TERRE HAUTE — Creativity is admired whenever it is noticed. We may recognize a new invention as creative. For example, the cell phone is a creative invention that has changed the lives of many of us. We may recognize a friend or relative as creative. For example, we may know that this person always comes up with the right things to say on nearly all occasions. Sometimes we may recognize that we did something that was creative, even if no one else knew about it. For example, you may discover a new way to get to a friend’s house that saves time.
This column examines certain aspects of creativity. To begin with, we will consider the myth that only some people are creative. Next, we will examine the myth that people who have creativity are at least a little crazy. Then we will consider what behaviors actually do qualify as creative.
Some people have creativity and others don’t
We are inclined to think that creativity is something that a person is, or is not, born with. This is baloney. I maintain here that everyone is able to be creative if he or she wants.
We are also inclined to think that creativity is something that comes only with a lot of education or experience. This is baloney, also. For example, children often are very creative and they definitely lack experience. Additionally, we are inclined to regard certain professions as creative, such as the arts and science. Again, this is baloney. People in any walk of life can be creative.
Some people are creative without realizing it. I had an aunt who wrote music. However, when I complimented her for her creativity, she said “Me creative? Oh no, not me.” I encouraged her to publish her songs but she would not try to do so. “These songs are not special. They are just for me and my children.” Regardless of what she said, there is not a doubt in my mind that she was creative when she composed her songs.
Some people become famous because their creativity enabled them to solve a well-known and difficult problem. However. the presence or approval of others is not a requirement for creativity. Creativity means doing something in a new way that is recognized as more effective than the way it was done before. Behavior is creative if it involves a new solution to a problem, regardless of whether anyone else knows about this solution. Whenever we find ourselves doing something a little differently than we have done it before, we are attempting to be creative.
People who have creativity are demented
This claim is not only baloney, but also is ridiculous. This claim is similar to the belief that genius is next to madness. I imagine that it would be great if people become creative when they are emotionally upset and intellectually deranged. However this is not the case. If it were the case, we could submit our toughest problems to a business called Serial Killers Mass Inc. Creativity is not akin to madness. People who think this is true are a little mad themselves.
All kinds of tests have been developed to measure a person’s creativity. The hope of some psychologists has been to develop a test to find someone who is truly creative and then become this person’s friend, maybe benefiting from this person’s success. However, all the so-called psychological tests of creativity have been able to do is to identify people who give unusual, maybe bizarre, answers on the test.
Some people argue that our society has fewer creative people than possible because our society has a tendency to discourage people for acting creatively while they are growing up. Children who do not follow the rules for reading, writing and arithmetic will usually be criticized. Their failure to follow the rules is often seen as stupidity, not creativity. Additionally, parents sometimes are inclined to insist that their children perform chores in a certain way. Unfortunately, our society apparently discourages creative behavior in some children. If you believe you are not creative, that belief may have originated in your childhood.
Creativity is doing something differently and better than you have done it before. What you do does not matter. Whether you are successful does matter. If you try something new and the consequences are negative, no one – including yourself – will say you were creative.
Creativity may be observed in work but it also may be observed in play. I suppose that the chance to be creative is one reason why some people like the game of Scrabble. When someone comes up with a word that allows him or her to get a triple word score with a word that involves a q or z and this word originated from the 16th century, that person — and observers — know that something truly creative just happened.
Even mundane tasks such as cleaning a toilet can be creative. For example, if you conceive of a way to do this task effectively and faster than ever before, you will have to recognize your own brilliance. If, like Tom Sawyer, you are able to convince someone else to take over this task for you because “careful toilet cleaning is the sign of genius,” you are more creative yet. Also, if you can do so, you should seek a job in management.
Some psychologists propose that creative moments are good for us. Creative moments are healthy because they make us feel positively about ourselves. For example, when we put the letters in alphabet soup into a word that few people know how to spell, we cannot but help feeling a little proud of ourselves.
