The Creative Attitude

Introduction: Waking up
Like some writers, one of the reasons I started blogging was to help me practice writing. My formal education (particularly college) emphasized the importance of writing, but for one reason or another its promise never really found expression in my pen, pencil, or keyboard. I graduated this past May feeling something like a fraud, having passed through a process meant to transform without feeling entirely transformed. How could this happen?

Following graduation, I spent several months considering this question, all the while coming to terms with the modern reality that a college education does not lead naturally to employment (to be fair, I had at least been warned of this prospect, but a warning and an experience might as well express two separate realities. I did eventually find work, stocking milk, eggs, meat, and other things in a grocery store refrigerator). In that time, I began encountering elements of writing that I had missed while still in school; elements that not only made my writing a little more intelligible, clear, and reasoned, but also that made writing something active, engaging, and--in a word--fun.

What was this new appreciation for written expression? What was this feeling that compelled me not only to write more, but also to create things I actually enjoyed? I realized it was something I was suppose to have experienced while in school, but was too busy to notice; something that all original and interesting work  requires, yet is often taken for granted. It was a "something" that can thrive in a person under some circumstances, and be totally crushed under others. In short, the thing that I had come to rediscover in the months following the end of my formal education was precisely the thing that would have benefited it most. It was creativity.

Description: What is Creativity?
Creativity, what is that? The popular author and speaker Sir Ken Robinson suggests that creativity is "the process of having original ideas that have value," which "more often than not comes about through the interaction of different disciplinary ways of seeing things." This fits closely with the way traditional psychology defines the term, emphasizing the dual elements of "originality and functionality," and is characterized by "flexible thinking," its "most basic component." So to sum up, creativity appears to be a form of thinking, which is characterized by "originality," "functionality," flexibility, and an ability to interact with multiple perspectives.

Challenges: Circumstances which Discourage Creativity
In a video of his talk linked above, Sir Ken Robinson suggests that the circumstances in which a person finds themselves play a critical role in determining how creative that person can be at a given time. Accordingly, creative thought is in-part dependent on the environment. His claim is supported by scientific studies (an example described here), which found that both time-constraints and over-scheduling negatively affect creative thinking (interestingly, in this study time-constraints could sometimes increase creativity, but only when all other distractions were removed). Such conclusions are in accord with idea that human attention has a finite capacity (about 110 bits/second), and can be overtaxed (see here and here for older entries on the subject). In sum, certain types of pressure (notably time), coupled with over-scheduling can discourage creativity, even in otherwise-creative people. Particular circumstances can both hamper and invigorate creative thought.

Cultivating Creativity
In a 2009 article entitled "The Science of Creativity" Amy Novotney discusses some of the ways research suggests creativity thinking might be fostered. The first idea discussed is from the psychologist Robert Epstein, who finds that cultivating four habits improves creativity. These areas include:

1.) Recording new ideas
2.) Taking on difficult projects
3.) Studying fields outside your expertise
4.) Being around stimulating objects, places, and people

Ms. Novotney goes on to show research of other "practices" found to cultivate creativity, including the positive role of sleep and dreams, written collaboration, natural surroundings, and happiness (yes, a 2004 study finds that "sadness inhibits new ideas." So there's no need to be a depressed artist to create something great.)

Interestingly, research from 2009 suggests that particular types of experiences can also improve creative thinking over time. An article by William Maddux and Adam Galinsky discusses research which suggests that living abroad (and not simply travelling abroad) improved test subjects' ability to solve creative puzzles. According to Galinsky, '"This shows us that there is some sort of psychological transformation that needs to occur when people are living in a foreign country in order to enhance creativity. This may happen when people adapt themselves to a new culture."' Accordingly, Maddux suggests that, '"Knowing that experiences abroad are critical for creative output makes study abroad and job assignments in other countries that much more important, especially for people and countries that put a premium on creativity and innovation to stay competitive."'

Creativity's Challenge: 
As the above discussion suggests, creativity is greatly affected by one's environment and habits. Too much stress, too little rest, and too many distractions all detract from one's ability to think flexibly and view problems from a variety of perspectives. So understood, one might begin to see creativity as, in part, the ability to devise a great many ideas. There's actually a test for creativity which does just this. It's called Guilford Alternative Uses Task, and it asks examinees "to list as many uses for a common household item" as they can in a given interval of time. The more uses (as well as the "originality" and "elaboration" on those uses) a person can give, the more creative their thinking is deemed to be. Try it yourself if you like.

When you're finished, there's another side to creativity described by the above definitions. Since creative thought inherently involves new, original thinking, it can (and often does) clash with the prevailing customs, mores, and paradigms of the day. Therefore, putting creativity to use (giving it "value" or making it "functional") sometimes requires not only an ability to have ideas, but also a willingness to pursue those ideas in the face of opposition. Under such circumstances, the creative person requires something to combat the negative environment which could potentially undermine the process.

In a earlier post, I discussed the functional role that failure is increasingly understood to play in the development of a resilient character. In light of that insight, I would suggest that the "something" necessary for combating negative creative environments may be found in the willingness to fail. This is a hard willingness to foster, particularly when the environment heavily discourages it. In college, failure was often viewed as a form of exhaustion at best, and utter laziness at worse. Rarely was it ever viewed as a learning experience, or as a helpful guide for future action (for example, how not to do something next time). The result of this experience meant that many (myself included) became highly-averse to any possibility of failure. This effectively put a cap on unorthodox thinking, and rendered many ways of thinking about a problem untouchable. This was a great shame.

Conclusion: The Creative Attitude
Many times, I've experienced myself and others  lament that they never have any good ideas, and wish they were more creative.

My purpose here has been to encourage you to view creativity not simply as an ability, but as a fundamental process by which new things are born. It is a process which can thrive in a healthy, stimulative environment, and which can wither in a dull, hostile environment. In both cases, however, a willingness to fail and persevere appears necessary in order to bring new, original thinking to fruition.

In short, the creative attitude is more than ideas, intelligence, and support. All three are necessary, but the very nature of creativity as an engine of originality means that a character capable of handling opposition, set-backs, and long delays may be equally necessary. So it seems, learning how to create involves learning how to fail successfully. Much luck to you in this endeavor.

Happy Thursday, friends :)