Creativity, History and You

Historical Examination of Creativity (Case study

method)

• Look at people and times to understand creativity better– What traits made creative people creative?– What environmental conditions existed?– What was the process of creativity?

Creativity and Society

1. Creativity affects society – "Creativity is the engine that drives cultural evolution." -M. Csikszentmihalyi in Handbook of Creativity, Robert J. Sternberg (ed.), 1999, 320.

2. Society affects creativity – "There are indeed certain instances in which social/cultural realities largely determine the possibility or lack of possibility for developing creativity in a given field." -D. H. Feldman in Handbook of Creativity, Robert J. Sternberg (ed.), 1999, 179.

Beginnings: River Societies

• Mesopotamia• Egypt• Indus River

Valley• Yellow River

Valley

Mesopotamian Creativity

• Why were they creative?– War brought new

cultures which expanded and blended

• When did they stop being creative?– When the Greeks

overlaid their culture.

Egyptian Creativity

• Why were they creative?– Making a nation

• When did they stop being creative?– Priests took control

Indian and Chinese Creativity

• Why were they creative?– Interactions

• When did they stop being creative?– When isolated

Greek Society• Why were the

Greeks creative?– Trade– Idea – "We can

understand"

Roman Society

• Roman Creativity– Thieves or

innovators?

Byzantium

• Continued the Roman Empire but lost direction (only thought of preserving the past) and, therefore, lost creativity

Islamic Society

• Islam's foundation• Islam's expansion

– Highly creative in making a new culture

• Islam's decline– Desire is to recapture

past glories

Middle Ages

• Creativity lost– Catastrophe (weather and plague)– Absence of rule of law– Absence of leisure time– Absence of learning– Corruption in the Catholic church

Late Middle Ages

• Positives– Nations– Scholasticism– Gothic– Dante– Chaucer– Discovery

• Negatives– Great schism in Catholic church– Warfare that consumed

resources

Renaissance• Creativity

– Re-instituted Classical thinking

– Sponsored art defines greatness

Reformation

• What caused the creativity?– Courage to think

new thoughts and break with tradition

Baroque: Glory

• What motivated the creativity?– Glory to God or

king or people

Scientific Awakening – Enlightenment

• Creativity in thinking– New methods– New applications

Classical

• Creativity– In the rules

Romantic

• Creativity themes– Personal emotion– Country– Nature– Exoticism

Impressionism and Post-impressionism

• Creativity based on?– Technique– New way of seeing the world

Modern

• Creativity?– New rules/no rules– Beyond emotion of

artist– Viewer finds

meaning

Creativity Trends Throughout History

• Civilizations die from lack of creativity– Egypt, China, Roman Empire, Byzantine Empire,

Ottoman Turks, England in 1900s

• Why did they stop being creative?– Rich, overly confident, no future plan– What is the status of the USA?

• Job protection rather than personal growth.– Why worry about a foreigner taking your job, or

maybe a robot? – Make yourself valuable

"The illiterate of the twenty-first century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot

learn, unlearn, and relearn."

– Toffler, Alvin (author of Future Shock), quoted in Thorpe, Scott, How to Think Like Einstein, Barnes & Noble Books, Inc., 2000, p. 26.

Creativity Trends Throughout History

• Creative products can change the world– Examples: agriculture, printing press,

machine powering machine, airplane, automobile, nuclear power, computer

• What world-changing creative products are we working on now?

Creativity Trends Throughout History

• Art and literature reflect larger society• What are the art and literature of

today saying about our culture?

Improving Creativity Skills

• Thinking better

Improving Creativity Skills

• Thinking better– Linear and lateral– Conscious and

subconscious

Focus

Depth

Skills

Hard Work

Experience

Growth

Expansion

LinearCreativity

Lateral Creativity

Breadth

Analogies

Uniqueness

Non-Logic

Innovation

Out-of-the-Box

(Intuitive/Imagination)

(Logic/Knowledge)

Brain control

– Example: Napoleon"Different subjects and different affairs are arranged in my head as in a cupboard. When I wish to interrupt one train of thought, I shut that drawer and open another. Do I wish to sleep? I simply close all the drawers and there I am – asleep." – Napoleon (http://www.geocities.com/Area51/2162/napmem.html)

Use Mind ControlPut difficult questions in the back of your minds and go about your lives. Ponder and pray quietly and persistently about them. The answer may not come as a lightning bolt. It may come as a little inspiration here and a little there, “line upon line, precept upon precept” (D&C 98:12). Some answers will come from reading the scriptures, some from hearing speakers. And, occasionally, when it is important, some will come by very direct and powerful inspiration.

― Boyd K. Packer (“Prayers and Answers,” Ensign, Nov. 1979, 21.)

Enhancing Linear Thinking

• Build “Associative Barriers”– These are patterns

(paradigms) that help us proceed in a specific area

– These patterns give context to our thinking• Example: My chemistry

research is done within the context of the atomic model of matter

• When I do research, I interpret results in light of my paradigm

Enhancing Linear Thinking

• Seek Depth• Stay Current• Understand better• Explain difficult concepts to people

outside the domain• Be focused

Enhancing Lateral Thinking

• Break down “Associative Barriers”– Expose yourself to a

range of cultures– Learn differently– Reverse assumptions– Look at multiple

perspective

Enhancing Lateral Thinking

• Learn art• Travel extensively• Read widely and avidly• Study outside your primary domain• Practice making unusual and

unexpected mental associations• Be perceptive• Practice humor

Be Perceptive

• Rely on intuition, imagination and impetuousness

• Envision the consequences– Mozart– Michelangelo

• Slow down, look at the big picture

Creativity and Humor

• Atheism is a non-prophet organization• No sense being pessimistic, it probably

wouldn’t work anyway.• I used to think I was indecisive, but now

I’m not sure. • Editing is a rewording activity• My reality check just bounced• What if there were no hypothetical

questions?

Creativity and HumorSpecialized Humor

• Does the name Pavlov ring a bell?• Entropy isn’t what it used to be.• 186,000 miles/sec: not just a good idea, it’s

the LAW!• Santa’s elves are just a bunch of subordinate

Clauses.• Clones are people, two.• Dyslexics have more fnu• Help stamp out and eradicate superfluous

redundancy.• Air pollution is a mist-demeanor. • Microbiology Lab Staph.

Creative Personality• Confident

– Not afraid of criticism– Mature in thinking

• The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.  ―  Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (1896-1940)

• Hard working– Use of brain control– Store up knowledge

• Self-motivated

Charity

Creativity

The Importance of Creativity

Thank You

Are you more creative?