Stupidity Rules for Creative Professionals I'm having trouble being stupid. Productively stupid, that is. I have infinite reserves of unproductive stupidity—ignoring my car's oil light, losing my wallet, hiring the wrong person. Productive stupidity is something else. A lot of popular advice being doled out about creative productivity has its catchy truisms: Get things done. Creative activists' advice stems in part from a deep-rooted backlash to previous creativity theorists. In part. "If you want to help people cultivate their creativity, don't give them more wonder." So here's where I question and take exception. I don't know. Do you see how much trouble I have being productively stupid? From what? Microbiologist Martin A. "Productive stupidity means being ignorant by choice. Andre Dubus III has written one of the most compelling and exceptionally well written stories I've read in years— the memoir . So how did he pull it off? Schwartz told me of his scientific experiments, "Much of the time I don't know what I'm doing."
Divergent thinking Divergent thinking is a thought process or method used to generate creative ideas by exploring many possible solutions. It is often used in conjunction with its cognitive opposite, convergent thinking, which follows a particular set of logical steps to arrive at one solution, which in some cases is a ‘correct’ solution. By contrast, divergent thinking typically occurs in a spontaneous, free-flowing manner, such that many ideas are generated in an emergent cognitive fashion. Traits associated with divergent thinking[edit] Psychologists have found that a high IQ (like Albert Einstein) alone does not guarantee creativity. Promoting divergent thinking[edit] Activities which promote divergent thinking include creating lists of questions, setting aside time for thinking and meditation, brainstorming, subject mapping, bubble mapping, keeping a journal, creating artwork, and free writing. Playfulness and divergent thinking[edit] Effects of positive and negative mood on divergent thinking[edit] 1.
Myths of Right-Brained Creativity "I'm not creative. I'm very left-brained." "My teachers killed my creativity ." "I'm just not into being all different and original and weird." As a creativity consultant, I often hear such comments. What underlie each of them are myths about creativity, myths perpetuated often by other consultants and by incomplete conclusions derived from the science of creativity. {*style:<b>MYTH #1: CREATIVITY = RIGHT HEMISPHERE </b>*}A recent study showed that a function of visual thinking is not solely a function of the right hemisphere. The puzzle required that architecture students visualize certain existing geometric shapes and if when assembled formed either a square or a rectangle. I think this assumption stems in part from an over-simplification of especially Roger Sperry's work in the 1960s on the split-brain hypothesis. We now know that creativity as well as—on the flip side—rational decisions are more whole-brained activities than some of us would like to imagine. {*style:<b>YOUR TURN
Convergent and divergent production Convergent and divergent production are the two types of human response to a set problem that were identified by J.P. Guilford (1967). Guilford observed that most individuals display a preference for either convergent or divergent thinking. Others observe that most people prefer a convergent closure.[citation needed] As opposed to TRIZ or lateral thinking divergent thinking is not about tools for creativity or thinking, but a way of categorizing what can be observed. Divergent thinking[edit] According to J.P. There is a movement in education that maintains divergent thinking might create more resourceful students. Divergent production is the creative generation of multiple answers to a set problem. Critic of the analytic/dialectic approach[edit] While the observations made in psychology can be used to analyze the thinking of humans, such categories may also lead to oversimplifications and dialectic thinking. References[edit] Guilford, J. (1967). See also[edit]
If You Are Creative, Are You Also Intelligent? According to an article in Newsweek , here in the United States we apparently have a creativity crisis . According to Kyung Hee Kim at the College of William and Mary, scores on the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking have been decreasing since the 1990's. The same article mentions that China is making a push to move away from rote memorization and adopt a more problem centered learning approach, perhaps like that of America. Contrast this with the results from the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), which examines 15-year-old students in 65 countries. According to the New York Times , Mark Schneider , a former commissioner of the U.S. Which clearly raises the question: Why is China trying to emulate America's educational system if they are already doing so well? Let's consider another perspective, that of Bill Gates. "Said Gates, 'I have never met the guy who doesn't know how to multiply who created software...Who has the most creative video games in the world?
