Are you creative?

 

ARE YOU CREATIVE?

Mario D’Couto

       

             Can you imagine a world without creativity? What would the world look like if there was no creativity? Well, for all we can expect, it would be pretty boring and dull. There would be no speech, no songs, no tools, no ideas such as love, freedom or democracy. It would be an existence so mechanical and impoverished that none of us would want to be a part of.

            To achieve the kind of world we consider human, some people had to dare to break the thrall of tradition. Next, they had to find ways of recording those new ideas or procedures that improved on what went on before. Finally, they had to find ways of transmitting the new knowledge to the generation to come. Those who were involved in this process we call creative. What we call culture or those parts of our selves that we internalized from the social environment, is their creation.

            Whether we like it or not, our species has become dependent on creativity. Imagine for a moment if we did not have a solution to the depletion of non – renewable resources or the pollution of the environment, what would the world be like? Unless we find new values, new ideals to direct our energies, a sense of hopelessness might well keep us from going on with enthusiasm necessary to overcome the obstacles along the way.

       Some people argue that studying creativity is an elite distraction from the more pressing problems confronting us. According to such people, we should focus all our energies combating overpopulation, poverty and other similar things that could hinder the progress of humanity. In other words, a concern for creativity is an unnecessary luxury. Yet, nothing could be further from the truth.

            First of all, workable new solutions to poverty or overpopulation will not magically appear by themselves. Problems are solved only when we devote a great deal of attention to them and in a creative way. Second, to have a good life, it is not enough to remove what is wrong from it. We also need a positive goal, otherwise there is no point. Creativity is what will help us achieve it. Psychologists have learned much about how healthy humans think and feel from pathological cases. Brain – damaged patients, neurotics and delinquents have provided contrasts against which normal functioning may be better understood. Yet, we have learned little from the other end of the spectrum, that is, from people who are extraordinary in the positive sense. If we wish to find out what might be missing from our lives, it makes sense to study those lives that are rich and fulfilling from the world of creativity. Most people often assume that such things are off their limits, that ‘it is not for me’ and while no doubt that may be true to an extent, depending on one’s temperament, circumstances and opportunities, that should not deter one from trying to push forward and making an attempt to understand of what led them there to become what they are. For instance, we all revere Leonardo Da Vinci as a polymath who was not just an artist and a painter but was also an anatomist, architect, botanist, city planner, costume and stage designer, chef, engineering, equestrian, humourist, inventor, geographer, geologist, mathematician, military scientist, musician, philosopher, physicist and raconteur. Now can everyone be Leonardo Da Vinci? Absolutely not! But can the fundamentals of Da Vinci’s approach to learning and cultivation of intelligence be abstracted and applied to inspire and guide us toward the realization of our full potential? Yes!

            The problem is we often think of creative people as bright and intelligent. We are struck and impressed with their achievements and reading about their lives on how they got to achieve what they have achieved often gives the feeling like as though they were born with the talents they had, that it was somehow innate within them. But the truth is quite the contrary. According to psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, the real story of creativity is more difficult and strange than many overly optimistic accounts have claimed and this because an idea or product that deserves the label ‘creative’ arises from the synergy of many sources and not only from the mind of a single person. In fact, he goes on to say that it is easier to enhance creativity by changing conditions in the environment than by trying to make people think more creatively and a genuinely creative accomplishment is almost never the result of a sudden insight, a lightbulb flashing in the dark but comes after years of hard work.

            Inventors, scientists, entrepreneurs, artists – they all like to tell the stories of their great breakthroughs as epiphanies because there is a kind of narrative thrill that comes from conveying the message in that particular way. Yet, if one examines the intellectual fossil record closely, it is more of a slow hunch and not so much of a lightbulb phenomenon and this slow hunch is the rule and not the exception. With that being said, let’s take a look at some of the ways in which we can extrapolate some of the best practices that some of the geniuses in the past such as Leonardo Da Vinci, Benjamin Franklin, Charles Darwin and others have used and how we can implement them in our own lives to make it more creative and fruitful.

