative but it's a means to survive. I still write and record music in the evenings. Although I am limited on time, creative projects keep me up and supposed to go to sleep early. So that is slipping but I hope I carve out time to continue. My son is very creative but he is also a great student, perhaps he just has a high IQ like his Mom.

I struggled in school to concentrate and wasn’t academic. I would daydream and preferred just walking the streets than going to school. I was a bad student. Outside of school I got top marks in music, piano, ballet. Almost went to a Ballet school where I had a place but had a foot problem, it wasn’t meant to be. Yes some children will just struggle in school and he labelled wrongly as unintelligent or lazy. I just hated the place.

Wow!! Renovation window and door installer here. You have to think on your feet to be good in my industry and that’s some good for thought! Jordan is a generational mind!!

I remember in high school I took a poetry course, and with each topic written, I found that my thoughts and experiences differed from my fellow students. I was pleasantly surprised to find my classmates and teacher so encouraging and accepting of my poetry and prose. I was told that it was cutting-edge and ahead of its time, but not to worry, in 10 years it will be the norm of expressions.

I am quite sure that I have heard in either Jordan’s talks or other well established psychologist that creativity along with humour show high levels of intelligence. I feel most people tend to assume that academic souls are the be all, end all, to all of our perceived accomplishments. The world has to have various personality types to maintain and achieve all that we need to live and have as resources. Academic and cerebral people help make the world go around economically , creative people especially involved in the performing arts or sensitive roles help nourish our souls. Everyone has something to offer… but not all will be appreciated or valued. That is my bumper sticker thought for today.😮

Some people are more visual learners or people who learn by doing and some people are more book smart which frankly imo only measures your short term memory which is what tests are. Some people have better long term memory than short term memory yada yada. Traditional school system does not work for everyone and i can debate this for years.

as someone who lost its creativity due to miscomunication with others, lack of people interested around and full of college assigments (even on weekends) it feels exacly like an extroverted trapped in solitary confinement. wish me luck to recover it during vacations or next semester

I truly love the way you presented this topic/video. The graphics/visual "drawing" approach.... Talking is good, but talking with "pictures" (well done pictures/graphics) is better!!

Hajime Isayama is one of the most creative writers of 21st century. He was shunned by publishers because he had a ridiculous story with poor drawing skills to back it up. But he got lucky with one publisher and the rest is history. I think the same thing happened to Einstein.

A gift and a curse ☹️

This is SO LOVELY to hear! Once again, I hear Jordan Peterson speak and can breathe that much more easily, because ... THAT is what happens when someone speaks the Truth. You relax.

Wow! This is so much needed in my career. Thank you !!!!!!

I need advice badly. I'm at university and failing every class. My dream best case scenario would be creating tv shows, specifically Disney-channel-esque cartoons, with my brothers who are just graduating high school - we've been working on projects such as that for the last 2 years (1 main project mainly) I'm going burning money and wasting time taking required classes I don't care about and subsequently fail. I'm also possibly not succeeding because I don't want to move ahead - I'm scared to grow up and apart from my brothers. I will for sure disappoint and embarrass myself and my family if I stop going to university and pursue the incredibly cheaper masterclass and basically free online self-education that I believe holds more value than any expensive, mindtwisting, time-wasting university that doesn't teach you how to thing or problem solve (I'm only applying these conclusions to the art-related fields, I think university is great for other fields, like doctors and things) I really would like to quit, work part time to keep my living, and self-make my skill in the animation, writing, etc crafts. I also have been very without social life here at university however, and I know that is a bad thing - on one hand I'm scared to succeed or attempt anything without my brothers. On the other hand, I desperately wish I enabled myself to gain friends who are working on big dreams - but that can not happen since I'm keeping myself stagnant. if anyone has any advice I really would appreciate it. I'm so stuck in a web of little white lies and half truths and conversation avoidance it just leaves my head whirling

School sucks!!!!!

Thank you so much man! As an artist, back in grade school my teachers doesn’t accept creativity and art at all, all we did was full of academics and pressure, my whole life I was broken by teachers saying I won’t have a future if i’m not smart enough, I remember being humiliated by my one teacher that hated me alot for being creative and easily distracted, or annoying all the time, she was so irritated of me that she often enjoys me getting embarrassed on public, she would often throw away or crample my drawings, other teachers as well, I also never knew that I actually had adhd on my whole childhood which caused me to burst out on conversations all the time or have a wide range of imagination, I was diagnosed with that condition late at my teenage years, I have grown to have depression and anxiety, but fortunately I’m doing great so far, although i’m still learning to accept my true self that i am enough. Also update i’m finally going to an art school I hope and pray I’ll do well tho.

It makes sense. Although the creativity vs academic correlation may be on a continuum or spectrum, like introverted vs extraverted. Very few people are all the way on either end of the line. Years ago, I worked with many people who were strongly creative, and I have a hard time imagining them doing anything else except art, music, or drama. But many of my friends were a mixture. They moved more to the middle of the line, maintaining a degree of creativity, while having the skills to make the process work. But even then, I have a friend who is extraordinarily gifted with a paint brush, but can also repair and restore antique sewing machines. And those are only two things in a long line of accomplishments most people can only dream of. But what Dr. Peterson says here makes so much sense as to why some students don't thrive in an academic setting.

