Thinking Stuff Up

I like this quote from the creator of Dilbert for a number of reasons. Firstly there’s the encouragement to make mistakes, which in my mind is essential to the creative process, but I also like the simplicity of ‘art is knowing which ones to keep’. This for me sets out the difference between the process of creativity (allowing yourself to make mistakes) which anyone can do, and the skill of a great creative (knowing which ones to keep).

For anyone who is intimidated by being creative and feels they compare poorly to others (this kind of comparison is a toxic habit we’ll come back to another time) this should be seen as encouragement to keep going. keep making mistakes, by the law of averages you’re going to keep the right ones sometimes and the more you do, the more you practice, the better you’ll get at knowing which ones to keep.  

Creative tools: Analog 

This seems as good of a place to start as any - what is creativity? 

It’s strange, but until I stopped to think it, I hadn’t realized how hard a word it is to define. So the obvious place to turn was the dictionary. 

Merriam-Webster has this to say: 

Creativity is "The ability to make new things or think of new ideas"

And from dictionary.com there’s: 

“The ability to transcend traditional ideas, rules, patterns, relationships, or the like, and to create meaningful new ideas, forms, methods, interpretations, etc.; originality, progressiveness, or imagination"

And finally from the oxford dictionaries we get:

"Relating to or involving the imagination or original ideas, especially in the production of an artistic work"

While those all seem pretty good, I think the second part of that last one 'especially in the production of an artistic work’ is what often trips people up. 

When you ask people what creativity is, particularly those who would say they are not creative, they often start talking about artistic endeavors, painting, writing, making music etc. And of course those things are creative, you are clearly creating something, but it feel like a truly useful definition of creativity needs to have something of a wider scope. 

So let’s go back to our dictionary definitions start dissecting them a bit, starting with the simplest version from Merriam Webster - creativity is the ability to make new things or to think of new ideas.

Now far be it from me to question the venerable Messrs Merriam and Webster, but personally I think this definition misses a couple of key points. it’s nice and succinct, but to my mind it’s backwards and gets two key words wrong.

If it was up to me it would go a little more like this (fair warning things are about to get really semantic) 

“Creativity is the process of thinking of new ideas and making new things" 

Again deceptively simple, maybe even an over simplification, but what I do think it does is speak to the two sides of creativity and the important difference between creativity and talent. 

Process v ability 

So while the world ability, in the original version, isn’t completely wrong, the danger of that word is the implication of an inherent talent. Again looking at strict dictionary definitions tells us that ability can be read as "talent, skill, or proficiency in a particular area”. 

And here’s where things can get a bit sticky because, although there’s a big difference between talent and proficiency, it’s that word talent that causes so many of the issues and here the dictionaries pretty much agree on the definition of the word talent as something along the lines of: "A natural aptitude or skill"

So the problem with a term like ability, and the fact that it can then be thought of as a synonym for talent, is all the baggage that comes with it. The idea that it is something that is naturally occurring, that you either have or you don’t, that it can’t be taught or learnt.  

To some extent, anyone can learn to paint, probably to the point of ‘proficiency’. However, someone who could perfectly recreate exact replicas of the Mona Lisa or Starry night is someone you would say is talented. Talented but not creative.

Sure they’re using their natural ability to make something, but it’s not something original or unique. So while talent can help you make something, it isn’t actually essential to creativity.

Which is all a really long way of getting to a point that John Cleese summed up very succinctly.

Source: 99U 

or to put it another way, it’s a process.

AND making new things v Or making new things 

So why in this context does ‘AND’ rather than ‘OR’ make this a better definition?  

Well fortunately this one’s a little simpler. If you come up with a new idea, but don’t turn it into something tangible, you’re being imaginative not creative. You haven’t actually created anything.  And again we find another reason creativity is often confused with talent, because talent can massively shorten the distance between having an idea and creating a finished product. i.e. if you have an idea for a story about a bank heist perpetrated by expertly trained capuchin monkeys, and you happen to be a talented short fiction writer, chances are you can make that a real thing much faster, and more efficiently than someone without that talent. 

But can you be creative without that naturally occurring talent? 

Ok so lets say you’re working for a company who needs to explain what it is they do.   

And let’s say they make a widget that’s 50% better at being a widget than any of your competitors widgets.   

So you do some research, you look at what your competitors are doing, you brainstorm, you refine, you test some ideas and eventually, through this process, you come up with a concept for a compelling short film. A short film that will show people in a completely unique way why your widget is better. But you aren’t a talented writer, director, cinematographer, sound designer, actor and casting agent. So, you go out and you find a talented director an expert cinematographer and all the other skills needed to make your video. And before you know it it’s a hit. 

Ok so again a gross oversimplification, but the point is without any preexisting, magical talent that makes you a natural at film making, you can follow a process to create, concept and produce a creative product. 

Now I know a lot of people who consider themselves creative are probably going to have an almost viscerally negative reaction to this definition, but let me just be clear. I am not trying to say that there are a predefined set of steps, instructions that you can follow one by one until bam! Out pops a creative masterpiece. 

But what I am trying to get to with this definition is that creativity is a process, there are ways to learn it and get better at it. 

To go back to painting. If you pick out a paintbrush, set out some paints and a canvas, dip your brush in the paint and start laying it on the canvas, then you are painting. Continue to do it and you will produce a painting. If you have a natural talent maybe your first go will be fairly good, if not chances are it won’t, but keep doing it, keep practicing, learning from experts and trying different techniques and you will get better. 

The same applies to creativity, and by making sure we’re defining it the right way we can change the way we think about it. Then rather than people feeling that creativity is just something they can’t do, instead they can have a go, practice, learn and get better.  Because make no mistake about it, creativity can be part of everything we do and now more than ever, whatever you do, creativity is quickly becoming the only way you can truly succeed.   

But more on that later.