
Lecture on Creativity (1991) - drawkbox
http://genius.com/John-cleese-lecture-on-creativity-annotated
======
adamnemecek
Recently I've been reading "Grammar of Graphics" which changed my perception
of creativity, aesthetics and mathematics and their relationships.
Fundamentally, the book provides all the diverse tools to give you confidence
that your graphics are mathematically sound and visually pleasing. After
reading this, Tufte just doesn't cut it anymore. It's such a weird book
because it talks about topics as disparate Bayesian rule, OOP, color theory,
SQL, chaotic models of time (lolwut), style-sheet language design and a
bjillion other topics but always somehow all of these are very relevant. It's
like if Bret Victor was a book, a tour de force of polymathical insanity.

The book is kinda expensive [https://smile.amazon.com/Grammar-Graphics-
Statistics-Computi...](https://smile.amazon.com/Grammar-Graphics-Statistics-
Computing/dp/0387245448/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&qid=1483833551&sr=8-1&keywords=grammar+of+graphics&linkCode=ll1&tag=hn09f-20&linkId=c43f8dc94243e7b4cf11000dafc3f01a&sa-
no-redirect=1) but that's because it is in full color and it has some of the
nicest looking and most instructive graphics I've ever seen even for things
that I understand, such as Central Limit Theorem. It makes sense the the best
graphics would be in the book written by the guy who wrote a book on how to do
visualizations mathematically.

The book is also interesting if you are doing any sort of UI interfaces,
because UI interfaces are definitely just a subset of graphical
visualizations.

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furyofantares
This lecture, which I think I watched as a video on YouTube, was on my mind
along with Hammock Driven Development (mentioned in another comment) while I
was reading Thinking Fast and Slow. It fits very well with the System 1/System
2 thinking, where the "open" mode is related to allowing the associative
machinery to go about its business, chasing strange combinations and
associations without the more analytical thinking interfering too much, and
then the "closed" mode is a switch, where you allow the more logical system to
take hold, really think about what you've come up with and polish (or discard)
it.

~~~
PlugTunin
Small world. 30 minutes ago I paused Kahnemann's "Thinking Fast And Slow"
Google Talk, browsed HN, and this article caught my eye.

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udfalkso
I have loved this talk for some time and have forced everyone at my company to
watch the video.

I found a lot of parallels with this "Hammock Driven Development" talk by Rich
Hickey:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f84n5oFoZBc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f84n5oFoZBc)

They both seem to suggest that you have to put in the effort, do the hard work
and dig into the problem deeply. But then when you hit a wall, you should take
a break. Relax. Play. Sleep. It is often during this "open" minded stage when
the solution comes.

~~~
nine_k
Also, it's the time when you're not visibly "productive".

~~~
jimnotgym
This is why I feel business struggles with people (who are not traditional
_artists_ ) needing time to think. Great leaps need a lot of space

~~~
pdimitar
s/struggles with/under-appreciates/

s/struggles with/gives hard time to/

s/^.+struggles with.+$/Business has no idea how creativity works/

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jimnotgym
Tangent. Is creativity rated highly enough in business? I specialise in
creative problem solving (not always with tech). Solutions that have eluded
many others, often seem obvious to me. Except _after_ they are solved everyone
else thinks the solution was obvious too! It is _kind of_ valued, but when it
comes to pay review its always... _if you had x qualification_ and _other
people in the market_. Except other people don't get my results!

On the other hand it is draining, keeps me up at night etc. Job interviews
never ask 'how creative are you at solving problems'? Are there employers who
want this?

~~~
cam_l
Design / creativity is unfortunately not valued, but it is a value add. It is
a reason to choose between you and the other guy, but not to pay you more.

No one cares about the money spent or the money saved in business.. just on
the projections. Think about it like a classical tragedy. For narrative impact
you need to flag the event well before it happens. Maybe we need to make
creativity look hard, stretch it out, make it play.

Just reading the HN submission on Gatto.. "He also learned to make hard tricks
look hard, to pantomime the exertion and self-doubt of a man working at the
edge of his ability even though his ability stretched on and on." Though, of
course, Gatto quit..

