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Counter examples (a few): Hemingway, Sylvia Plath, Larry David, Kafka, Schubert, Heraclitus, Beckett, Beyonce, William James, Henry James, David Foster Wallace, Winona Ryder, HP Lovecraft, Mozart, Oppenheimer, Rilke, Celine, Faulkner, Baudelaire, Newton, Nietzsche, Rachmanioff, Craig Ferguson. One of the main thrusts of the article, that incubation of ideas often occurs during divergent thinking, does not entail that one must be in a cheerful mood (in fact, one could view many forms of depression as extended periods of divergent thinking), despite the study referenced therein, which claims "People are more likely to maintain broader attention and solve problems when they’re in a positive mood." Moreover, the studies represent data on a statistical average (and probably apply largely to settings conducive to such studies, like sorting blocks, or playing Jenga in a novel way), while many historical examples of creative minds suffered prolonged periods of depression. Finally, I wonder, how many man-hours have been wasted on clickbait? |