Creativity should be studied as a field in its own right, and it should be included in the new liberal arts.
To clarify, I’m not calling for psychology classes on creativity, though that would be great. I’m saying creativity should be studied as a kind of martial art. You should train to be a ninja of creativity.
So what do I mean by creativity? It’s a process that is independent of any particular domain and has its own set of universal characteristics. Just like Ninjutsu, it’s a skill and requires practice.
Here’s my stab (no pun intended) at some core components:
1. CREATIVITY IS ABOUT ACTION WITH FEEDBACK.
A medium is perturbed in some way, and a person reacts to that perturbation, causing further perturbations. A medium could be anything from a piece of music to a web page to a set of financial data. This is where aesthetics and personality are expressed in the act of creativity. It’s also where things get done. An idea without action is worthless.
2. CREATIVITY IS ABOUT EXPLORATION.
Fundamentally, you’re discovering something new, usually about yourself. But sometimes it’s a new chemical, a new equation, or a new law of the universe. Also, when you are exploring, you don’t know everything already. There’s the “fog of war” in front of you. Expertise can be dangerous to creativity: An expert sees few new possibilities. Creative wanderlust disappears when it seems there is nothing new to discover. But the truth is, there are always new frontiers—in the form of new techniques, related disciplines, and unconventional points of view.
3. CREATIVITY IS ABOUT PLAY.
Sometimes creativity is just having fun. But it’s the kind of fun you have when you solve a hard problem or when you achieve what you thought was impossible. This is what leads people into careers they are actually passionate about. A sense of deep purpose, responsibility, or wanting to save the world are not enough to healthfully sustain an individual. At some level, you must derive some fun from your work. If you’re not having fun—deep fun—then it’s not worth doing.
4. CREATIVITY IS ABOUT GROWTH.
This component unifies the other three and is essentially the end result of practice. Your ability to provide feedback to your creative perturbations improves as you create more. You shouldn’t be an explorer who discovers the same mountain range over and over. Instead, travel to the part of the map where there be dragons. Through growth, a person develops an understanding of, patience towards, and appreciation for others—because they understand others can grow, too. Also, communities of creativity can grow together: ideas can be shared, works of art exchanged. In these ways, the growth from creativity isn’t just personal but shared; we all benefit.
Leave a Reply