# Good interview with Doug Rogers on KVR



## EastWest Lurker (Feb 17, 2012)

http://www.kvraudio.com/interviews/east ... ions-17941


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## RiffWraith (Feb 18, 2012)

Steve Jobs said:


> Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn't really do it, they just saw something.



I am sorry, but that is one hell of an asinine comment. Creativity is NOT simply connecting things - he could not possibly be more wrong about that. And who the hell is he, telling me - no - most of the rest of us, that we feel guilty because _we didn't really do it_. What an asswipe. Sorry Steve, but when I write a score, I really did do it, and I didn't just connect things. Nor do I feel guilty about it. Anyone else here compose a score, and then feel guilty about it?

Otherwise, a good read and interview.

Cheers.


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## EastWest Lurker (Feb 18, 2012)

RiffWraith @ Sat Feb 18 said:


> Steve Jobs said:
> 
> 
> > Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn't really do it, they just saw something.
> ...



He is talking about _mental_ connections, synapses, etc. Geniuses for instance do not just extrapolate things, they intuit them, which is what makes them geniuses and the rest only clever, if we are lucky

I write songs and score music all the time and I cannot begin to tell you how or why I can do it, I just can and have been able to since my early teens. It is just something in my brain that "connects" to whatever is out there in the universe.

Just because you disagree with Steve, does not mean you should call him vile names. It reflects poorly on you.


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## RiffWraith (Feb 18, 2012)

EastWest Lurker @ Sat Feb 18 said:


> He is talking about _mental_ connections, synapses, etc.



That's not what he said. Your source, please?


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## EastWest Lurker (Feb 18, 2012)

RiffWraith @ Sat Feb 18 said:


> EastWest Lurker @ Sat Feb 18 said:
> 
> 
> > He is talking about _mental_ connections, synapses, etc.
> ...



"they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while."

When I compose I just hear something. It seems obvious to me after a while.


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## RiffWraith (Feb 18, 2012)

Eh, you didnt really answer my Q on why you think Steve was talking about mental connections, synapses, etc. You gave me your personal take - which is fine - but I was looking for a real source (forum, interview, etc.) Something concrete.

And I just dont buy the fact that he was talking about mental connections, synapses, etc, sorry. If he was, he would not have thrown the guilt comment in there.

And yes, I could basically say the same thing you said earlier. When I create (compose), I dont know where it comes from, and I dont know whay and how I am able to create. Are mental connections and synapses involved? Of course they are. They are involved to some degree in everything - creative or not. And is part of the process connecting things? Sure is. And not only music. Authors of books, screenplays, painters, sculpters, architects, etc. will all tell you that 'connecting things' is part of the process. But to say that creativity is* just *connecting things, and to say that people who create feel guilty, is in fact asinine. Sorry if I have taken Steve down a notch or two, from the holy deity that many people think that he was, but I speak the truth.

Cheers.


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## EastWest Lurker (Feb 18, 2012)

RiffWraith @ Sat Feb 18 said:


> Eh, you didnt really answer my Q on why you think Steve was talking about mental connections, synapses, etc. You gave me your personal take - which is fine - but I was looking for a real source (forum, interview, etc.) Something concrete.
> 
> And I just dont buy the fact that he was talking about mental connections, synapses, etc, sorry. If he was, he would not have thrown the guilt comment in there.
> 
> ...



You speak your subjective version of the truth, there is nothing empirically true about it. I don't deify Jobs or anyone else frankly, but name calling is unnecessary when disagreeing with someone, particularly someone who is deceased, and does not makes one's argument stronger, but weaker.

Respectfully, Riff, you do not take Jobs down a notch or two when you do so, only yourself.


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## vasio (Feb 18, 2012)

exactly

riffwraith, i've checked out your stuff and i have to say i really respect you as a musician and composer man. creative temperment aside, you do seem to be fixated on your interpretation of what he said instead of what he really meant. of all things, i'm not an ew apologist. anybody who knows me knows that. but i think you're getting this one wrong. 

peace bro.


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## dpasdernick (Feb 24, 2012)

I read the book "Accidental Millionaire" and I think Steve Jobs is correct in saying "it's about connecting things" BUT...

I think that this applies to him and guys like him. I think he built his empire on the backs of the real thinkers... The guys that stare at a blank piece of paper and see an iphone, or architecture like Falling Water, or a cure for polio, or Beethoven's Fifth. To me Steve Jobs was great a seeing down the road and predicting where people may go and he was very goos at marketing. But as far as original thought, from what I've read, he had a lot of shoulders to stand upon. 

Flame away...


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## Markus S (Feb 28, 2012)

Well, I think I agree with Doug Rogers here. The fact is that you are not really "inventing", but kind of "connecting differently". You are not "creating" something from scratch, you are "combining" pre-existing things, to create something "new". You are creating new with old, so to speak.

If you create a "new" melody you are likely to use a well temperated scale, combining the notes in a different way. You are likely to use a sampled instrument (here on VI), that you didn't program, nor recorded. The person who recorded the samples didn't create the instruments or the microphones, nor the software. He is just combining all of it. And so on..


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