Very creative video, thank you for your inspiration towards creativity.

JP's insights like that are SO smart!

Brilliant analysis

Definitely described me, both the positive and negative of a creative person.

More great words from J.P. 💖

One factor not considered here it seems. Creative people are also both intelligent and directed, so it's not completely dependent on the needs of the environment they are in. Often, they can find or create that need. That gives them a better probability of success.

This reminds me of the quote by Gore Vidal “The unfed mind devours itself’. Thank you Mr. Peterson!

Great job ❤

Fascinating stuff

Appreciate the video

it took me to be 42 years old to not only find out i’m originally left-handed (i was forced to be a righty, but didn’t know until a few days earlier) and since there is a high correlation between that and being creative, it finally makes sense now. I’ve ALWAYS been the crewtive type in technologies but always downplayed it as a mere hobby. Indabbled in music where i performed very well… but downplayed it as a mere hobby. In school i struggled immensely until later in my academic years when i was given chances to come up with my own concepts. My world is technically now turned upside-down and i’m re-tracing everyting

High risk high return yessss and totally worth the risk. I've done crazy, amazing things no one else would have thought possible.

A creative person who isn't being creative, they just wither and die" damn I felt that

I never did well in school growing up and didn’t know I was smart until college where I realized, not to toot my own horn, that I’m gifted creatively. It just comes out like vomit at all times. I’ve seen my creative ideas be successful in work almost every single time to the point where it makes the people above me uncomfortable. My last boss couldn’t stand me for my ability to think for myself, and put me in that creators jail, where I wasn’t allowed to come up with anything. Despite me getting praise from many of her bosses for my innovation and being asked to host professional development, she forced it upon me to not be allowed to have a single creative thought, and everything I did had to come from a set script (education). It made me so depressed I forgot most of last year. I worked harder in my creative side hustles to compensate, but it wasn’t enough being that my 9-5 was the majority of my life. I’m out of that place now, and I’m trying to get into curriculum writing, but as I apply to places and I look at what their brand is, I’m realizing the best path for creative geniuses is to be our own boss where there’s no bounds and limits on our creativity. I don’t want to fit someone else’s “mold” and color within the lines someone else made for me. I want my own canvas with bold, wild, and passionate paint strokes.

Thank you Jordan, yet again!

Love ya, JP.

Very true

i need a video on the pros of creativity and how creative people succeed in different fields

As someone who’s really good at school (I haven’t really struggled with school) but also has adhd and is super creative I’ve learned to keep it inside of my head I’m and then when I get the chance like when I made my movie I go all in on my creativity and go insane

Story of my life, right there. I ended up in a jail inside of my own mind. I'm in my 70s and still struggling with that jail door.

Yeah, I've done projects that were outside of the typical way projects or lectures should be done in college and I never could grasp how a college presentation should be done. It took me awhile to get how to write academically because I was so used to creative writing.

He hit the nail on the head! I’ve got all these ideas, but I don’t have the skills/creative team/money/connections/audience to make them work for me. All I can do is build on my own with what little I have access to; and while I do receive compliments on my craft, it is nowhere near the amount of attention I’d need to have a following that would make my talent sustainable. Being creative sucks because it’s, like he says, “High risk, high reward”

Spot on

I failed miserably all throughout K-12. It was not from a lack of effort. I ended up joining the military and when I left the military I returned to my local community college. Part of the orientation required I take a learning test. The showed I was a purely auditory learner and the learning center showed me how to orient myself in class for success. Had I known this in my early education I would have not had to suffer failure after failure.

Wowwwwww this makes sooo much sense to me finally I can make sense of this

It's not that someone has done it better but that someone has already done it 'good enough'. Creativity is a hard sell in many cases, as disruption always has its own cost.

Could not agree more!

I use to build things all the time cuz I loved it. I'd come up with so wild ideas and build them and most of the time they worked and if they didn't work at first I'd keep tweeking it until it does work. Now I haven't built anything in years and Ive kinda went into a depression cuz my wife asks me why to any of my ideas. It makes sense now that creative people are happy when there making some and unhappy when there not.

Their creativity shuts down when it comes to finding new & better ways to learn what they've been taught.

Great.

High risk high reward. Ill live this way, thanks. You can keep your rules.

I have such a high visual learning ability it was interfering with my math and other classes. It became so bad during class that my brain would run wild with stories and distract me from the lesson. Today, thanks to the decisions of the teachers and the shrinks at the time, my math skills are still remedial. I struggle to force my brain to remember important numbers and have to fall back on repeating them over and over before I use them. But. Boy can I DM and write my own RPGs stories and am learning art and painting. Idk if I am a failure or just a lost cause but there was never an attempt to help me. Only bash my way of thinking and hammer me back into line with the other students. Thankfully I learned the whole 'don;t quit your 9-5' bit Jordan was talking about. At least I can make money as a cog but as a creative I have NO clue what to do with myself.