This famous thought leader swears by 10 cups of coffee a day
Which begs the question: does coffee hold the secret to being a creative genius?
It’s David Lynch. The surrealist filmmaker whose name probably rings a bell if you’re at all familiar with his most famous creation: the cult classic TV show, Twin Peaks.
When Twin Peaks first aired back in 1990, Lynch became something of a thought leader in the world of television. Why? Because of his originality.
Take this exchange between Pete Martell and Special Agent, Dale Cooper:
Martell: How do you take your coffee?
Cooper: Black as midnight on a moonless night.
It’s a weird reply, right? Yet it sounds strangely beautiful. To academics and movie buffs alike, deliberate and delightful idiosyncrasies that appear in the scripts, visuals and action of “Lynchian” cinema are what makes his work so special.
Coffee, donuts and cherry pie
However, let’s be honest with ourselves.
Aside from the show’s instant quotability, the rest of us mostly stuck around for Cooper’s endearing obsession with cherry pie, donuts, and of course, refusing to drink anything other than “good, hot, black coffee”.
In fact, his love affair with coffee became such an iconic feature of the show that Lynch was even able to direct a successful advertising campaign for Georgia Coffee back in 1993.
Coffee and creativity
It should come as no surprise, then, that Lynch is similarly obsessed with the bitter brew – just like dear, old, over-caffeinated Coop. He (insanely) swears by drinking at least ten cups of “smooth and rich” espresso with milk a day.
It begs the question: is drinking coffee the secret to sustaining creative genius?
A scientific study published in 2020 revealed that, although the psychotropic drug does enhance our problem-solving capabilities, its effect on creativity or “idea-generating” is limited.
And yet, if history has anything to show for it, the answer is yes.
So what makes the connection between consuming startling amounts of coffee and being a creative thinker so evident? The answer lies within the culture of coffee drinking itself.
Coffee and cultural development
When coffee first made its way to Europe from Arabia, the suspiciously bitter brew was condemned as being the Devil’s drink. Fortunately, Pope Clement VIII ended up taking a sip of the lovely stuff and reportedly exclaimed:
“Why, this Satan’s drink is so delicious that it would be a pity to let the infidels have exclusive use of it!”
One baptism later, and boom: coffee was blessed to become part of good, Christian diets everywhere.
Praise be the arabica beans!
However, even as some of the first Enlightenment coffeehouses began to welcome visitors into cities like Vienna and London, a steaming hot cup of java remained tainted by controversy.
Bach became so infuriated with the situation that he composed the Coffee Cantana: a mini-opera about a despairing father who attempts to force his daughter to give up coffee and get married instead.
She says no.
A host of other classical composers were obsessed with coffee too. Beethoven was maddeningly insistent on grinding 60 beans into every cup that he made.
It doesn’t stop there – intellectuals of all kinds shared a weirdly passionate devotion to coffee. During the late 18th century, when cafe culture really started to take off, Voltaire used to consume 40 to 50 cups of coffee each day.
His favourite place to drink it was at the Café Procope in Paris, which hosted everyone from distinguished playwrights such as Beaumarchais to American revolutionaries like Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin.
Safe to say, the quality of conversation that you tended to find in such establishments was outstanding. It led to coffeehouses in England earning the nickname, “penny universities”: a nod to their cheap entry fee and the fact that lower-class citizens could make connections with those who were educated.
Visitors could participate in discussions, gain awareness of topical issues, and leave having learned something new. In other words, coffee houses provided a unique way of sharing and developing ideas with people from all walks of life.
So what you’re saying is that…?
Coffee does not hold the secret to being a creative genius; nevertheless, the act of drinking coffee encompasses everything that a creative mind craves:
- A seat for observation
- Space and time to contemplate passing thoughts
- The chance to discover new ways of thinking through meeting other people.
Perhaps that’s why thought-leaders like Lynch tend to associate a good cup of coffee with big ideas. He channeled his desire to make a deeper connection with the world around him through Agent Dale Cooper – who is, without question, at the top of his game wherever curiosity and community intersect.