"Creativity Is Like Breathing"

We like to think that creative types who produce a lot of stuff are capable of just doing that all the time, but comic artist Matthew Inman of The Oatmeal reminds us in a new strip that creativity isn’t as sustainable as it might appear from the outside.

Talking about his recent work, Inman talks about the needing breaks in order to make work useful:

A friend once told me that creativity is like breathing. When you make stuff, you’re exhaling. But you can’t exhale forever. Eventually, you have to breathe in. Or you’ll be dead.

Which is all to say, step away from what you’re working on. Go outside. Read a book outside your field of expertise. Try an entirely new project. You’ll feel better for it in the end.