Issue 16: stimulants, creativity, and productivity
A short exploration of the origin and veracity of a famous literary quote.
Many say it was American novelist, Ernest Hemingway, who coined the saying: 'write drunk, edit sober'.
But it almost certainly wasn't.
The always informative Quote Investigator (QI) traces it to a 1964 novel called 'Reuben, Reuben' by Peter De Vries. In it, character Gowan McGland, a poet, recalls something he had told a journalist about his working habits: “Sometimes I write drunk and revise sober, and sometimes I write sober and revise drunk. But you have to have both elements in creation – the Apollonian and the Dionysian, or spontaneity and restraint, emotion and discipline.”
QI suggests De Vries' words evolved and were reassigned to the more prominent Hemingway, who was known to enjoy a drink.
But while reading a story in The New Yorker about the art of decision making, I came across a much earlier potential link.
The article included a snippet from Herodotus – a Greek historian who lived c484-425 BC – who said the ancient Persians made big decisions by discussing them twice: once while drunk, once while sober.
But source aside, how helpful is the ‘write drunk, edit sober’ adage?
Various studies (here’s one) have examined the effects of alcohol on creativity, and the results suggest that it can be beneficial… to a point.
Scientists have shown that having a couple of drinks makes you less focused, which in turn frees up your brain to think more creatively (A-ha! moments need a relaxed mind in order to bubble to the surface).
The benefits, however, decrease as the alcohol consumption goes up.
But, while booze is beneficial for generating ideas, it’s not so good for executing them. Try coffee for that.
Related: In 1995, NASA experimented with giving spiders (Araneus diadematus) various drugs – from caffeine to LSD to sleeping pills – and analysed the webs they spun.
The basic result was: “The more toxic the chemical, the more deformed a web looks in comparison with a normal web.”