Episode Details

What if you didn’t lose your creativity—you simply lost touch with it?

In this episode of Thought Atlas, I sit down with Patrick Williams, a lifelong artist, educator, TEDx speaker, martial artist, and founder of Tartori Innovation. Patrick has spent decades exploring creativity, learning, art, and innovation, and he argues that creativity isn’t a rare talent reserved for a select few. In his words, it is one of our human “superpowers.”

Patrick explains why he believes children naturally express creativity through play, imagination, and curiosity, and why many adults eventually become convinced that they aren’t creative anymore.

We explore his idea that creativity becomes “misplaced” rather than lost. Patrick believes that increasing academic pressure, teaching toward tests, and reduced opportunities for play and imagination can gradually disconnect children from their natural creative abilities. He calls this process “creative colonization.”

From there, he introduces another concept: “creative collapse.”

Patrick describes how a single negative comment—such as telling a child that they can’t draw, sing, or dance—can sometimes cause them to stop engaging with that activity. In other cases, he says, the process happens gradually as people simply run out of time for play, imagination, and creative expression.

But Patrick believes the story doesn’t have to end there.

He calls the process of reconnecting with creativity “creative metamorphosis.” He compares it to a caterpillar becoming a butterfly: someone remembers an activity they loved as a child, picks it up again years later, and begins bringing that playful and imaginative part of themselves back into their life.

We also discuss curiosity and why Patrick considers it central to creativity. He shares how his own curiosity and joy of learning have helped him balance his many interests, and why he hopes his work can encourage other people to rediscover activities they once loved.

Then the conversation takes a turn toward something many of us struggle with: being constantly busy.

Patrick argues that slowing down can actually help us accomplish more. He uses the metaphor of driving through life at 120 miles an hour: when we’re moving too fast, we may focus so intensely on staying on the road that we fail to notice the opportunities around us.

He encourages people to create space during the day to step away from their devices, go outside, walk, and journal.

That leads to another major topic: our relationship with technology.

Patrick compares excessive device consumption to constantly eating candy, arguing that our attention can become consumed by apps and devices in ways that interfere with authentic relationships, communication, conflict resolution, and our ability to experience the world around us.

His practical starting point is simple: journal.

He recommends putting pen to paper each day and using journaling to explore who you have been, who you want to become, and what you loved doing creatively when you were young.

Ultimately, Patrick’s message is one of rediscovery.

You don’t necessarily need to become a different person to become more creative. You may simply need to reconnect with something that was already there.

Remember when you were five years old. You were creative—and Patrick believes that creativity is still within you.

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