Pete Seeger
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In solving a problem, you often have to make connections between two things that aren’t usually connected. You know, E.M. Forster, the novelist, was asked, “What are your words of wisdom for future generations?” He said, “Only connect.”
An inventor might search for the two substances to put together. In the case of the poet, it’s the two words or three words. With a musician, it’s the notes or the rhythms. Whatever it is, your brain often suppresses such idle connections because you’re busy with the business of the day. You’re doing whatever you’re supposed to do. But there come times when you’re no longer doing what you’re supposed to do and you’re just kind of rambling, making strange connections…
In discussing the art of songwriting, Pete Seeger speaks to the power of combinatorial creativity, which Steve Jobs referred to when he famously said that “creativity is just connecting things” and which some of history’s greatest scientific minds attested to.
