Creative Process

A lot of people say that they are not creative ;  it normally is said in context of either art or invention. That is to say in other words not being able to paint, draw, write or create some invention. 

There are tons of books and online media that would also claim (some fairly successfully) that they can unleash your creative potential. Nothing could be further from the truth. There is nothing to unleash for all humans are creative; the problem is a lot of us tend to forget this simple skill as we grow up. 

When we were children all of us used this skill in games we played with our friends (a simple game as cops and robbers - needs one to take on a persona and act that out. Without any script - if this is not being creative I don’t know what is) We all have forgotten this skill at some time and need to rediscover it. 

Obviously there are some of us who are gifted in expressing our creativity in art or in being able to spin visual tapestry that forces the remainder to think when they see the picture or the movie or read a book.  The act of visualising in your mind the characters of a good book is being creative - of course one is helped by the skill of the author who has spun up a new world to explore. The Star Trek, Star Wars, MCU franchises are very popular because they allow the fans to come up with stories and alternate plot lines in a make believe universe. All of these fans are being creative when enacting the role of some character or thinking up new stories. 

Rediscovery of this skill is important. It allows all of us the ability to become problem solvers in our personal life or at work. It helps one prepare for uncertainty and also helps with dealing with situations that suddenly manifest themselves. The reason is quite simple - it allows you to look at the information presented and then allows you to be able to use simple cognitive functions to resolve or to understand the information presented.  When one applies this sort of methodology on a regular basis they then tend to get better at it as each failure will also help learn and make one better at the reasoning applied. 

Can creativity be rediscovered by teaching it in a scientific manner - Yes. And a quick break down of the stages or steps to be creative would be - preparation, incubation,illumination, evaluation and verification.  There is enough information available on this process in books and online for one to read or hear. 

A more simple explanation of the creative process would be - look at the information presented, use logic (with or without cognitive bias) , act on the results, make adjustments to the logic applied if the results are not in line with expectations and repeat the process. You can continue to play cops and robbers as a robber and continue to become so good that the cops don’t ever catch you :) 

Rediscover being creative. 

C