Negative capability
In 1817, the poet John Keats wrote a letter to his brothers to share this exciting realization. “At once it struck me,” Keats wrote, “what quality went to form a Man of Achievement … Negative Capability.” Keats explains that “Negative Capability” is “when a man is capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching ... See more
Having pored over a lot of writers’ and artists’ diaries and letters for my Daily Rituals research, I can say that most of them never felt that their work fulfilled their ambitions. Or, if they did feel that way, it was only in brief surges of confidence, which could be tremendously satisfying and productive—but which never lasted as lo
... See moreMason Currey • What if your ambition outstrips your talent?
What the poet John Keats called “negative capability”—the holding of multiple contradictory ideas in your head at the same time—is an essential phase of creativity: the part where your mind is a whirl of ideas. You have to be able to tolerate this and then refine your idea like mad until it gets better.