CREATIVITY
The human brain is not designed to be creative.It is designed to set up routine patterns and to use and follow these patterns.we may need to use routine patterns 98% of the time and only to be creative 2% of the time.To show this,there is a game where you start with a letter and then add another letter,a whole word has to be formed.
Start with a
Add t. The new word is at
Add c. The new word is cat
Add o. The new word is coat
Add r. The new word is actor
Until the addition of the ?r? it was quite simple to add the new letter to the existing ones to form a new word.With the r it was necessary to go back and completely restructure the use of the previous words.
We live over time.New information comes in over time.we add this new information to what we already have to go back and restructure what we had before.This is creativity.More often we are not forced to go back.we stick to what we have.If we choose to go back and restructure then we get a much better arrangement.This is creativity we choose to use.If doors are normally rectangular and you suggest a triangular door,that is not creative in less you can show value for the new shape.
The argument that creativity cannot be taught is usually based on pointing to extreme cases of creativity talent,such as Einstein,Newton.But imagine a row of people lined up to run a race.The starting signal is given and the race is run.someone comes first and someone comes last.Their performance depends on their natural running ability.
Now if all the runners have some training ,they all finish the race much faster than before.However,someone still first and someone still comes last.
So if we do nothing about creativity then obviously creative ability depends only on natural talent.But if we provide training,structures and systematic techniques,then we raise the general level of creative ability.Some people will be much better than others but everyone will acquire some creative skill.
Creativity is no longer a mysterious gift or special talent.we can now see creativity as the behavior of a self organizing information system that makes patterns which is your brain.Once we can understand the underlying system,then we can design tools for the deliberate use of creativity.These tools can be very powerful.It need no longer be a matter of sitting and waiting for ideas and inspiration.We can do certain things that will result in the brain having new ideas.
THE RANDOM WORD TOOL FOR CREATIVITY ?
You have your focus.you know where you want to generate new ideas.You then obtain a random word. Nouns are easiest to use,so use a noun.You can obtain your random word in several ways.
You may keep a list of 60 words on a card in your pocket.You then glance at your watch.If the second hand shows 27 seconds,you select word number 27 from your list.
You could also choose a page number in a dictionary and then specify the tenth(or other) word down on that page.You continue downwards until you come to a noun.You could do this with any book with a page and line number.
You could put words written on slips of paper into a bag and then pick one out.
All of these are practical ways of obtaining a random word.Once you have your random word,you then use this random word to generate ideas about the subject.
