Cafe culture: productive idleness, laziness, or creatively constructive?

Productive idleness, in positive terms, might be a certain kind of laziness and a certain kind of creativity. That’s according to an article about Vienna’s productive idleness – and the reason for it being the city that produces many creative people (such as Amadeus Mozart).

Culture matters above all else in Vienna – such as operas, concerts, theatres, activities, travel, food, coffee, and entertainment. And yet the city is a ‘picture of perfect efficiency.’ Vienna dismantles the idea that culture is idle, because they prove that culture is the root of creativity. They call it productive idleness.

Productive idleness is the incubator of ideas – the early stages of the creative process – say the Viennese. This is the time when creative breakthroughs actually break forth. Places such as coffee houses can be idea incubators, where people discuss life and culture. This may be because people are relaxed and contemplative, and meetings are informal and usually with like-minded people.

Sometimes absolute quiet is not the best for generating ideas. Ideas come from discussions, reading newspapers or books, looking at the scenery or the passing pedestrians.

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in America found that people exposed to moderate noise (70 decibels) performed better on a creative thinking exam than those exposed to higher levels of noise or complete silence. Moderate noise allows people to ‘enter a state of mind conducive to creative breakthroughs’ said the researchers. That’s why people in coffee houses in Vienna, and everywhere else, can be productively idle and yet creatively constructive.

MARTINA NICOLLSis an international aid and development consultant, and the authorof:- Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom(2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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