Creativity

Griffiths has written The Creative Thinking Handbook. There are three takeaways from the book.

First, creative thinking is ‘thinking outside the box’. How about removing the box altogether? The metaphorical box is made up of our assumptions and biases. To be creative, it is necessary to remove them.

Secondly, more parts of our brain light up when we are daydreaming. There is link between creativity and daydreaming.

Thirdly, optimism is associated with a creative mindset. If you are positive, you are open to take chances. You are likely to get support and you carry on after a mistake occurs.

Creativity and innovation are linked. Creativity is applied in innovation. Apple envisaged a phone without a keyboard — this is a creative idea. The actual creation is an innovation, i.e. an iPhone.

Xerox was highly creative and they had pioneered many elements associated with a P C. Xerox did not publicise these. Steve Jobs realised the potential of their research.

Creativity is difficult to pin down — it is in flux, something transient. It is better to have a definition that makes sense to you. The new ideas are born out of existing knowledge. They are incubated and cultivated. They are combined to form a new neural pathway in the brain. That leads to a personal original thought. The essence of creativity is thus the way existing pieces of knowledge are fused together to bring forward new original ideas.