Create? Criticize?

They say:

There are two types of people in the world i.e. people who are good at creating or people who are good at criticizing.

Good scientists should have both aspect. However, I still think this would be an appropriate category of people when you talk about creativity.

This remind me of one of my friends who was good at drawing pictures. I met him when I was a high school student. He loved reading manga. He could review them well because he knew well about drawing manga. Moreover, he was very cleaver. He often criticized famous manga as if that was ridiculous and meaningless. I partly agreed with his opinion because what he said was coherent and persuasive. On the other hand I felt something is missing in his excellent criticism. I have never seen his manga at any form while manga which he criticized severely becomes more popular when we were high school students. I still enjoyed the manga.

Naruto, Vol. 47

I have never seen he wrote something much better than the manga which he severely criticized...

The energy of creation and criticism seems to come from different origins. This was what Haruki Murakami said a few years ago. At the early stage of his career as a novelist when he was about 30 years old, he often work with an unique editor. These days, he is no doubt a representative novelist in the "world". However, he was a nameless person when he wrote first novel. He owed a lot to the editor because he assigned a lot of space in literature magazine for him. When Haruki worked with him, he often submitted hand writing drafts because ward processor was not popular item at the time.

Unfortunately, the relationship between the editor and Murakami started to collapse in accordance with Murakami's popularity all over the world. In a day, Murakami noticed that the editor emotionally criticized him. They broke up in the end.

The editor passed away recently after struggle with cancer. Murakami knew that the editor sold Murakami's hand writing drafts without his permission before he died. Murakami could not know why he did such a deed before the end of his life. However, he guessed that his will to be a novelist seemed to affect the severe attitude to Murakami and selling his drafts. Murakami addressed that the editor try to write novels. He seemed to apply some competition though his novels never become famous. He was a good editor. He often worked with famous novelist. Murakami is considering that he thought he could write novels as well as his colleagues. Unfortunately, he could not write any good novels because of some reasons. Writing novels require a lot of creativity. The talent is, no doubt, different from ability of criticism.

Kafka On The Shore (Vintage Magic)

One nameless man finally become an international famous writer, but...

Creativity often requires unthinkable energy. One famous director answered to a question of high school student who were considering to work as a professional illustrator that if she is "considering", she may be better to give up. A professional illustrator is very hard job and if you want to work, you need to write a lot of pictures without boring. You have to spend most of your time for drawing pictures. He explained that what are required for students are not only talent (this is minimum requirement ! ), but also motivation for continuous endeavor and physical toughness and strong mentality because you cannot expect earning so much money except for your success as a top class manga creator. If you want to earn money with spending good life, you should not choose an illustrator as your job.

I had similar experience. When I talked a student who were considering to go to PhD. I told him that he may be better to give up PhD if he worried about salary. PhD is not advantage for someone's salary in Japan. If your GPA is good and you can speak English to some extent, applying business companies are much better for your salary.

In fact, all of my class mates when I was a master student in Japan are hired in famous companies. Though I spend most of time for study and research, I was only one who did not have any job. As my research was two years, I have not published anything. Therefore, I was very misery at the days though I never regret my choice.

It seems that I was highly respect value of science. I know reward of money as a scientist could be, or must be less than salary of other companies. However, I strongly believe that the reward of self-satisfaction by establishment of common knowledge of human beings are much more than money. I am thinking that I should earn money at least for educational cost of my children *1. However, I know that my highest priority is not money but science. That could show my mentality as a mad scientist.

Some are good at criticizing. Their criticisms are often very persuasive. On the other hand, I do not respect what they are saying if they ignored value of creativity. Results of creativity of people must be evaluated by sales these days. Nothing can exist without money. Reality may be considered if you need to evaluate it or pay money for that while you must lost important part of your life which might make your life enjoyable.

*1:I am still single. This is big "if".