A Sharper Mind
February 14, 2007
Herrmann: Creativity: Something for all, no matter what you think
- A Sharper Mind
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- A Shaper Mind: A review of Sharper Mind columns Don’t worry. Just because I am providing a review in this column, it doesn’t mean I am going to give an exam afterward. I just want to go over some of the most important ideas discussed in this column previously. The reason that I am doing this is because this is my last column. I admit that I just could not remember any topic that had not been examined here.
- Holiday gift giving for the sharper mind This year, more than most years, gift giving during the holidays is going to be especially challenging. Gift-giving this year will require more accurate remembering and more problems solving than in previous years.
- The pros and cons of cell phones This column will, first, review why cell phones have a positive effect on our mind. Subsequently, we will consider the dangerous consequences of talking on a cell phone while driving and then the very dangerous consequences of text-messaging on a cell phone while driving,
- Activities of daily living that depend on memory Everyone forgets something that they are supposed to do in everyday life. They may have known what they should do for a long time or for after a minute or so. This column examines the role of memory in some common activities in one’s day.
- Why names and appointments are difficult to remember Everyone has weaknesses. Mine is popcorn and more popcorn. We also have weaknesses when it comes to memory. I don’t know your memory weaknesses and I don’t care to share mine. But I can tell you the memory weaknesses that most of us say we have.
- Consider thinking training It is possible to buy products that are supposed to improve one’s mind? Last month’s column discussed products that aim at improving a person’s memory. As promised, this month’s column reviews products (such as courses, books, tapes, CDs, and CD ROMS) that are aimed at improving a person’s ability to think.
- A Sharper Mind: The science behind commercial methods of mind improvement It is possible to buy products that are supposed to improve one’s mind. Most of these products aim at improving a person’s memory but many products aim at improving a person’s ability to think. This month’s column reviews products that are supposed to improve a person’s memory. Next month’s column will review products intended to improve a person’s thinking ability.
- Candidates, superdelegates not lying, just forgetful Recently, some presidential candidates have apparently forgotten something that others expected them to remember. Also some superdelegates have switched allegiance from one candidate to the other, revealing that they forgot the candidate they originally favored.
- The advantages and disadvantages of memorists Every family has one. Every group of friends has one, too: a person who tends to remember almost everything that is going on. This person knows all about upcoming events (concerts, lectures), what is at the movies, and what’s on TV. Sometimes, this person even knows what is going on among family members, friends and acquaintances. Accurate gossip is a valuable commodity.
- Drake sweeps ISU softball Friday, but Saturday's game called off Indiana State’s softball team played 19 games before ever stepping foot on the Price Field diamond Friday for a doubleheader against Drake. The homecoming wasn’t a happy one — Drake swept ISU with 5-1 and 6-2 victories — but the long-term concern is on the mound, where star pitcher Darcy Wood is battling a shoulder injury.
- Completing a medical history form at a doctor’s office These days, when you visit a doctor’s office for the first time, you are given a form on which you are supposed to record important facts about your medical history. Unfortunately, these forms ask for considerable information, much of which few human beings can recall. More unfortunate yet is that different doctors use different forms. Consequently, we are required to fill out medical history forms calling for essentially the same information all over again for each new doctor.
- Owls may get the credit for being wise, but you should want an elephant’s mind Just to be clear at the outset, this column does not endorse or reject the symbol of a political party. Also, the column has nothing to do with a rock group called Elephant Memory that Yoko Ono and John Lennon promoted in the early 1970s. Instead, the topic of this column is the memory of real live elephants.
- Sometimes we fail to remember something and feel guilty Some people regard memory as an open or shut case. We either remember or don’t remember.
- A Sharper Mind: Benefiting from each others memory failures We all are forgetful occasionally and leave something of ours behind in public places such as stores, shopping centers, and at the homes of family, friends and acquaintances. For example, we may forget to take with us things like a pair of gloves, an umbrella, a scarf or a jacket. Because we are all in this world together, we should forgive each other's memory failures.
- Don’t let others profit from your memory failures We all are forgetful on occasion. Some of us are more forgetful than others. If our forgetting inconveniences someone else, we hope that they will not be angry and will forgive our lapse. However, in addition to the possible anger or forgiving, there is another way someone might respond to our memory failure.
