As I was reading an interesting blog post on Gamasutra, I stumbled across the phrase “inner database.”
Specifically, this article was referencing the type of database that one creates as they as they explore the world and have new experiences. These experiences are then cataloged in your inner database, and it’s this database that creative’s use to make split-second decisions automatically.
If you’ve ever watched a designer work, you’ve probably noticed them constantly tweaking things without saying much. They might tweak and stop and look, and then tweak and stop and look some more. This usually happens until they feel like they’ve reached the right decision.
What fascinated me about this phrase was that I have never stopped to consider that our memories and experiences do make up a sort of biological database in our brains.
Of course this makes sense while writing it, but thinking about it in those terms it never really occurred to me.
The article went on to say that in doing creative work, you can’t always spend eight hours sitting looking at your computer. You often need time to get up and go explore and think about things that are necessarily directly related but that will add to your inner database and help you make better decisions later on. This act kind of recharges the creative side of the brain and can help us push through mental blocks.
Often times, I personally find it difficult to get away from my work in order to do better work. That’s a mentality I strive to break.
