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Data and Decision-Making: The Importance for Creative Thinkers

Currently, I'm on an interesting side quest: a data analytics certificate course.

Primarily I decided to take it in order to expand my career skills, specifically, be able to use data analytics programs, make visualizations, and learn spreadsheets. I figured it would be a boon, since I work in administration. But I discovered something very extraordinary about how data analytics can be used to make high-stakes decisions. Mainly, how this contrasted with my lifelong reliance on intuitive and associative thinking, which is essential for creativity. Having skipped out on using data has really caused many avoidable problems in my life. It is ironic how artists, the most in need of data-driven and data-inspired decision making (hereon referred to as DDDM, a common acronym), often are the least aware of such a thing.

So what is data-driven decision-making?

DDDM is the strategic use of measurable and observable information, aka data, to guide decision making. It is most often discussed in business context: leveraging data from customers and stakeholders, market trends, and basically any reliable information that can be measured. IBM has a great article on it by Tim Mucci: What Is Data-Driven Decision-Making? | IBM DDDM can absolutely and should be used and leveraged outside of business, of course; really, it can be applied in any situation where there is concrete data, such as numerals, text, dates, and categories.

Some examples of life situations that include data:

Taking out a loan
Making a large purchase

This is in direct opposition to intuitive thinking. Intuitive thinking uses emotions and previous experience on a subconscious level to guide decisions, aka a "gut feeling". It is great for in-the-moment decisions where one has to make a choice immediately. It is also somewhat out of control from the conscious mind; we often feel intuitively that something is wrong or right without knowing why we feel that way, because our subconscious is receiving information from historical contexts. Intuition is essential for living a life within our values and boundaries.

There are other forms of thinking artists traditionally use: an obvious one is associative thinking. This is drawing associations and patterns from between two disparate things, the main ingredient in creativity. You make associations when you decide to take a certain job in order to extract some skill for future use; as an artist, we use associations to come up with new ideas between an archetypical image (say, the reclining Venus) and a modernized take on it.

Artists, without question, excel at associative and intuitive thinking. We tend to feel as we think, and think as we feel, being very in-tune with our emotional lives. We make decisions because they feel right, or avoid an opportunity because it feels wrong. We have the ability to create something from nothing, and do it efficiently.

There is a difference between data-driven, and data-inspired decisions. A data-inspired decision does not rely solely on a metric or data for the decision, such as choosing an art program to attend or accepting a job, which also factors in other things such as your feelings. Sure, a $60,000 job at a law firm may pay your bills, but leave you feeling creatively bereft, which is why the salary is an important factor but not the only one. A data-driven decision relies solely on data, such as choosing to purchase a car within your budget. This is not about your feelings or deciding goals: the budget has already been decided, the data is the goal, that is it.

How Artists Interact with Data

If, as an artist, we focus only on making art that we enjoy but do not factor in data from the quality of work of successful artists, we will have trouble finding clients since the work lacks the quality necessary. One thing that is difficult to square is the necessity of an artist to be authentic and not insecure about their work, while still being inspired and challenged by other artists. This is more of an example of considering qualitative data rather than quantitative: qualitative answers the how and why, qualitative answers how much, how many, when, and where.

What about entering a relationship? You may think that there would be no data, but this isn't true at all. When we meet someone, we are gathering qualitative data about how they make us feel as well as what we observe in their choices and behaviors. We also gather quantitative data: their salary, how much debt they have, how many family members they have and how often they are expected to uphold certain obligations.

When we blend data with our feelings, we get some interesting results. Someone who makes us feel safe and secure yet has hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt could pose serious concern for quality of life in the relationship. Likewise, we may feel intense infatuation for someone who actively demonstrates disrespect for us in the observable form of put-downs or instances of emotional neglect. The data part of relationships is often the most neglected, as we our blinded by feelings rather than the concreteness of someone's life choices or observable behaviors. Though it may be difficult, we can face the data and find a solution, or decide the relationship is not worth such difficulties.

Let's examine how we can leverage our DDDM, intuition, and associative thinking for one of these pesky life situations, and the benefit from each form of thinking. Remember, it's not about only using one form of thinking, but harnessing them all for our benefit.