Creativity Creativity is a phenomenon whereby something new and somehow valuable is formed, such as an idea, a scientific theory, an invention, a literary work, a painting, a musical composition, a joke, etc. Scholarly interest in creativity involves many definitions and concepts pertaining to a number of disciplines: psychology, cognitive science, education, philosophy (particularly philosophy of science), technology, theology, sociology, linguistics, business studies, songwriting, and economics, covering the relations between creativity and general intelligence, mental and neurological processes, personality type and creative ability, creativity and mental health; the potential for fostering creativity through education and training, especially as augmented by technology; and the application of creative resources to improve the effectiveness of teaching and learning. Definition[edit] Aspects[edit] Etymology[edit] History of the concept[edit] Ancient views[edit] The Enlightenment and after[edit] J. J.
Creativity Rocks! There are few things that are more satisfying than coming up with a creative solution to a vexing problem. In fact, the feeling you get from finding a clever way out of a mess, of seeing old things in a new ways, or of making something from nothing can be wonderfully addictive. Unfortunatley, most people aren't encouraged to be creative in their everyday lives. Below are some of my favorite video clips of thought leaders talking about the value of creative problem solving. Tom Kelley of IDEO talks about the habits you can adopt to make yourself more creative: Marrisa Mayer of Google talking about the importance of contraints in stimulating creativity: My favorite video clip of venture capitalist, Vinod Khosla, talking about how all problems are opportunities You can find thousands more video clips of entrepreneurial thought leaders at the Stanford Technology Ventures Program 's Entrepreneurship Corner web site .
Abstraction Abstraction is a process by which concepts are derived from the usage and classification of literal ("real" or "concrete") concepts, first principles, or other methods. "An abstraction" is the product of this process—a concept that acts as a super-categorical noun for all subordinate concepts, and connects any related concepts as a group, field, or category.[1] Abstractions may be formed by reducing the information content of a concept or an observable phenomenon, typically to retain only information which is relevant for a particular purpose. For example, abstracting a leather soccer ball to the more general idea of a ball retains only the information on general ball attributes and behavior, eliminating the other characteristics of that particular ball.[1] Origins[edit] Thinking in abstractions is considered[by whom?] Abstraction involves induction of ideas or the synthesis of particular facts into one general theory about something. Thought process[edit] Cat on Mat (picture 1)
Creative problem solving Creative problem-solving, a type of problem solving, is the mental process of searching for a new and novel creative solution to a problem, a solution which is novel, original and not obvious. Creative solution types[edit] The creative solution[edit] To qualify as creative problem-solving, the solution must solve the stated problem in a novel way, and the solution must be reached independently.[1] Creative problem-solving usually begins with defining the problem. This may lead to a simple non-creative solution, or to finding a "textbook solution". Typically a creative solution will have 'elegant' characteristics such as using existing components without introducing any new components into the solution (i.e. Many times a solution is considered creative if components that are readily available can be used, and when there is a short time limit within which to solve the problem. Innovations[edit] "All innovations [begin] as creative solutions, but not all creative solutions become innovations."
A Little Weird? Prone to Depression? Blame Your Creative Brain Whenever you want to do something extraordinary, risky, or scary in your life (something that you know in your heart that you need to do, but it would really be more convenient to ignore it and just not do it), it’s essential to surround yourself with inspiring, encouraging, like-minded people. If they’re leaders in their own right who to a certain degree have done what you long to do, even better. I first met Gwyneth Leech last summer at my nephew’s first birthday party in Brooklyn (she’s my sister’s husband’s cousin). I grabbed my notebook and pen and turned our chat into an interview (I know, this isn’t normal birthday party behavior, I do this frequently so you might not want to invite me to yours). Gwyneth has become a close friend and a beacon of inspiration and encouragement in my life as I contemplate great leaps of faith and creation. “Gwyneth says you have to read this,” Martha told me. 1) “We cannot afford to waste human gifts. Every parent needs to know this. Dr.
Creative thinking with creative geniuses like you! Making Good Lessons Great: Incorporating Multiple Iintelligences and Creative Thinking into Everyday Lesson Plans « clearings by Betty K. Wood and Andrew L. Hunt, University of Arkansas at Little Rock Sarah C. I didn’t find anything very revolutionary here except this quote which I shall bear in mind (lay-out is mine): ‘One model for teaching the skill of creative thinking involves: fluency flexibility originalityelaboration‘ “The following linear representation of a problem-solving thought process, developed by Puccio, Murdock, and Mance (2005), provides an excellent example of how characteristics and behaviors of Critical Thinking and Creative Thinking operate.” Source: Like this: Like Loading...