Presence Is the Price of Creativity
As a Designer, I’ve always been drawn to the challenge of bringing creativity into technology. I wanted to make tech feel alive—human. That’s what led me to give a talk—“Making Tech Adapt to Us vs. the Other Way Around”—at SXSW in 2018. My argument then felt clear: if we could mimic human conversations, everything would feel natural, frictionless, and creative. I reduced conversations to the act of sharing knowledge: breaking down utterances into smaller pieces, discerning intent, and resolving ambiguity with clever patterns to deliver what people need.
Years later, I realized I was wrong. While I’m impressed with the frictionless back and forth from the most popular AI tools, I often find myself feeling empty.
Conversation is far more than the seamless exchange of information. At its core, it’s about connection, understanding, and the sharing of experiences. Conversations invite us to participate in something bigger than ourselves—to be present.
In Italy, most people seem at ease and relaxed in Being here—despite their fast-moving hands and expressions. They walk slowly, savor meals without distraction, and inhabit spaces shaped by centuries of presence. There is a fullness to their time, a deliberate ease in how they move through the world. There is an invitation in their presence.
By contrast, in Silicon Valley, presence feels optional—a constraint to be escaped. People talk in distracted, disembodied ways, living somewhere else: on their screens, in their minds, always speeding toward a future they haven’t reached.
Creativity cannot emerge in this void. To be creative is not to produce; it is to participate. And participation requires presence. Creativity begins with the body, the senses: the pause before a word, the weight of uncertainty, the pull of intuition. It arises when we are open to the world—not distracted from it. Creativity emerges when we accept the invitation to connect—with each other and with the moment itself.
Years after my talk, I wonder: how can we reclaim creativity by rediscovering what it means to be fully human?