CREATIVITY THROUGH CURIOSITY
FALL IN LOVE WITH THE PROBLEM
Hello there, it is Monday again (I’m not complaining). Did you have a great weekend? I did.
I surveyed my subscription list and I can confirm that it is made up mostly of students and working-class people. So, this article was tailored for you. If you read and understand this article today, you should leave with an idea of how to inject actions of creativity into your schedule today. But first, let’s explore how we see creativity.
If you were/are naive like me, you would easily conflate creativity with artistry. This bias (seeing artists, singers, writers, sculptors as the only creative people), goes a long way to damage your mindset about creativity. Over time, I now know that Lawyers, doctors, engineers, and even accountants need creativity and can be creative as well. We shun more rigid, technical, and orderly careers as less creative. Goodnews? Everyone is creative. I will tell you why.
My favorite definition of creativity was coined by Jordan Peterson. He defined creativity as useful novelty. If it is new and valuable, it is creativity. This changed my outlook on creativity. How does this pertain to you as a student and a working-class person? Find out.
No two persons have perfectly identical experiences. Even if you are twins, who grew up under the exact conditions, there is still a difference in the way you process information. This yields varying outcomes. These outcomes, their subjectivity, is your recipe for creation. By injecting your valuable distinct perspective onto a subject no matter how little, you have just created. How can you do this? Very simple.
Stay with the problem. I can accept that it is the natural inclination to avoid a problem. But when you avoid the problem, you stifle your creativity. You kill your creative abilities when you wait for someone else to come and offer you the solution all the time. If you are not willing to dig deep and hover obsessively on the problem, you won't reach the impossible. So, focus on the problem with laser intensity. Observe and analyse until you find the crack. Then plaster on the cracks with the beautiful perspective from your soul. Be curious to know what works and what isn't working. When you find what is not working, make it work. That way, you have to create.
Groundbreaking work and insight are a result of curious obsession. Stalk your work as you do for the new guy/girl you want to hit on.
In sum,
It’s Monday and I am happy that you subscribed.
Everyone is blessed with innate creativity.
Creativity is useful novelty.
Stay with the problem.
Creativity is born of personhood.
“Fall in love with the problem, not the solution” -Inuit.
Old man Einstein says;
See you in my thread tomorrow on Three Ideas and Actions