            The first thing we need to understand is the acquisition of creative energy. When it comes to creativity, there is no real such phenomenon where the creative person has a special brain than the rest of us. In fact, an expert neuroanatomist would not be able to tell the difference between Einstein’s brain from yours or mine. In terms of the capacity for processing information, all brains are extremely alike. The limits on how many bits of information we can process at any given time are also similar. Nor is the speed of information processing noticeably different from one brain to the next. In principle, because of the similarity in cerebral hardware, most people could share the same knowledge and perform mental operations at similar levels. Yet, despite the vast similarities, the one distinguishing factor that separates the creative from the non-creative is in how much uncommitted attention they have left over to deal with the novelty.

            The human mind is like a muscle. When a person is done with a hard day’s work or is occupied with other responsibilities, it is very unlikely if such a person would have any mental energy left to pursue any creative activity. We cannot expect a man who works two jobs or a working woman with children to have much mental energy left over to learn or master a particular skill, let alone innovate. The fact is that there are real limits to how many things a person can attend to at the same time and when survival needs require all of one’s attention, none is left for being creative. It is therefore difficult to approach the world creatively when one is hungry or shivering from cold or is suffering because of a similar circumstance because then all of one’s mental energy is focused on securing the necessities one lacks while at the same time, it is equally difficult when a person is rich and famous but devotes all of his or her energies to getting more money and fame. To free up creative energy, we need to let go and direct some attention from the pursuit of the predictable goals that our genes have programmed in our minds (which could include anything that is related to the basic survival necessities of food, shelter and clothing) and use it instead to explore the world around us on its own terms which brings me to the second important thing in creativity, namely, developing a sense of curiosity.

            When it comes to curiosity, children have the advantage over adults where their curiosity is like a constant beam that highlights and invests with interest anything that is within their range. The object need not be useful, attractive or precious. As long as it is mysterious, it is worthy of attention. The plight though is that as we grow older, we lose this sense of wonder, the feeling of awe in confronting the majesty and variety of the world. Yet without this awe, this sense of wonder, life becomes routine. Creative individuals are childlike in that their curiosity remains fresh even at ninety years of age. Such people delight in the strange and the unknown and because there is no end to the unknown, their delight is also endless.

            Creative people are constantly surprised and don’t assume that they understand what is happening around them nor do they assume that anybody else does. They question the obvious, not out of spitefulness but because they see the shortcomings of accepted explanations before the rest of us do. They sense problems before they are generally perceived and are able to define what they are. Take for example, the Renaissance period. The reason we consider the artists of the Renaissance so creative is that they were able to express the emancipation of the human spirit from the shackles of religious tradition before the humanist scholars or anyone else did and so without expressly intending to and without a clear understanding of the consequences of their action, the Renaissance artists changed our perspective on the world. If you learn to be creative in everyday life, you may not change how future generations will see the world but you will change the way you experience it. Problem finding is important in the daily domain because it helps us focus on issues that will affect our experience which would otherwise go unnoticed. This would mean that you would have to preserve the hunch in your own memory, in the dense network of neurons. Most slow hunches never last long enough to turn into something useful because they pass in and out of our memory too quickly, precisely because they possess a certain murkiness. You get a feeling that there’s an interesting avenue to explore, a problem that might someday lead you to a solution but then you get distracted by more pressing matters and the hunch disappears. The solution to it therefore is to write everything down.

            Charles Darwin was one who would adhere to a rigorous practice of maintaining notebooks quoting from different sources, improvising new ideas, interrogating and dismissing false leads, drawing diagrams and generally letting his mind roam on the page. By maintaining his notebook and writing things down, Darwin’s ideas were able to evolve since through the notebook, it created a cultivating space for his hunches. It is not that the notebook was a mere transcription of the ideas but rather through it, he was able to re-read his notes and discover new implications through which his ideas emerged as a kind of a duet between the present – tense thinking brain and all the past observations on paper.

