WSJ.com: Creativity can seem like magic. We look at people like Steve Jobs and Bob Dylan, and we conclude that they must possess supernatural powers denied to mere mortals like us, gifts that allow them to imagine what has never existed before. They're "creative types." We're not.
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Jonah Lehrer on How to Be Creative
WSJ.com: Creativity can seem like magic. We look at people like Steve Jobs and Bob Dylan, and we conclude that they must possess supernatural powers denied to mere mortals like us, gifts that allow them to imagine what has never existed before. They're "creative types." We're not.
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This article mentions that people are generally more creative after they watch a 20 minute clip of stand-up comedy. The article blames the spike in creativity on relaxation. I wonder if it might be related to the way comedy makes a viewer think. One of the biggest trends in stand-up is observational comedy, which often involves drawing interesting and unique comparisons between unrelated (or distantly related) things, people, events, etc. Maybe hearing those comparions primes your brain for making your own unique connections between different things (since that is often the key to solving a problem creatively).
Some of the studies listed in the article are outrageous. It may be possible that everything I've ever "known" about creative work and thinking is entirely wrong. That is not to say that this article doesn't make sense. It does. That's what is upsetting. In some way it makes sense to me that drinking alcohol aids someone in making word associations and successfully completing word puzzles, but I don't like it. In a much more general view of this article, every tip, trick, and study to enhance creativity is just a way to be less inhibited and more able to think in a free, relaxed way. So, I will probably never recommend that someone gets drunk before doing some tough creative work, but everything else I certainly would, from comedy, to the color blue, to thinking like a 7-year-old. Of course those things are more conducive to creativity!
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