One useful mental model is the differentiation between compositional and creative acts.
Here, I will refer to the compositional act as the physical manifestation and technical interpretation of an idea. This is the muscle memory used for strumming chords, painting lines, or cutting identical cubes of carrot.
The creative act, on the other hand, refers to the mental creation of the idea. This isn’t the songwriter playing the song, but rather imagining and writing the melody to fit their intended emotional state. This is the chef crafting the menu for their cooks to prepare, the master painter sketching the plan that his assistants will paint, or the senior software engineer creating the plan and subtasks for his developers to fill in.
If you do not properly differentiate between these two ideas, you will waste your time by
not understanding where your personal weaknesses lie, (i.e., technically or creatively)
lacking the ability to precisely criticize and give feedback to other’s creations,
failing to see yourself and your role as an artist or creator in a broader sociological context.
The goal is to have your creative aspirations (aka your vision, that which cannot be taught, only intuited) manifested via compositional mastery, technical prowess, discipline, and hard work (things that can be taught, developed, and practiced).
You are never asked to compose a song on your first day with your instrument. Instead, you’re asked to learn finger positioning and how to play scales. Likewise, painters are first taught color theory, different types of lines, and how to shade. Only later are they expected to implement those skills into their works.
Immediately, we can see that art teachers intuitively understand that the separation of these two aspects of creation will lead to greater artistic competency. Modern fine artists still practice their compositional sharpness in the same way: visit any great museum and you will see artists studying and copying works from the old masters.
They aren’t studying old masters because they can’t think of good ideas themselves. Instead, it is becaues they understand that compositional skills largely are creative skills.
Just as having a weak vocabulary means the impossibility of thinking or communicating complex thought, being compositionally unpracticed will necessarily negatively inform your creative output. In other words, the inability to execute an idea excludes the idea appearing in your mind. If you thought of an idea, you can probably do it. If you did not think of an idea, you will not do it.
Just as the invention of cameras led painters away from realism, the invention and use of computers has discouraged artists from developing their compositional skills. After all, why would you need the experience of being an instrument in the orchestra, when you have a perfect, emotionless replicator at your permanent disposal?
This is why we have so many people publicly aspiring and practicing to become DJs, and yet so few have such fiery passions for playing the tuba. Yet, ironically, the tuba player shapes the aesthetic and artistic reality (that thing which the DJ seeks) on a layer deeper than the DJ can! Unintuitively, the ability for depth (ex. the instrumentalist’s ability and sensitivity to tiny changes, the painter’s awareness of slight curvatures) CAUSES the ability for breadth (mass appeal, the ability for recognition earned from one’s taste and skill). Again - this is because compositional skills largely are creative skills. They inform one another.
Nearly every artist or individual in a position to express their “taste”, (prior to the computerized age), had put in their 10,000 hours as a “boring” (tuba-playing) composer before they expressed their creativity in a more “hands-off” way. It is only through the eyes of the inexperienced artist looking for shortcuts that their position seems easier and more desirable. Do not call yourself a “Creative Director” if you can do nothing but judge, as your inability to create means your judgement is necessarily the least valid in the room.
This is not to say that consciously seperating these tasks is always the best course of action. I only wish to raise awareness and provide vocabulary as a tool for you to analyze the sorts of designs are productions around you.
Self-taught artists, for example, motivated by an internal drive of expression, often find themselves more technically capable than traditionally trained artists from the same generation. Revolutionary acts do not come from an anticipated source - if they did, they would no longer be revolutionary. To live in direct opposition to a pre-established path is to continually make direct reference to it.
I hope you are able to recognize some points in your personal life where this concept can apply, and begin to see it in the world around you, and use as fuel to cause positive changes.