            The word used to describe this phenomenon is the ‘commonplace book’. Besides Darwin, many other great scientists, inventors, poets, authors, politicians and artists were known to follow this practice like John Milton, Francis Bacon, John Locke, Benjamin Franklin, Leonardo Da Vinci and others all of whom were zealous believers in the memory – enhancing power of the commonplace book, which was mainly about transcribing interesting or inspirational passages from one’s reading or assembling a personalized encyclopedia of quotations. By doing this, it enabled one to lay up a fund of knowledge from which he could select what is useful in the several pursuits of life. Each re-reading of the commonplace book becomes a new kind of revelation where each encounter holds the promise that some long forgotten hunch will connect in a new way with some emerging obsession which brings me to the next point called serendipity.

            Serendipity is built out of happy accidents wherein you are looking for a solution to a particular problem or issue but then you come across other things that are completely unrelated with what you are looking for yet they still help fill in the pieces of the puzzle and take you a step closer in what you are looking for or dealing with. For instance, in 1865, the German chemist Friedrich August Kekule von Stradonitz, had a daydream by a crackling fire in which he saw a vision of Ouroboros, the serpent from Greek mythology that devours its own tail. Kekule had spent the past ten years of his life exploring the connections of carbon-based molecules. The serpent image in his dream gave him a sudden insight into the molecular structure of hydrocarbon benzene. The benzene molecule, he realized was a perfect ring of carbon, with hydrogen atoms surrounding its outer edges. Kekule’s slow hunch had set the stage for the insight but for that hunch to turn into a world-changing idea, he needed the most unlikely of connections, which was the iconic image from ancient mythology and Kekule’s vision did indeed prove to be a breakthrough of epic proportions where the ring structure of the benzene molecule became the basis or a revolution in organic chemistry, opening up a new vista onto the mesmerizing array of rings, lattices and chains formed by that most connective of elements, which is, carbon. From this, we see that it took the combinational serendipity of a daydream wherein the firing of neurons in unlikely new configurations helped put into perspective the combinational power of carbon, which was itself crucial to understanding the original innovations of life itself.

            To further elaborate on this, imagine you are a geologist randomly exploring the Web, looking for information for a project that you are working on and then suddenly you stumble across an essay on health – care reform. Your stumbling across this piece of information may well be interesting and informative but it will not be truly serendipitous unless it helps you fill in the pieces of the puzzle you have been pouring over. This is not to say that geologists can only find serendipitous discoveries in texts about geology. In fact, it is quite the opposite as serendipitous discoveries often involve exchanges across different disciplines and fields of study. This was exactly what happened in Kekule’s mythic serpent that led to a revelation in organic chemistry. It was genuinely serendipitous that Kekule’s dreaming brain should conjure up the image of Ouroboros at that moment. But had Kekule not been wrestling with the structure of the benzene molecule for years, the serpent shape may have not triggered any useful associations in his mind and would have been just a serpent swallowing its tail and nothing more.

            The Hungarian author and journalist Arthur Koestler, wrote along similar lines in his book, “The Act of Creation” where he states that all decisive events in the history of scientific thought can be described in terms of mental cross – fertilization between different disciplines. Concepts from one domain migrate to another as a kind of structuring metaphor thereby unlocking some secret door that had long been hidden from view. In his memoirs, Francis Crick reports that he first hit upon the complementary replication system of DNA – each base A matched with a T and C with a G – by thinking of the way a work of sculpture can be reproduced by making an impression in plaster and then using that impression, when dry, as a mold to create copies. Johannes Kepler credited his laws of planetary motion to a generative metaphor imported from religion; he imagined the sun, the stars and the dark space between them as the celestial equivalents of the Father, Son and the Holy Ghost. When computer science pioneers, Douglas Engelbart and Alan Kay invented the graphical interface, they imported a metaphor from the real-world environment of offices wherein instead of organizing information on the screen as a series of command – line inputs in a way that a programmer would, they borrowed the iconography of a desktop with pieces of paper stacked on it. Kekule didn’t think the benzene molecule was literally a snake from Greek mythology but his knowledge of that ancient symbol helped him solve one of the essential problems of organic chemistry.

