The Creative genes Myth

VS

For a large part of my life, I believed in the myth of “Creative person”. Although I fully appreciated the fact that brain structures evolve throughout a person’s life and hence believed that IQ is cultivated through constant training, I did not feel the same way about creativity (which feels extremely strange when I think of it now). I always felt that some people were born creative. They saw pictures and stories in clouds where I just saw white dust in random shapes. They had this unique brain that was constantly bubbling with ideas like a popcorn bag in a microwave. I believed that they were wired differently and one just had to be born that way. And people born with those creative genes gravitated towards creative fields like arts while non-creative folks like me took to science and engineering.

In fact, the first word that came to my mind when I heard the word creative is artist. People often associate creativity with advertisement, painting, music and photography just like I do. I have never heard of anyone say scientist or engineer when they hear the word creative. It took me a long time to understand that it is just a stereotype. While creativity is imposed on artists, scientists are routinely viewed as not-so-creative. This stereotype then works as a self fulfilling prophecy. People who think of themselves as creative work on creative projects and after several attempts, come up with beautiful ideas. This boosts their confidence and helps them try again. Creative ideas are new, they are unique and often times bold. Expressing them requires confidence in oneself and in one’s creativity. It needs social validation and support which artists routinely get while accountants and engineers garner only rarely.

I had to see a novice learn the basic music lessons to see how repetitive and rigorous the basic music lessons are. The basics of photography are based on lighting, focus and other such scientific (read non-creative) aspects. It is only after years and years of non-creative learning, and several failed attempts at creating something unique, the artist finds his grove and tends to get creative. How is it different from what I do at work every day as an engineer? In my observations, I have found many scientists and engineers to be way more creative than we give them credit for.

When I saw my cousin, who knitted, drew, painted and sewed little pieces of fabric into beautiful designs while my biggest artistic achievement was to replicate one of her designs, I just told myself that I am not creative. Ideas do not naturally flow in me. I have my strengths in other areas. But as I entered my work life, I realized that creativity is equally prevalent and required in the work life of a “non-artist”. In fact, art is just one outlet for creativity. Researchers in lab coats and thick glasses who diligently write down their observations as they research chemical reactions require creativity to come up with new methods, new ideas, new ways to find that solution. They just don’t see themselves as creative types. In fact, whenever I reached a dead end in my research, I had to find a detour. I never realized that it required creative thinking. It is creativity….and I display it routinely at work. I may never be good at painting like my cousin but I was already creative. And this realization is what brought in the confidence in me and made me more creative.

Personally, I find that a deadline, a constraint or a boundary helps me be more creative. Given strong reason to come up with something unique, I usually do. Given unlimited time or unlimited freedom, I rarely find my ideas creative enough to present them. I also find that non-judgmental venues help me come up with creative solutions easily. I found that it is the same with employee groups. Discussion flows freely in peer groups with people who have previously worked with each other. The inherent trust helps people think and express more freely. Just having a manager neutrally observe the discussion without a vote makes the discussion restricted and difficult. Also, having a balance of introverts and extroverts in a team greatly helps the free flow of good ideas.

Words, scenery, music or anything that conveys freedom helps people think and express freely. Open skies, green fields, flying birds, running/exercise, lakeside view help people’s creativity. Once when trying to solve a hardware design issue in an all day brain storming session, my team was kicked out of our conference room. We had no other place to go except the outside tables in our cafeteria. We worked with paper and pencils as laptops were useless (pre WIFI era). We solved the issue in less than an hour whereas we are trying all day in that conference room with little success.

 I find a warm shower and cold beer absolutely helpful in generating creative ideas as mentioned in Jonah Lehrer’s article. But I attribute the creativity to their ability to relax the mind, remove inhibitions, and stress. Also, as we learned in the inattentional blindness study, our brain gets so focused sometimes in a certain train of thought that it fails to see the big jumping gorilla right in front of us. A warm shower, good hour at the gym or a cold beer forces us to break the chain of thought and notice the gorilla.  

I have also noticed that the most creative minds in this world are the ones most uninfluenced by conventional wisdom. A good example is how kids often times come up with most creative uses of everyday objects. Their imagination is pure and unbounded. It is not constrained by reality. I saw a seven year old melt Hershey’s kisses in microwave and add milk to make hot chocolate when they were out of hot-chocolate mix one evening. Creative ideas from outsiders mentioned in Jonah Lehrer’s article speak of the same absence of conventional knowledge sparking creative solutions. Other creative folks like Steve Jobs, through constant trail, have the ability to sweep aside the conventional wisdom and look at a problem as an outsider.

I also find that as one relaxes and throws away inhibitions, fears and even the knowledge of the presence of others, one can honestly enjoy the process of finding the solution instead of focusing on arriving at the solution. And this focus on work rather than on result helps pop unique ideas that truly transform the world. After I figured this out, I found the courage to say that today, although it is only in my diary, I write poetry. I may be no Tennyson, but my words have a creative aspect to them. I am a creative engineer aspiring to be a marketer. How cool is that!