I haven’t written much lately, and that’s because of a mixture of things – the sheer amount of writing i’ve been doing for TV/business stuff, outright exhaustion and a little creative bankruptcy when it comes to my emotional output. I have so much to say yet i’m finding it difficult to say. In the last few weeks on my presenter search i’ve met some really amazing people. Really gorgeous ladies, and some incredibly interesting guys. I think i have it whittled down to a select few in my head now, but there is always room for one more. Tomorrow i’m at Channel Five all day so i’m getting prepared for a pitch-athon.

We worked night and day to get Virgilio’s technology done, listened to paranoid crap about the Hadron super-collider destroying the world, as well as talking to several bands who needed help in accelerating their careers. I added another 10 or so program ideas in my list, got a sarging buddy, and merged several others into packages. I got wrist-slapped by the BBC and ITV, the latter of which got very pissed off with me. Fuck them. It was a wildcard anyway as they’ve been a sinking ship for years being so tied up trying to please everyone and maintain a “broad appeal”.

And somewhere in the midst of all of that i decided to build TV formats around cooking, the paranormal and forced marriage. There are days when i will be smoking a cigarette in one hand, coffee in the other, asking myself “what the fuck am i doing?”

Sometime i need to get round to booking my trip to Israel at the end of the year.

A few weeks back i mentioned the theory that there are 2 distinct groups of people in the world – those who thirst for knowledge, and those who need to be entertained. I’ve seen it more and more, but i’ve also cross-referenced it with another two types which i believe overlap very well. The first groupings only address our input, or the things we want to consume and take inside. They are needs and things we react to, whereas to counter-balance we also need to consider our output, or how we deal with what goes outward, or the opposite direction. I even made a little graph for it.

I noticed it recently when discussed ideas for TV shows. There is a complete disconnect between people who come up with a constant flow of ideas, and those who have very few. Some people are creative, and others are just blank followers. A minority forge ahead doing new things, and the rest do their best to copy and imitate, as flattering as it may be. Because they’re always coming up with new ideas all the time, the creative mentality isn’t too worried about theft or exploitation, whereas the copiers are absolutely paranoid about it and incredibly protective.

It’s getting so obvious with me that i’m unconsciously discriminating between the two, and the truth is that i feel incredibly sorry for the ones who don’t have idea flow. My whole life and existence, as well as my understanding of meaning, revolves around ideas – coming up with them, appreciating them and realising them.

My answer to TV execs who are startled by my openness when it comes to program ideas is that we will never run out of the (and new angles on them), and there is more than enough to go around for everyone. And that is a pivotal attitude issue that defines a creative from a copier – their belief that things of value and must be hoarded, or whether there is abundance. Those who don’t come up with ideas are terrified of losing them once they are exposed to one, either their own or someone else’s they could benefit from. We will never run out of ideas, very few are 100% original (singing contests anyone?), only the creator with the vision will be able to do a proper job, and the combination of copyright, exclusivity of access and electronic paper trails is secure enough.

I just don’t understand it. It’s like holding a toy tightly to their chest and saying “IT’S MINE!” when its freely available to anyone. I have no idea what it must be like to wake up and not have a flow of ideas. All you have for company is what is around you, and consumption of distractions is the only escapism. The ability to create worlds in your mind is a life-saver on the tube. Inspiration can come from anywhere, and ideas themselves come freely to your mind so it’s difficult to justify charging for them.

Imitating and emulating others isn’t necessarily a bad thing. We all have to have a precedent to what we do. It’s not like you can be angry at those who just don’t have a creative flow going on – sometimes it’s the bane of my life as i can’t turn the fucking thing off. When people copy me i find it bizarre more than anything else. I just don’t get it. Why on earth would you just obviously do exactly what someone had done so openly that they’d know? Doesn’t it make you just feel stupid?

I think that’s the endless paradox within creative industries that is incredibly frustrating. Hundreds of billions of dollars are generated through the ideas of creative people, and the processes are administrated by a clone army of blank copiers who don’t have any ideas of their own. It’s useful i guess, as their protectionist bullshit is what helps to make the money from them in the first place.

How do you pitch ideas to those types of people who don’t have an extensive ability to visualise and conceptualise like creative types can? When you talk ideas to ideas people, they immediately fall in love with the possibilities and that excitement and shared vision drives a project on. When you’re talking to a blank drone, you have to triple your efforts to help them to get into it and be shown the possibilities because their imagination just isn’t there (they blame a lack of time etc). It’s like speaking rural Chinese to a deaf Norwegian and asking them to get into the intricacies of Arabic.

People who are envious don’t think they have enough, and look to others for what they don’t have. They don’t know how to create or envision a way for themselves to get it, so they take what is available and near to them. Describing it as short-sighted doesn’t do it justice – it’s just a total lack of initiative that can turn very malicious. When you experience someone who is envious, defensive, protectionist, money-grabbing, hoarding or just secretive, you know you’re dealing with one of those blank copiers who has little or no imagination.

There’s a grander picture to all this, and it’s about who you let into your life and allow to affect you. You have to determine where you sit on that graph – whether you are predominantly a knowledge or entertainment person, and whether you are predominantly a creative visionary ideas person or one of those sterile copying types that follows the other group around looking for their leftovers.

Then you have to work out who you’re dealing with or pitching to, which really isn’t easy as a lot of times you haven’t met them before. To inspire them or fire up that inner desire is a difficult call.

I’m finding that it’s important to know who is who in that way when it comes to my personal life. I just click better with creative types as they inspire me and connect with my own creative head. It doesn’t mean they have to be a Picasso, just have that idea flow or i find it difficult to relate and flourish, so to speak. Trying to have a hilarious time of it is too difficult when you have to explain everything or create a mental picture for others who don’t have the mentality to visualise what you are describing.

Creative doesn’t mean art, it means having a natural thought process and mindset where you can produce and understand ideas and concepts either from nothing, or from many things you put together. It’s just a natural process of making something new or adapted in your mind rather than having to adsorb it from something or someone else outside. Some are programmed to output, most just to take input.

After all, what is an idea? What is creativity and how does it happen? Many argue it is a gift of God. It would be perfectly possible for creatives to survive without the drones, but would the drones be able to live without creative people? It’s naive to associate something as subjective as worth with social role (is a doctor more valuable than an artist?, but there is a very strong argument that a) the academic system is weighted in favour of industrialisation subjects like maths and against the arts, and b) that because of their emotional, historical and transcendent quality, creative professions are massively more meaningful than 9to5 worker bee jobs.

Well, one thing’s for sure. They’re certainly a hell of a lot more fun