Taking out a loan: let's say, a car loan for this example!
- Intuitive: This feels like a good decision for me right now in my life; I feel emotionally prepared and capable. It excites me to think about having a reliable car to pursue all my goals.
  - Benefit: I am making a decision that is aligned with my emotions.
- Associative: Maybe I can use the opportunity from this loan to build something greater. What if I pursue an opportunity in a distant city? I need to make sure I maintain my car and track my mileage so that it lasts longer.
  - Benefit: I have just made a connection between a possible challenge and a solution.
- DDDM: First of all, I need to know exactly what the total cost of the car is over the life of the loan, as well as the monthly cost: the monthly payment plus interest, as well as the cost of insurance and yearly maintenance. I also need to make sure I am comparing the price to a similar car at least two other dealers, to make sure I'm getting the best deal. Lastly, I need to make sure that I can afford the monthly payment that it aligns with my long-term goal of achieving X retirement savings by X year.
  - Benefit: I know exactly what I am signing up for.

As we see, in this situation, there is plenty of data to use alongside our typical skillset. Notice how the DDDM thinking included actual numbers and figures, as well as timelines.

Remember that, as artists, we are still humans who must make a living and live with the choices we make; we are not special just because we have a certain gift. If we want to have a good quality of life, we must slow down, separate our emotions from our decisions, and look at all the data. We may be creative geniuses, but there are many creative geniuses who have major regrets due to making decisions from their well-worn intuition only. By analyzing how we make decisions, we can make better decisions.

Best,

Tiffany

Art and Madness

One of the most enduring stereotypes of an artist is one who is mad: Vincent Van Gogh's famous struggles with what could be mania, Jackson Pollock's addiction and depression, and Paul Gauguin's difficult last few years are all just famous examples. There are countless more; in fact, it is more difficult to find a body of work by an artist not informed by intense periods of emotional distress than otherwise. I myself don't know a single artist who does not either deal with anxiety or depression chronically or periodically, though this this partially self-selection. Artists are also much more willing to discuss their mental health and there is a strong argument that we may "feel" or reflect on our emotions more than the average person. I have always felt like I see and feel the world in more detail than others, and I'm sure most artists feel the same. At the same time, this same sensitivity could render one less resilient in the face of extreme emotion, which I believe may be the cause of the mental struggles of artists.

I also wonder if, because of this, I suffered so much more when I became severely mentally ill.

My Breakdown

In 2021, I developed Obsessive Compulsive Disorder of a severe form months after going off an antidepressant, which was prescribed for an unrelated condition (was the timing a coincidence? Probably not!). Within a year I was hospitalized numerous times and undergoing many forms of therapy, though with not much success. My entire life had transformed into a debilitating nightmare that would put a Goya Black Painting to shame; every single day was filled with agonizing anxiety and depression. Until that point, I had never had any mental illness (that I could perceive), and it would take me an additional four years of excruciating suffering to finally receive my diagnosis. OCD is often confused with other anxiety and depressive disorders, especially for someone like me, whose presentation of OCD was not obsessing over symmetry or germs, but constant rumination in my mind.

During this period I definitely found artmaking difficult, and for good reason. I felt as if my life might be essentially over; I could not explain why I lived in such an anxious state day after day, and spent most of my time ruminating over possible explanations rather than expressing myself at my easel. Thankfully in 2025, a new therapist instantly diagnosed me and everything that occurred for four years finally made sense. After starting therapy for the condition, I was surprised how effective it was despite my difficult health history, and feel very optimistic about the future. In fact, the whiplash from being so severely anxious to now feeling so well is almost as dizzying as the descent into madness itself.

The truth just so happened to be that I have always had OCD, I just never classified my behavior as such. I didn't know that the mental games I played to get a good grade in school was not just a quirk; that my anxious thoughts that popped up in social situations were not just typical anxiety; that my lingering sense that something was holding me back, though I was not sure what, indeed was not normal. I since have asked my family about strange behavior from other family members and now see the genetic link.

My Rebirth

Many people believe that a mental breakdown, especially one that results in a diagnosis, is an omen. Things can never go back to being as they were; this person is forever burdened with an illness. However, anyone familiar with mental health knows that these conditions are often present since the person was a child and not simply random. The breakdown changes nothing, except making that person aware that their disorder can no longer be ignored, and that maybe they are not the "normal" person they always thought they were. The breakdown often gets the most self-hatred, blame, stigma, and despair, but the breakdown is blameless; it is a communication that there is something that needs to be changed.

Every breakdown is followed by a restructuring or rebirth, which is often not discussed.

