
We can learn to be more creative - mattivahtera
https://medium.com/@mattivahtera/https-medium-com-mattivahtera-creativity-is-a-skill-e1289b241374
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dlwdlw
I think creativity is closely related to critical thinking or more
specifically the courage to think for yourself.

Often this puts you at a disadvantage because it's so much easier to consume
and regurgitate estaished knowledge. However only doing this means you have
less practice thinking for yourself than those who were stubborn enough to
resist and so at the cutting edge cannot contribute much.

It's not just lack of practice though. It's more lack of courage because you
are used to being right and smart.

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blt
I tried to find the source of the quote on epilepsy from Hippocrates. It
appears on Goodreads [1] but not in the version on classics.mit.edu [2]. A
different version can be found at [3], but it also does not match. It seems
that people are paraphrasing the message of Hippocrates's "On the Sacred
Disease". Can anyone confirm?

[1] [https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/153826-people-think-that-
ep...](https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/153826-people-think-that-epilepsy-is-
divine-simply-because-they-don-t)

[2]
[http://classics.mit.edu/Hippocrates/sacred.html](http://classics.mit.edu/Hippocrates/sacred.html)

[3] [http://www.atheistrepublic.com/gallery/hippocrates-men-
think...](http://www.atheistrepublic.com/gallery/hippocrates-men-think-
epilepsy-divine)

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gt_
I don't think there is much motivation for people to realize this. Being
creative is more painful than not. The thesis of this article is absolutely
true, and the most creative people know it. But, it's so much more comfortable
to not be creative, and being creative has very few rewards. Conforming to
norms is far less risky and not without rewards of it's own.

~~~
mattivahtera
You might be right unfortunately. I hope someone who feels a bit lost in the
depths of norms will read this and find his/her way out. And maybe there's
even something for those who feel creative but don't know how to get to the
next step.

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andperseand
All thinking is a skill. If there is one thing I wish schools would teach, it
is meta cognition.

~~~
ThrustVectoring
Please, no. Schools have already ruined mathematics for the majority of
several generations, the last thing we need is to Taylorize meta-cognition as
well.

~~~
dfee
Apparently Taylorism here means
[http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/Taylorism.html](http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/Taylorism.html)
and not - humorously, where my brain went first -
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taylor_series](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taylor_series)

~~~
gt_
Could someone define it for a non-mathematician? Or would that be Taylorism?

EDIT:

The businessdictionry.com links explained it well enough. I think this has
already been done with creativity, many times over. I imagine it is more
harmful to a field like mathematics, though. This is not to say it isn’t a
problem. The current state of art school is an atrocity. But, if I’m not
mistaken, art has tendency to not only get distracted by the _novelty_ of
imitation but to get entirely lost in it, whereas the field of mathematics
would have just enough concern for such uninterested forms of curiosity to
account for them. This is a lazy account of what maybe Plato would say.
Basically, art was screwed in this way from the onset and mathematics has a
lot more at stake.

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ghostcluster
While I agree with the statement on its surface, it's important to note that
there is likely a ceiling as to how far someone can improve a trait as broadly
defined as 'creativity'. A large part of your personality characteristics
depend on inheritance.

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notadoc
Of course you can learn to be more creative, it's a matter of practice.

If you want to be more creative, start creating. The more you create, the more
creative you get.

~~~
mattivahtera
I totally agree. Unfortunately this issue isn't this simple for a lot of
people. Many feel that they ra trapped in the non-creative body and there's
nothing they can do about it.

------
redmaverick
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convergent_thinking](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convergent_thinking)

Basic theory:

To be creative is to have a divergent thinking pattern. If you are very
logical then you have a convergent thinking pattern.

High amount of intelligence has a negative corelation with creativity. You
should have average to above average intelligence in order to be creative.

Convergent thinking helps you to come to accurate conclusions if you have all
the facts in hand. It will help you ask the exact right questions that you
need to come to a conclusion. If there is ambiguity, there is a natural
tendency to resolve the ambiguity before proceeding further. It is pretty
binary. If there are 10 possibilities and 1 possibility is the right one then
you think. Either the first possibility is the right one or the remaining 9
ones. So on and so forth till you get to the correct answer.

You also tend to be confident because you are consistent and past experience
has reinforced your world views. You are focussed and plow through obstacles
till you reach your goal.

Divergent thinking helps you to come to a wrong conclusion very quickly using
only limited facts out of all the available facts. But this is a heuristic
approach. You iterate and go off on tangents till you come to a unique
solution which is ultimately correct after a long while and this process
cannot be replicated. You get the answer first and the rationality of it
later. You backtrack from the answer and add rationality to it later so it is
logical and people around you, including you yourself can be convinced by it.

Basically, you aim for a goal and then go off on a tangent in a different
direction. This different direction is a waste of time but you will learn
something indirectly that will help you reach your main goal.

If you are logical, you use your intelligence in a conscious manner. If you
are a creative type then you will let your unconscious brain guide you into a
solution.

If you are the logical type and want to be creative, then the best way is to
be obsessed about finding a solution. Do your best with your intelligence and
then take a break. Like, go hiking, swimming or running etc. Then your
unconscious mind will have a chance to come up with the solution and will give
it to you.

People who are insanely creative know they are creative. There can be
absolutely no doubt about it in their minds. People who are highly intelligent
and logical don't know that they are intelligent without external feedback
from their peers. They are just surprised as to why others are slow or have a
difficulty in understanding something when it is so very blindingly obvious to
them. They just "get it!" and have high cognitive processing speeds.

~~~
thcsa
>High amount of intelligence has a negative corelation with creativity.

This has not been proven and I don't think this is the case. Here is a great
post that highlights the faulty methodology of most studies that came to this
conclusion.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5088314](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5088314)

~~~
cableshaft
I think intelligence gives you the background of ideas, philosophies, and
history from which you can, if you are motivated enough, be inspired by when
working on creative pursuits. I am likewise not terribly convinced that the
correlation is as high as the GP asserted.

Also, I think that creativity usually comes from two ideas that no one really
considered could be combined together, but someone did, and pursued it. The
people who are best able to capitalize on that are those who are experts in
more than multiple fields, like polymaths, and can use the knowledge from one
field and pollinate in another field of expertise. I.e. polymaths, who I would
expect to be some of the most intelligent people out there.