- A Sharper Mind: Learning how to get a bright idea In the past, this column has discussed the factors that facilitate problem solving and critical thinking. For example, such factors include understanding a problem in the first place, ignoring solutions tried previously, avoiding being fixated on a solution to a similar problem and by overloading one’s brain.
- A Sharper Mind: Reminiscences of meals past Much of our lives are spent eating. As a result, we have many memories of breakfast, lunch or dinner, as well as for in between snacks. Sometimes we may want to remember what we ate on a certain occasion. This column considers what is the best way to recover the memory of what was eaten.
- A Sharper Mind: Some amount of forgetting is normal, but just how much? We often hear that it is important to be normal. Certainly we prefer to have a normal body temperature, heart rate and blood pressure. However, we probably prefer not to be normal on some occasions. I am not saying we should prefer to be abnormal, but we want to be distinguished for something, to know something or do something better than others.
- A Sharper Mind: How to not look stupid (at least some of the time) I do not mean to suggest that you or I look stupid a lot of the time.
- A Sharper Mind: Politics of remembering and the intelligencia of Indiana Part of this column will be devoted to an announcement. Another part will be devoted to my claim that Hautians are among the brightest people on the planet. Finally I will discuss a public demonstration of how important remembering can be in everyday life.
- A Sharper Mind: Forgetting names is most annoying but we aren’t raised to remember Here is a topic that we haven’t covered for quite a while. It hasn’t been covered because there were so many other things to discuss. Nevertheless, it probably will be beneficial for most of us to review the key ideas about how to learn names.
- A Sharper Mind: Finally enough failures for Forgetting Hall of Fame III A few months back, this column honored noteworthy memory failures in the Forgetting Halls of Fame I and II. It looks like these Halls of Fame have been very helpful to readers because very few failures have been happening to the people around me.
- A Sharper Mind: Is it nature or nurture? Why memory differs for men, women Here is a topic that most people find interesting: the memory performance of men and women. I will review the results of a great deal of research about gender differences in memory in this column. The research indicates that women are superior at some memory tasks and men are superior at other memory tasks. Some of the results are not surprising; some are surprising. Regardless of how the results come out, there is one overriding question. Do men and women differ in memory performance because of differences in genetic ability or because of differences in how males and females are raised and treated as adults in our culture?
- A Sharper Mind: Changing of seasons makes for forgetful time of year Ah yes, spring is upon us. This is the time that our thoughts stray to — whatever. As wonderful as spring may be, we actually are especially vulnerable to forgetting when this season arrives. Each season we become accustomed to the season’s typical temperature and season’s typical appearance of the sky. When the environment changes unexpectedly, we lose environmental cues that remind us of things to do.
- A Sharper Mind: Consider the effort we give to thinking about our problems There is a famous statue of a nude person sitting with his head looking down, with his jaw resting on the fist of the right forearm, which rests on the person’s right knee. The sculptor, a Frenchman named Auguste Rodin, called this sculpture “the thinker.”
- A Sharper Mind: Memory performs up to cultural expectations People in different cultures vary in what memory tasks they are good at. A culture refers to a group of people who share beliefs and habits of communication. The workplace is made up of different cultures, management, skilled workers and unskilled workers. Each family has its own culture. Everyone belongs to one or more cultures.
- A Sharper Mind: Brilliant ideas more elusive, likely to be forgotten Some of our thoughts elude us because they pass through our mind so quickly that we cannot remember them later. For this article, we are concerned with just important elusive thoughts. These are thoughts about brilliant ideas we may want to act on or about ideas that are practically useful, such as for something we need to do.
- A Sharper Mind: Mental dictionary, spell check provide sharp language tools This column considers how sharp we are when it comes to language.
- Herrmann: Creativity: Something for all, no matter what you think Creativity is admired whenever it is noticed. We may recognize a new invention as creative.
- A Sharper Mind: As matter of courtesy, don’t be caught faking memory Courtesy is more than knowing what fork to use and when.
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