but You are not creative!
People are either creative or not. Creative work is done by creative people. They have that special quality in them which differentiates them from non-creative people. They are good at synthesis unlike the non-creative people who are generally good at analysis. They can see the abstract connections and can create something from nothing — seemingly. Analytical people, on the other hand, need to have a problem, situation — something to start with. They need something to analyze. They can’t start from nothing.
Generally artists, musicians, innovators, business leaders, designers, chefs etc are considered Creative people.
It is typically thought that analytical people are software developers, stock market traders and investors, construction workers, architects, cooks, corporate employees making up to and including middle management etc.
So, there are jobs and professions that are categorized or considered as either creative or analytical. And there are many jobs that require a combination of both creativity and analytical ability.
I grew on this kind of mindset. I was fed with elements of this mindset right from my early days (I can recollect instances from my college days but I’m sure this was true in school days too). My suspicion is that I’m not probably singled out for this mindset. I think much of society and corporate sector subscribes to this kind of categorization. As humans, we love categorization — it helps with organizing information in our brains and also helps with making decisions and judgments quickly. This kind of thinking has helped us survive the harsh environment of our hunter-gatherer stage of evolution during which time we tore away from rest of the animal kingdom and developed into the most formidable animal ever and by very far. Under the weight of evolution, we yield by default to organizing and thinking in categories. Clearly, this has implications — few not-so-good ones in the non-hunter-gatherer life we live today.
Coming back to creativity, we yielded to categorize people as creative and non-creative. Jobs, roles and professions have been categorized and understood as either creative or not. As human beings maneuvering/progressing through our professions/jobs/businesses, we tend to think of ourselves as either creative or not and this became part of our identity.
I developed my identity as non-creative, analytical kind. So much so that I became sure that I do not have that “creativity” gene in me. I never entertained (let alone pursued) any thoughts of indulging in any creative pursuit.
Only recently I started to discover and realize that all of us have both creative and analytical abilities. We may have higher propensity for one or the other but we have natural ability for both. Creativity is no one’s monopoly — neither is analytical ability. I found it very liberating to realize that an analytical mind also has creative ability — not just technically but meaningfully. Given that my natural inclination is analytical, I can only ruminate from this perspective.
First of all I have come to believe that creativity is also a skill — let us call it my controversial statement of this month! This means creative ability can be developed and honed.
What exactly is creativity? I think of it as ability to create something uniquely new from constituent (disparate) components — as opposed to analytical ability which is the ability to breakdown a whole into its constituent parts (and understand how they interact with each other under various conditions etc). Examples of creativity are an idea, a decision, a painting, a write-up (a book, a blog etc), design etc.
So, how exactly can one cultivate creativity? I am no expert on this but let me share from my experience and also from what I have read and come to believe about this.
Curiosity/need + enthusiasm/passion + deep domain knowledge + periods of disengagement = Creativity
If you add diversity of interests and pursuits to the LHS (Left Hand Side) then I believe creative ability can go a few notches higher (-not just one notch-).
- Curiosity: without curiosity or a need, there is no motivation to be creative
- Enthusiasm: While curiosity gives a reason to pursue creativity, enthusiasm helps to keep at it — not give up on it
- Domain Knowledge: Domain knowledge provides the nuts and bolts, the wherewithal required for building out the output
- Disengagement: brewing of the solution in the unconscious and formation of new synaptic connections and pathways among neurons in our brain can happen only when we allow for it to happen. For example, when our mind is resting or is otherwise very differently engaged (e.g., famous long walks by Carl Jung and Einstein), we allow our brain’s innate creative power to bubble forth. On the flip side, if we are always engaged in one intellectual pursuit after another without meaningful breaks, creative ability gets stunted.
Perhaps one other element that I did not explicitly add but is very critical is the belief and confidence that one is “creatively” capable.
While analytical ability reflects the common denominator of human abilities — as in, there is nothing to distinguish one’s analytical ability from another’s — creative ability is the conduit of expressing our uniqueness — bringing out our own unique, authentic perspective and ability to the table — creative ability is how we express our individuality. While analytical ability standardizes and homogenizes us, creative ability brings out diversity.
Analytical ability is suitable for things like digitization and automation — it is analogous to what is currently in vogue as “Artificial Intelligence” whereas creative ability separates us not just from animals but also computers and machines — it is “natural intelligence”.
As our ancient scripture and thinkers and authors like Seth Godin, Robert Greene implore, it is not just important but fundamental to express our own creative ability — for through creativity we express the human-ness in us — it is what makes us human.
