The Tension Between Expertise and Novelty: How to Use Your Human Design to Feel More Alive in Creative Pursuits

I'm in a period of my life where I'm curious about what really makes me tick. What excites me, where should I put my focus and attention. At a time when there is so much life unfolding right before my eyes, it is a beautiful and constant reminder to make the most of this incredible existence we get to experience. A few things have been stirring the cauldrons of my mind: 1. The concept of creative health and 2. The value in engaging with reality, as it is, in a very tangible sense — and how deeply these two things are connected.

Tangible Reality Requires Effort

The other day I heard a theater critic speaking about how going out and attending a show is more important than ever because these sort of acts of presence and enjoyment - that happen off our screens - ground us in the experience of reality. The way we perceive the world and our engagement with it has never been more abstract. I joke all the time that my work is essentially "doing type-y types." I sit at my computer and think and talk and then translate ideas and concepts into words that I can of course see, but don't always hold the tangible weight of something created or made manifest in this world. It is miraculous that we have the ability to think something and then use materials around us to do the thing and make it exist so others can also see, feel, taste, experience it. But it's not very common for me to end a day with a stack of work that matches the time and effort spent. Experiencing the manifestation of thoughts is harder to attain.

On the topic of creative health, I was inspired to get back to doing the things that I love that involve making something real — see where all the threads are coming together. I came across Katina Bajaj and was blown away with the way she discusses the importance of creativity. Our brains are such fascinating worlds and stopping to sit and focus on making something is beneficial for so many reasons. I saw something recently that explained our brains view our bodies as mostly hands given how often we use them and how deeply wired the brain is to automate hand functions. By stretching, drawing, kneading dough, picking things up — we're making our brains happy.

Katina writes about how the brain actually doesn't care how skilled you are at a craft or creativity, it just craves the attention and challenge of it. Similarly, when it comes to a topic of expertise - it's a thrill when something is new and novel but the more skilled and practiced we are, the less it seems to engage our minds in meaningful ways. This is not to say there's no value in expertise BUT what if focusing on being an expert isn't really the point.

Our DESIGN cRAVES dIFFERENCE

When it comes to learning human design and astrology, I have dedicated quite a lot of time and I feel like I learn so much every time I speak with people about how traits and placements land for them specifically. However, there is an interesting balance at play when it comes to my 1/3 profile. The 1 line craves the foundation, the deep knowing. The 3 line learns by living it, breaking it, trying again. It's not a contradiction — it's a feature. But it doesn't fit neatly into a content calendar. There's a real tension between the pull toward mastery and the need to ensure I'm getting enough variety in intellectual pursuit. Katina writes, "the more you master a topic, the less alive you feel inside of it." And wow, do I understand this. There is unquestioned comfort and appreciation for experience in this, but at the same time… it doesn't create magic the same way the feeling of getting the hang of something does.

I have seen so much messaging to creators around the importance of consistency and need to niche down — but in pushing this, are we losing something so vitally important to our being human? It's worth asking where that advice even came from. Human Design says, "niche down, stay consistent, build the thing" is a blueprint essentially written by and for Generator and Manifesting Generator energy because the defined Sacral center that can sustain output, respond with momentum, and build something over time with genuine life force behind it. Of course, there is more nuance when we factor in authority and variables, but at a high-level, glorifying consistent output buzzes in the Generator sphere. But, if human design is the “science of differentiation” – the key is the difference. We learn the language of the system not to stick to it so rigidly, but to be able to better inhabit and investigate other points of view and behaviors. To use it as a lens, not a leash.

Looking at the types, a Manifestor is at their best when they initiate and move on; a Projector’s brilliant guidance evolves as the world around them down; a Reflector honors the sampling of their people and place and shifts with the lunar cycle; Generators and Man Gens sparkle the brightest when they commit their energy to pursuits grounded in love.

Be You, Be Weird, Be free

So for now, this is a piece calling for a resistance to sameness. As our reality is more influenced by algorithms and the pull toward homogenization feels safe and comfortable, why not explore, do the weird thing, make paradoxical moves as a practice of radical creativity. Try something outside the comfort zone - if for no other reason but to affirm that what you do consistently is meaningful and important to you. Katina sets it up like this, “This approach to life is not only essential for our creative “success” and the longevity of our Creative Health – but it’s also a small form of pushback against a system that flattens us. That tells us we are only capable of being one dimensional.”

And getting started is as complex or easy as you like: “Give yourself permission to start fresh in your area of expertise, your creative habits, your curious approach to life. Basically, rebel and be a beginner again.”

This is such soothing balm to my 1/3 profile soul. I hope you take this invitation to start sensing what's actually alive in you and start optimizing for what looks right from the inside out. The exploration is the point. The novelty is not a detour from the work. It is the work.