

Traits of Highly Creative People - joel_liu
http://www.copyblogger.com/highly-creative-people/

======
msluyter
Here is a much less superficial article from Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, a
psychologist who has extensively studied highly creative people:

[http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/199607/the-
creative-...](http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/199607/the-creative-
personality)

 _If I had to express in one word what makes their personalities different
from others, it's complexity. They show tendencies of thought and action that
in most people are segregated. They contain contradictory extremes; instead of
being an "individual," each of them is a "multitude."_

~~~
bumbledraven
_I am large, I contain multitudes._ \- Walt Whitman

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arketyp
From my personal point of view, while certainly creativity has nothing to do
with intelligence, it does however -- as with anything -- come down to an
essential fondness of the act itself; something which I believe is very much
innate.

Anyone can be creative. It's not an exclusive trait, and you can learn to play
upon it and master it to some degree. For most people though, the creative act
_doesn't do it for them_ as it does for the creative person. And you can't
learn to love something.

I consider myself a somewhat creative person. When I play the guitar for
instance, making melodies and compositions is perhaps more a compulsive need
than anything else. (I hope this doesn't come off as self glorification; but
it's not all a good behavior either.) I've also had ambitions with art
projects and forced myself to work, and conclusively shown myself that results
never get as good as when you act spontaneously out of the joy and pleasure of
creating, whatever big and strong visions.

~~~
Ardit20
I do not think anyone can be creative. There is such a thing as inate
intelligence and it is not a fairytale nor does it not do anything.

Most people have an IQ of 100 so what these people create is pretty normal
stuff because they see the world pretty much as everyone else does. Some
people have an IQ of 115 which is the above average, these people are rarer
therefore what they create is less common, hence creative. Not to mention that
they do have a different way of thinking from the previous individuals as they
do question and challenge assumptions which I would suggest is the basis of
creativity.

~~~
sireat
With all due respect, creativity and intelligence(at least, one as measured by
IQ test)are not strongly correlated. Not everyone can be creative, but you
don't have to be very smart to be creative. On the other hand, smart people
are not necessarily creative.

Sure, one can point to Einstein or Feynman as positive examples of high
intelligence and creativity. However, does the intelligence of Picasso, Dali
or even Warhol play a significant part in their creativity?

~~~
jamesbritt
"However, does the intelligence of Picasso, Dali or even Warhol play a
significant part in their creativity?"

I think for these artists (and most modern artists) a good deal of the value
of their work comes from having been particularly clever about what makes
something art, and what people have already experienced and now expect. Van
Gogh, on the other hand, probably did much less intellectualizing about his
work.

But I'm still skeptical that you can have a keen eye for color and
composition, and the selection of subject matter, and be dopey. Most so-called
"naive" art, or "outsider art", tends to look cluttered and ill-planned. Often
that effect is the appeal, but it stands in contrast to the spatial
organization of work done by more culturally established artists.

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pxlpshr
Creativity can be found in all walks of life, there are creative doctors,
lawyers, accounts (well..), programmers etc. To be exceptional in your field,
I think you have to leverage some element of creativity to stand out amongst a
plethora of mediocrity. Creativity doesn't necessarily imply the arts, design,
et al.

I do believe creativity can be fine-tuned and improved over time, but my
experience has been that most people don't have enough of it. I do think there
is some nature/DNA involved.

------
petdog
For me the axioms of creativity are:

1\. Change the axioms

2\. Go meta on the axioms

So, if you change these axioms you're going to be creatively creative. How
meta.

In conclusion, this comment is very creative.

------
oz
<http://artequalswork.com/2008/11/a-case-for-logic/>

------
vincentvwyl
No source, no validity.

~~~
icey
The url should be a tip-off that this isn't being passed off as some kind of
scientific paper that requires peer review.