~~~
jimnotgym
Or maybe be an asshole about it like Hugh Laurie in 'House'! Make everybody
else suffer too

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fnordsensei
The idea of closed vs. open reminded me of a discussion I had once with a
psychologist about how he worked with his clients. He said that the first
thing he worked with them on was a shift from what he called an "inhibitory"
mode to an "excitatory" one.

He defined these states as being the primary way in which a person filters
perception, with the inhibitory mode being "filtering to perceive what is
negative and not possible", and excitatory being "filtering to perceive what
is positive and possible". The way that he assessed what the client perceived
was to simply listen to how they expressed themselves and what aspects they
emphasised when talking.

This wasn't just another version of, "hey, lighten up, look on the bright
side", as I understood it. He'd actively listen for when they would express
something as exciting or a positive possibility. Or fish for it by asking them
to relate a positive experience, or something like that. Then he'd have them
reinforce it by asking questions and putting attention back on the thing that
triggered the shift in perception. He'd put a lot of effort into trying to
gently get them to spend more time in this mode, if only for a few seconds at
a time initially.

He considered helping his clients to an excitatory mode of operation to be a
prerequisite for him to be able to help improve their mental well-being ("do
therapy") with any effectiveness at all.

~~~
pdimitar
That person was a hero then. I really hope he/she is successful to this day!
Getting people to bring their positive thinking on the surface is as hard as
it's very rewarding.

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zw123456
My theory about innovation (and I think is related to creativity) is that
humans are inherently very innovative. I think that is why we have been so
successful as a species. But there are many organizations and constructs in
society that teaches people to comport in a way that squelches creativity.
Whether it is school, work, the military, religion societal norms and so on.
Wherever you turn there is pressure to conform. To be more creative I think
you have to consciously work on unlearning the conformist thinking.

~~~
pdimitar
I agree and I have definitely found this to be the case in my life. I've spent
no small amount of years learning to conform and to do my own thing without
sticking out.

...Turns out I learned it way too well. I now have to actively get rid of this
way of thinking in order to progress in my life and move to another stage --
since my current job/payment situation isnt' satisfactory to me, and I see no
way to dramatically improve it by continuing to do [almost] the same as before
only slightly better.

I might still be proven wrong, of course -- what I said just above might very
well turn out to be the case even though I think it will not be. But at 36 and
being strongly unhappy with my professional life, I am starting to look for
conclusions which I can act on.

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mentos
The linked article only provides audio, the video is a bit more engaging
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xPvvPTQaMI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xPvvPTQaMI)

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piokuc
"Now the people I find it hardest to be creative with are people who need all
the time to project an image of themselves as decisive." This reasonated with
me strongly. I know people like that, I don't like them, I avoid them, they
are the reason I am looking for a new job at the moment, lol.

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drawkbox
John Cleese talks about "open" and "closed" modes that allow and disallow
creativity states.

 _Now here 's the negative thing: Creativity is not a talent. It is not a
talent, it is a way of operating.

MacKinnon showed that the most creative had simply acquired a facility for
getting themselves into a particular mood -- "a way of operating" \-- which
allowed their natural creativity to function.

In fact, MacKinnon described this particular facility as an ability to play._

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richard___
This piece also touches on why the current discourse on AI isn't getting us
closer to general AI. Our AI is getting better at solving human defined
problems but not getting any better at figuring out which questions are worth
asking (aka intuition, knowing when the combination of two seemingly disparate
ideas is useful)

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dev1n
on the topic of lectures on creativity Richard Hamming gave a lecture at the
naval research facility on creativity [1] (along with other topics, these
recordings are often referenced as "Hamming on Hamming" lectures). This is my
go to reference when I feel like I'm getting off track.

[1]:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlTybZvds0U](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlTybZvds0U)

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magoghm
Chris Crawford's talk about Creativity and Game Design is also interesting:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAX0trP3hIQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAX0trP3hIQ)

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it
If he's right then to be creative, it would certainly not help to be doing
Scrum in an open office plan. I'll have to commandeer empty meeting rooms to
really get into the zone.