            With the kind of technology we have today, having access to a vast amount of knowledge is available at our fingertips and so if the commonplace book tradition tells us that the best way to nurture hunches is to write everything down, the serendipity engine of technology suggests a parallel directive which is to look everything up (although you can still continue with the practice of the commonplace book if you wish to which is highly recommended). If you are someone like me who likes reading, you may want to consider reading a large and varied collection of books and essays on different topics which can help in the cross – fertilization of knowledge. Bill Gates is famous for taking annual reading vacations. During the year, he deliberately cultivates a stack of reading material, much of which is unrelated to the day-to-day focus at Microsoft and then he takes an off for a week or two and does a deep dive into the words he has stockpiled. By doing this, it gives new ideas additional opportunities to network among themselves for the simple reason that it is easier to remember something that you read yesterday that it is to remember something you read six months ago. The same routine can be seen in the life of Ray Ozzie who was the successor to Bill Gates at Microsoft. Of course, none of us may have the same privilege of taking such a sabbatical but that should not be an excuse for us to not make the attempt to consume knowledge from a wide variety of fields which would only further enhance our ability to think creatively and come up with different ideas.

            At a personal level, you can create a cross-disciplinary environment within your own private work routine. For instance, Darwin had an immense number of side interests besides his main work, “On the Origin of Species” where he studied coral reefs, bred pigeons, performed elaborate taxonomical studies of beetles, wrote important papers on geology of South America and spent years researching the impact of earthworms on the soil, all of which helped in some way contribute to his main work, “On the Origin of Species” through the useful links of association and expertise to the problem of evolution. The same eclectic pattern appears in countless other biographies. For instance, Joseph Priestley bounced between chemistry, physics, theology and political theory or take the case of Benjamin Franklin who conducted electricity experiments, theorized the existence of the Gulf Stream, designed stoves and made a small fortune as a printer before he became a political statesman or John Snow who invented a state – of – the – art technology for the administration of ether, published research on lead poisoning and the resuscitation of stillborn children while at the same time solving the mystery of cholera in the streets of London in the 1850s and tending to his patients as a general practitioner. What these examples go to point is chance favours the connected mind and the more one attempts that knowledge, it then puts that person in a better position where he can then use that knowledge in a new scenario or in a different context.

            Having said that, it would therefore be helpful to familiarize and try out as many domains and fields of expertise as possible. Start with things you already enjoy and then move to other related domains or fields of expertise. So if you like to read biography, try history; if you like to swim, try diving or maybe even skydiving if possible; if you are good at one musical instrument, take up another musical instrument of if you are good at one sport, take up another sport and so on. Learning to operate within a new domain is always difficult and love at first sight is rare, at least in terms of when you are first introduced to a new domain and so a certain amount of persistence is necessary. At the same time, it should also be noted that it makes no sense to persevere in an activity that gives no joy or promise of it. Eventually you should be able to find one or more domains that fit your interests, things that you enjoy doing and that expand your life. However care should be taken that you do not do it at the expense of exhausting all your energy in the pursuit of it since as seen before, the acquisition of creative energy and the sense of curiosity are crucial when it comes to developing one’s creativity. If you lose or no longer have the two aspects of creativity, it may be difficult to reclaim the sense of wonder which helped sow the spark of creativity in the first place, which brings me to the final point which is the environment you work in.

 

           The surroundings have an impact on a person’s creativity.  Creative individuals may seem to disregard their environment and work happily in even the most dismal surroundings like for instance Michaelangelo contorted on his scaffold below the Sistine ceiling or one may even find an infinite number of poets scribbling away in dingy rented rooms. Regardless of whether the conditions in which they find themselves are luxurious or miserable, they manage to give their surroundings a personal pattern that echoes the rhythm of their thoughts and habits of action. Within this environment of their own making, they can forget the rest of the world and concentrate on pursuing their muse.

