The Originality Paradox
The harder you consciously strive to be original, the less likely you are to succeed.
Don’t push it. Or sweat it.
Striving is an act of the conscious mind. And the conscious mind can only analyse, compare, and recombine what it already knows.
When you instruct it to ‘be original’, it chooses between repurposing something that already exists or avoiding what already exists, producing two familiar failures:
- imitation disguised as variation,
- or emptiness disguised as novelty.
In both cases, making the outcome much more complex than it needs to be.
True originality is deeply simple. It doesn’t hide behind colour and motion; it finds new ways to make things plain.
By focusing on the substance and allowing the form to follow, it makes the hidden obvious visible.
Make your two minds work together.
Your conscious and subconscious minds complement each other.
The conscious mind knows how to analyse and apply what it picks up — both directly from the outside world and from what the subconscious feeds it. It is also good at framing problems and asking questions.
The subconscious mind picks up what’s happening under the surface and sees the hidden patterns. If the conscious mind will listen, it passes those insights on. What it does exceptionally well is discover surprising connections and find non-verbal ways to express them.
True originality arrives when the two complement each other. And they like to work together, if only we will let them.
It should feel easy, like a gift from the deep, rather than a chore. And it should feel inevitable — arising from the questions and answers, not imposed upon them.
The need To Be Seen to be Original
The need to be seen as original is not the same as the need to find the best way to convey something.
Everybody is trying to be seen in some way. Outsiders want their differences respected, but they also want their common humanity seen and recognised. It’s insiders, people nestled deep within dominant society, who want their individuality seen and acknowledged.
This leads to a related paradox. The need to be seen as original is strongest at the cultural centre, not the margins. That’s what makes it performative, not organic.
Performative originality is deeply conformist at heart.
This introduces yet another paradox: groups that self-define as iconoclastic rule-breakers often enforce the strictest internal rules. Whether it’s bikie gangs, religious cults, or indie film cooperatives, conformity doesn’t disappear; it’s just redefined.
So, what to do?
One of Peter Weir’s mantras is ‘Care, but don’t care.’
You can’t force creativity. Originality dies when it becomes self-conscious. All you can do is plant the seeds and see what grows.
It isn’t something you achieve. It’s something you make space for, and nurture when it emerges from underground.
Your task is to look at the world around you with a warm heart and a cold eye, as Jean Renoir memorably put it, and encourage your conscious and subconscious mind to have a chat. Then express that conversation through your work.
Originality is a practice, not a destination.