The breakdown gets most of the attention due to its sloppy and indecent nature, but nobody ever talks about what happens aftewards, except to expect that people somehow just "get better" through time. However, I believe that how we restructure ourselves after a traumatic event, tragedy, or illness is up to us. I found that the most important aspect of my therapy was to trust that I was not doomed to live in a chronically ill state. My own condition made it seem as if I was doomed, hopeless, and going to be complaining about agonizing OCD for the rest of my life. I learned to recognize that I didn't have to listen to this adumbration because there was no evidence it was real.

Since starting therapy, my world has opened up in ways I never could have imagined. I do not feel like the same person, but somehow more myself, intrinsically more pure. I now feel far more confident because I no longer have to listen to doubtful insecurities. I also feel far more flexibility in the options I have in life because I am not boxed in by logic that confines me to unnecessary limitations. These changes are subtle but significant; it's not as if I've grown wings or now am suddenly joyous every second of the day. What has really happened is that I can finally be me.

As it turned out, I needed my disorder to become severe enough for me to notice it; otherwise, I would have gone my whole life with unaddressed symptoms, feeling held back and insecure but not really being able to explain why, the way I had felt for much of my adult life. I would have just continued reasoning that it was my personality. I call this death by a thousand cuts: the slow bleed of an undiagnosed, untreated disorder that many people unfortunately suffer their whole lives. Who knows? Maybe I actually got the better deal.

My Art

The work featured here I found relevant to the themes in this post. Some of them, particularly Vipassana, Milarepa's Demons, and Śūnyatā are works that explore my rebirth. Buddhist philosophy has become a source of inspiration, especially as it is a religion based on the alleviation of suffering. I am in a period of intense experimentation and am pleased to see how my art is evolving.

For a long time, artmaking felt like a competition where my sole goal was to be the best. Now I feel far more curious and interested in the process of art, rather than its outcome, because the pressure of being perfect is alleviated. Many artists do not consider how making art requires a healthy mindset and understanding healthy coping skills with jealousy, insecurity, and anxiety about making art. The pressures that it creates can affect not only the professional artist but the hobbyist; not only those with a diagnosis but those without. Though my healing journey is not over, I certainly have a path forward.

Conclusion

I hope the reader can understand a few essential points from this post:

There is an established link between mental illness and the artistic mind, and artists should see their gift of hyper-sensitivity as a gift that needs to be understood and monitored
OCD can appear as anxiety but requires specialized treatment, and more awareness of this is needed
Serious mental breakdowns can actually result in a growth mindset and are often opportunities to understand oneself and improve one's lifestyle

Below is a resource on OCD that I highly recommend:

Inference-based Cognitive-Behavorial Therapy – The Official site of the New Treatment for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and Related Conditions

Take care and Happy Holidays!

Tiffany

In this untitled acrylic painting, I depict an esoteric creature in a mask; masks the world over are used to obscure the wearer's face in order to represent a character or revered entity. I use masked figures to symbolize the idea of repression or "masking", under which a genuine identity resides.

In Adumbration, a masked figure made of viscera stands in front of a stained glass archway, surrounded by embryonic monsters in a wintery forest. This piece is about the connection between the subconscious and reality, how nonsensical dreams can foretell future events in a way that our conscious mind cannot see (such as a prophecy).

Failed Angel is a somber piece, depicting a once-angelic being having fallen from Heaven in a fiery turbulence. Failure can be devastating; it has a ring of shame to it. The viewer sees how the angel's posture is that of emotional defeat. Still, there is beauty in everything, even pain, if given the right context.

Milarepa's Demons" comes from a Buddhist tale about Jestun Milarepa, an 11th century Tibetan yogi. In the tale, Milarepa (who has a difficult past) finds that three demons have overtaken his mountain home. He first tells them to leave, but this only enrages them. Then Milarepa teaches the dharma to them, but they are unphased, simply bored. The yogi eventually accepts that the demons will not leave, and admits that they will be all together for a while. Two demons vanish, but the most fearsome demon remains. Milarepa puts his head into the demon's mouth and gives the demon permission to eat him, but the demon vanishes. In other versions, Milarepa even converts the demons towards Buddhism. This tale is retold in the painting with a male figure who gently holds a human brain in reverence, in acceptance of the three demons.

Vipassana, a large-scale painting, was done based off the Pali term "vipassana", meaning
"to see things as they really are". This is the foundation of meditation in the Eastern traditions. This painting depicts an individual who now understands reality as it is--difficult, painful, and unforgiving sometimes. However, he smirks because he realizes that suffering is created from the mind, and understands that despite the pain, he will be victorious.

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