           This, however, should not be misunderstood as simple causality. A great view by itself does not act like a silver bullet, embedding a new idea in the mind. Rather, what seems to happen is that when people with prepared minds find themselves in beautiful settings, they are more likely to find new connections among ideas, new perspectives on issues they are dealing with. What this means is that unless one enters the situation with some deeply felt question and the skills necessary to answer it, nothing much is likely to happen. To put it in simpler words, unless if you have done your homework, don’t expect miracles to happen which is why a prepared mind is essential.

            To conclude, creativity is not just about a ground – breaking thought or idea that is going to radically transform human existence nor is it that in order to be creative, you need to be famous or popular. Sure enough, such things are not bad in themselves but to fall into this category, it takes more than just a great idea. Just as the sound of a tree crashing in the forest is unheard of if nobody is there to hear it, so creative ideas vanish unless there is a receptive audience to record and implement them and so without the assessment of competent outsiders, there is no reliable way to decide whether the claims of a self – styled creative person are valid or not. This also implies that other aspects such as luck, having the right contacts and being at the right place at the right time are as equally important as having an idea that has the potential to make an effective contribution to human existence. Think about it for a minute, how many Congolese would make great skiers or are there really no Papuans who could contribute to nuclear physics? Without the support of the right domain, even the most promising talent will not be recognized.

            For those of us who choose to pursue the creative life, there is no guarantee that our creativity would be marked with a capital ‘C’ (which is to say that there is no guarantee we are going to become famous). You can be as creative as you want personally but if the domain and the path that you are pursuing fail to co-operate (which is the most likely outcome), your efforts will not be recorded in the history books. Learning to sculpt or learning some other particular skill may do wonders for your life but don’t expect critics to get ecstatic or collectors to beat a path to your door. The competition is fierce; few survive by being noticed, selected and added to the culture. Luck has a huge hand in deciding whose ‘C’ will be capitalized. But if you don’t learn to be creative in your personal life, the chances of contributing to the culture drops even closer to zero and so what really matters in the end is not whether your name has been attached to a recognized discovery but whether you have a lived a full and creative life. This is to say that the love of the creative process for its own sake is available to all and if it were not for this, it would be hard to imagine a richer life otherwise. Sure enough, we may not have the good fortune to discover a new chemical element or write a great story since as alluded to before, without the support of a field, even the most promising talent will not be recognized. But if creativity with a capital ‘C’ is largely beyond our control, living a creative life is not and so in terms of ultimate fulfilment, it is the latter that may be the most important accomplishment. So go for walks, cultivate hunches, write everything down, embrace serendipity, take on multiple hobbies, let others build on your ideas and you in turn can borrow too, recycle and re-invent. Remember, if you are a sponge, knowledge can come from anywhere but if you are a hard rock, no lofty idea or thought process can help you even if you may be an “Einstein”.

            If you are still asking yourself the question, “Am I creative?” you bet you are. The One who created you and everything else that exists in the universe delights in creativity and sees it as a way of pointing towards His truth as we see in Exodus 31: 3 – 5 where He handpicks a man for the building of the Temple by the name Bezalel to undertake the work of creativity, filling him with wisdom, understanding and all kinds of skills to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze, to cut and set stones, to work in wood and to engage in all kinds of crafts. Besides in Genesis 6: 14 -16, we see God giving specific instructions to Noah on how the ark is supposed to be built which goes to show the meticulous planning and the vision that God has.

            When God does something, He does not do it haphazardly. He created you and me with a specific purpose in mind and the way you do things is unique only to you which nobody either in the present, past or the future can replicate. How many lives would miss what you have to offer if you just pass through life with no direction assuming you are not creative enough? How many lives you could have touched with your song, poetry, art, intelligence, stories and so on, only because you felt that you are not good enough? God does not create junk! I hope these words may inspire you in your own creative journey in as much as it was a great learning experience for me as well. God love you! Stay blessed!