{"id":982,"date":"2014-04-09T17:54:41","date_gmt":"2014-04-09T12:24:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cockybox.com\/?p=982"},"modified":"2016-02-28T15:05:34","modified_gmt":"2016-02-28T15:05:34","slug":"why-smokers-have-great-ideas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/paulsyng.com\/blog\/why-smokers-have-great-ideas\/","title":{"rendered":"Why smokers have great ideas"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Senior<\/a><\/p>\n

First thing first. Yes, I\u2019ve smoked cigarettes. Benson Lights. India Kings. Classic Milds. Gudang Garam. Marlboro Lights. I wasn\u2019t exactly loyal to any one brand or the taste [as compulsive and habitual smokers would have amateurs believe].<\/p>\n

Labelled -to my convenience- a social smoker, I would light one after having a couple of drinks (at a party) or at work during \u201ccreative brainstorming\u201d sessions, held between floor 16 and 17 -out on the stairs- at the agency.<\/p>\n

This, ability to smoke at will, gave me the reassuring feeling of being in control of my sick habit, leaving little room for feelings of addiction creeping up my throat.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s safe to assume that almost anyone in advertising, smokes. A sweeping generalised statement would have been \u201ceveryone in advertising smokes\u201d but that\u2019s clearly not the case.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t believe me? Go watch an episode of Mad Men. Captured between dialogues is the foreplay of cigarettes. A smoking protagonist is so much better in dialogue delivery than a non-smoker. I bet the director agrees with my angle on the matter.<\/p>\n

Look, all I\u2019m saying is that people smoke. You can like it or hate it but it\u2019s happening right now, as we speak- someone out there, working in the creative department of an advertising agency- put a lighter to a cigarette and inhaled every bit of the cancer-inducing smoke.<\/p>\n

That said, I\u2019ve come clean now. *Takes a deep breadth. That habit is well behind me, like bell-bottoms or a head full of hair. I\u2019ve been shaving my head for a decade now. You do the maths. It\u2019s my way of combing with stress [pun intended]. *Exhales.<\/p>\n

Curious to understand how ideas and smoking work together, I chartered upon a search for answers. That said, non-smokers are also idea-capable people. Sure, they get ideas [which are not as good as the ideas people have who smoke or drink] but, hey, where credit is due, we must oblige.<\/p>\n

Hell, I believe geniuses of tremendous creative potential such as Edisson, Picasso, Bethoven, Einstein, Jobs, Ogilvy, Landor & Morisson were all possible smokers and drinkers. They\u2019ve ruled and led the world over decades with world-changing-ideas.<\/p>\n

Now, let\u2019s examine this closely. The length and breadth of a cigarette is armoured with the single most powerful concept- a bridge between your inner and outer conscious.<\/p>\n

Hear me out. On examining creative folk closely I stumbled upon this powerful idea. During the process of discovery [the constant failures\/trials before the eureka] frustration levels climb on failing [before succeeding and changing the world] and can prove difficult leading to stress.<\/p>\n

It is during these difficult times great minds would take a timeout by either smoking a cigarette or nursing a glass of hooch. During solitude, they\u2019re not focused on the problem but shutting off. This bridging of their subconscious and conscious mind, unleashes the most powerful answers to problems that have riddled their minds forever.<\/p>\n

Eckhart Tole suggests a similar concept. To be enlightened, one must switch off. To shut the process of thinking entirely. To harness the power of the mind. Smoking and drinking did just that for all the great thinkers of the world. It opened the doorway of possibilities and great potential.<\/p>\n

For a moment, let\u2019s set aside the common variables- lung cancer, heart problems, bad breadth and the \u201ctill-death-do-us-apart\u201d brandished on every box. Draw a comparative of these with the remarkable gifts left behind because of them aiding great men and women.<\/p>\n

By that token, I\u2019m not championing ideas being born from smoking or drinking are better. Their noteworthy contribution is in no way palpable to the amount of damage they may have caused over the years. But at the same time, we cannot but ignore the fact that smoking or drinking have contributed, in some ironic way, to the betterment of this world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

First thing first. Yes, I\u2019ve smoked cigarettes. Benson Lights. India Kings. Classic Milds. Gudang Garam. Marlboro Lights. I wasn\u2019t exactly loyal to any one brand or the taste [as compulsive and habitual smokers would have amateurs believe]. Labelled -to my convenience- a social smoker, I would light one after having a couple of drinks (at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-syng"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulsyng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulsyng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulsyng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulsyng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulsyng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=982"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/paulsyng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/982\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1176,"href":"https:\/\/paulsyng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/982\/revisions\/1176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulsyng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulsyng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulsyng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}