An artificial intelligence tool recently mapped out processes that drive people to success in creative careers. Every being understands that creativity is not continuous - its flow is interrupted based on our external surroundings and mental well-being. While one may experience a creative burst for a week, the one following it may be filled with a creative lull. This isn't strange, it's just human nature (unless you're on hard drugs - which we do not endorse). Periods of immense creative energy are followed by success for people experiencing a "hot streak".

Experts from Northwestern University in the United States used an artificial intelligence system in order to analyze almost 800 thousand works of artists from different eras. Among them was Vincent Van Gogh. Due to this, it was possible to find a universal formula for success that can be used in absolutely all areas of creativity. In 2018, there was such a thing as a "hot streak". It implies the most active period in the work of any artist.

Across a range of fields, individual careers are characterized by hot streaks, bursts of high-impact works clustered together in close succession. The hot streak highlights a specific period during which an individual's performance is substantially better than their typical performance. An example of a hot streak is Jackson Pollock's three-year period from 1947 to 1950, during which he created most of his famous artworks with his particular "drip technique". A few years ago, Lui and colleagues used AI to examine the work of scientists, artists, and film directors for hot streaks throughout their careers. They determined how impactful their work was by looking at output such as a scientist's most-cited papers over a 10-year period, auction prices for artwork, and IMDB.com movie ratings.

Whether an artist, scientist, or film director, trailblazers in particular fields often have a critically-acclaimed'hot streak' where they produce a series of outstanding work in short succession. Now, scientists at Northwestern University in Illinois claim to have pinpointed the secret formula that often triggers a pioneer's best work. Using a form of artificial intelligence (AI) called deep learning, they mined data related to thousands of artists, film directors and scientists to identify a magical formula for success. Hot streaks directly result from years of'exploration' (studying diverse styles or topics), immediately followed by years of'exploitation' (focusing on a narrow area to develop deep expertise), they claim. They define a hot streak as a burst of high-impact works clustered together in close succession – as achieved by artists such as Vincent Van Gogh and Jackson Pollock, or film directors like Peter Jackson or Alfred Hitchcock.

Whether it is the director Marta Meszaros, or the artist Jackson Pollock, those in creative careers often experience a particular burst of success. Now researchers have used artificial intelligence to reveal such "hot streaks" are commonly preceded by an experimental phase followed by a focus on one particular approach once the winning period has begun. The director Peter Jackson's career is, perhaps, a prime example: his hugely successful Lord of the Rings trilogy came after an eclectic range of movies such as the sci-fi comedy horror Bad Taste, the puppet film Meet the Feebles and the drama Heavenly Creatures. The new work builds on a previous study by the researchers that suggested many creatives find themselves on a roll at some point in their career, although when exactly this happens appears to be random. "About 90% of people have at least one hot streak" said Prof Dashun Wang of Northwestern University, who led the latest study.