Friday, November 04, 2005

Creativity

This week's New Scientist demonstrates the perennial struggle with the mind/brain problem in a series of articles about creative minds, but there are some strong arguments that can be made for some of the assertions. eg:

"Amabile found that positive moods relate positively to creativity in organisations, and that the relationship is a simple linear one. Creative thought also improves people's moods, her team found, so the process is circular. Time pressures, financial pressures and hard-earned bonus schemes on the other hand, do not boost workplace creativity: internal motivation, not coercion, produces the best work".

If we accept that being coerced is the state of being forced to enact a theory that is not active in the mind, and given that creativity seems to involve active thought, then this does seem a likely contention.

The article quoted above concludes:

"Another often forgotten aspect of creativity is social. Vera John Steiner...says that to be really creative you need strong social networks and trusting relationships, not just active neural networks. One vital characteristic of a highly creative person, she says, is that they have at least one other person in thier life who doesn't think they are completely nuts".

No guesses needed as to Dh's response to this.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

"One vital characteristic of a highly creative person, she says, is that they have at least one other person in thier life who doesn't think they are completely nuts"

I can say it's true at least in my experience, because my creativity certainly died when everyone thought I was nuts.

Carlotta said...

Am guessing but from your blog, the situation looks to have improved for you now. Hope that is the case.