
Creative Thinking (1952) - npalli
http://www1.ece.neu.edu/~naderi/Claude%20Shannon.html
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shubhamjain
> This, we might say, is a matter of environment; intelligence is a matter of
> heredity.

Sometimes I think we're better off ignoring this premise because people,
irrespective of how much potential they've, will kill themselves in self-doubt
over whether they've won the genetic lottery. When I started programming, I
had constant worry if I was made for programming—if I had "the right stuff"
for it. Now, in the hindsight, that question just sounds silly. Everyone has a
knack for programming, it just takes an effort.

~~~
alexanderdmitri
I agree. It's really strange that so many people think IQ or intelligence is
some sort of fixed value. There are definitely people that seem to come out of
the gate at a faster gait while others have serious handicaps to deal with,
but as a general rule if you assert you are not smart enough to understand
something, you're kind of asserting you understand it to the extent that you
can claim you won't be able to get it ... which doesn't make sense.

Also, here's a great article that explores the idea of IQ:
[https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2009/07/the-
tru...](https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2009/07/the-truth-about-
iq/22260/)

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hamj
The first portion of Shannon's analysis of creativity, the creative person,
reflects closely with past creativity research. However, IQ has been shown to
barely correlate with creativity in most cases. Amabile has commentary on this
topic in her seminal article, "The Social Psychology of Creativity". She
argued that there are three components of creativity. Two are shared by
Shannon, namely, task motivation and domain relevant knowledge (knowledge
acquired in any field over time). The third, and focus of this article is
creative ability. Coincidentally, the researcher E Paul Torrance created the
oldest and most valid way to measure this called the Torrance Tests for
Creative Thinking. Regarding the second portion of Shannon's article, ways of
generating creative productions, there are many creativity techniques
developed by Osborn, de Bono, and others. Shannon's particular tips are
reminiscent of a divergent thinking tool called SCAMPER, an acronym that gives
guidelines on how to look at any idea or challenge differently. The letters
stand for, respectively, Substitute, Combine, Add to, Modify, Put to other
uses, Eliminate, or Reverse.

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bbotond
"I don’t want to sound egotistical here, I don’t think that I am beyond the
knee of this curve and I don’t know anyone who is."

I'm always so surprised when I read such statements from extraordinary people.
Why the hell would _Shannon_ of all people have such a distorted view of
himself? Is this just hypocrisy, a kind of fake humility, or do most geniuses
think they are average?

~~~
alexanderdmitri
I don't know if this answers your question, but I'd say a great deal of
intellectual strength can be derived from acknowledging the depth of our
ignorance in the first place. Shannon seems to be getting at this in his
descriptions of dissatisfaction and drive.

On somewhat of a tangent, in many ways science and creativity are
fundamentally opposed. Science requires constant, humble resignation to
reality. And, though creativity may work within the confines of reality, I'd
say it tends to have a more rebellious attitude. Shannon doesn't explicitly
say it, but he's definitely getting at the fact that the greatest
intellectuals manage to excel at both somehow and I think his suggestions at
problems solving are an attempt to give a potential equation for doing so.

All that aside I think your question has more to do with Shannon's personality
than his intellectual achievements and I'm sure his personality type can be
found evenly distributed across the population's IQ range.

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dpflan
This is interesting as it's Shannon's own writing. There was a recent Medium
post listed here on HN about Shannon: "Claude Shannon: How a Genius Thinks,
Works, and Lives (medium.com)"

>
> [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14819377](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14819377)

