Deep thoughts
The other night at a schmoozy networking event, I met a guy who argued vehemently against one of my most deeply held beliefs, which is that everyone is creative.
Me, describing Creative DC: "I believe that everyone is creative."
Him: "That's like saying everyone's nice, or everyone's smart."
Me: "You mean like in The Incredibles, when the kid says, 'If everyone's incredible, then no one is?'"
Him: "Yeah, exactly."
Me: "I disagree. I think the urge to create is a fundamental part of being human."
As Linda Richman of Saturday Night Live's Coffee Talk would say:
Discuss.
posted by Amanda @ 3:49 PM
6 comments
6 Comments:
I think creativity can mean so many things. There are so many ways to be creative. Abstract, if you will. Smart is just smart, is just smart! Cut & dry.....
I finally started to go throught the artists way, thanks for the reminder. I heard you on Kimberly's podcast.
Smart is not cut & dry IMHO.. there are definitely different types of intelligence. Some people are book smart, some people have street smarts, others are chess geniuses who can't zip up their zippers. So, with few exceptions I think everyone is smart in some way.
Likewise (can you see where I'm going?) I think everyone is creative. I know people who can write your socks off and others who can make you laugh till milk comes out your toes. They're different types of creative. So, everyone is creative but the method of expression (productive like this blog or destructive like say.. Borf) is what differentiates the good from the bad.
This is all about how you define creative, and what benchmark you're using. In the case of "Him", he's likely equating Creativity with both originality and quality. Most people probably share this view.
With a different view (what I think is the one you're taking), even the desire to create is worthy of mention.
Let's say I play piano. But I never write songs, all I do is play the same Elton John song 8 times a day, and never learn anything new. Am I being creative? In a sense, yes. I'm creating (and possibly interpreting) music. But I think the guy you're chatting with would say no. Rote regurgitation might not be creative. (Is it the same answer if it's Beethoven? MeatLoaf? T.A.T.U?)
Similarly, if I'm a cook and all I do is cook the same receipes from the same book, rather than inventing new culinary adventures, am I being creative? Who knows.
Are cover bands creative?
Did Ted Bundy find creative ways to kill people?
Is destruction a form of creativity, if it's new and interesting?
Can creativity BE good or bad? (This may actually be one of the key questions in your interpretation.)
You find creativity where you want. I've been dealing with the IRS a lot lately, setting up a non-profit organization. I am constantly amazed at the creativity required to dream up these forms. They interpret words and concepts in ways I could never fathom, which is, in a sense, a key tenet of creativity.
I view challenging the mind to see new things as a goal of creativity, and these tax forms have opened my mind's eye in ways I can only relate to the first Bottecelli I saw. (Different reaction, same scope.) Is the IRS creative?
I can't remember if you'd tried to define creativity explicitly here before. I'd be interested to either define it, or drag that conversation up again.
i think we hold to the word "creative", and "art" for that matter, in too high a regard. they mean specific things but the connotation gets muddied. Its just semantics, but i think being creative results in a physical object created. When people have great ideas we call them brilliant. Genius is reserved for math and music, technically speaking.
We live in a time that likes to break down barriers that the specifics of words have forced upon us. In some circles it is looked down upon to try to define things. It many ways it opens us up to more things, but it many ways it also makes us miss meanings in terms of the depth that language holds. A lot of times it is just us gravitating toward words that feel better or have more punch. craftsman vs artist for instance. creativity vs ( insert any occupation) expertise.
either way, we're not all on the same page about semantics. and it'd be kinda dull if we were.....
When in doubt, always just ask Google. There are some good definitions of creativity in there, though my favorite has to be "An increasingly rare crime." :)
Some that apply more to the discussion:
"The production of previously non-existent information. All new items of information are based on preceding ones, and they are "new" because they restructure the preceding items and/or insert foreign informational elements ("noises") into them."
"The ability to solve problems that are worth solving. It is the ability to create knowledge. Creativity is subject-specific: it is the meta-knowledge of how to solve a specific class of problems. So there is no such thing as “raw”, undifferentiated creativity."
A happy Thanksgiving to all!
"An increasingly rare crime."
absolutely the best.wow.
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