Patrick··This is a good book about creativity. He cites that creativity needs to be in a specific domain, vetted by specific people in a particular field, and of course it needs to be someone who is "creative."Creativity is important b/c most of the things that are interesting, important, and human are the result of creativity and creativity allows us to live a fuller life. Creativity is the act of imposing our desires on reality. Mihaly describes the creative process as having 3 elements: 1) a culture that contains symbolic rules 2) a person who brings novelty into the symbolic domain 3) as field of experts who recognize and validate the innovation. He likens creativity to evolutionary change in which random mutations get transmitted if it makes the individual and thus the gene pool more advantageous. Creative people act on memes and if enough people see value in them, then the creative product becomes part of the culture.Creative products are built from what is known in the past. It takes effort to change tradition b/c rules of a meme must be learned before it can be changed. Wealth is a prerequisite for people who look to think creatively since attention has to focus on things other than survival and specialization can be readily had in city. Also centers of creative activity tend to be at the intersection of different cultures, where beliefs, lifestyle, and knowledge mingle and allow individuals to see new combinations of ideas with greater ease.Creative types are seen as selfish and ruthless b/c of the single-minded pursuit of their goals that lead them to flow. Studying creativity is important since its results enrich the culture and so they indirectly improve the quality of all our lives. We may also learn how to make our lives more interesting and productive. All of us have need for security and expansive excitement. Creative types focus on risk and expansion of self. Mihaly has biased skewed to people who are happy with their lives and have the benefit of positive hindsight of 60 yrs Olds who have made it.THE CREATIVE PROCESSCreativity happens b/w a person's thoughts and a socio-cultural context. Creative individuals can be people who are interesting and stimulating with unusual thoughts, or people who experience the world in novel and original ways. These people are fresh, insightful, and make discoveries they alone know how to make. Finally, there are creative people who have changed the culture in some important respect.He focuses on people who impact the world/culture. In Mihaly definition of a creative person, is someone whose thoughts or actions change a domain or create a new domain. It was wealth and uncertainty that made Florence dedicate themselves to being the "new Athens" of the arts. It was the people prioritizing the Arts that led Florence to be the artist capital. Support and competition forced artist to outperform each other.Creative individuals choose domains of expertise b/c of a powerful calling to do something in that domain. "For them the match is so perfect that acting within the rules of the domain is rewarding in itself; they would keep doing what they do even if they were not paid for it, just for the sake of doing the activity.". A quantifiable domain with sharp boundaries and well-defined rules is taken more seriously. Culture is conservative by nature so any innovation that is introduced into it needs to be vetted by"experts" in that field.Creativity are properties of systems rather than of individuals. Creativity needs conducive environments to thrive. A person skills need to match the environment where they live to thrive. Creativity is the convergence of individual skill, luck, and an environment conducive towards creativity in that specific domain. A creative individual must learn the rules of a domain before one be innovate in that domain. They must be very good @ whatever skill they are trying to foster then one can play and innovate within that specific domain. After the creative person must be able to discriminate b/w a good idea and a bad idea.THE CREATIVE PERSONALITYWhile productivity is the only thing that ensures creativity, Mihaly says a genetic predisposition in specific domain facilitates the creative process. A genetic predisposition allows the person a greater early interest in a specific domain that allows a good dose of curiosity, wonder, and interest in that domain. Openness to experience, a fluid attention that constantly process events in the environment, is a great advantage for recognizing potential novelty. Curiosity and love for the subject is a must in the creative process. Luck comes into play in having access to a specific domain thus richer children are better off than others b/c they have access to more domains. Also connections in a specific field is need for the world to take notice of once talents/creative potential. Connections in a specific field can only be had through random connections or networking.Creative individuals embrace all facets of their personality without inner-conflicts: 1) They have great physical energy but also often quiet and @ rest. They control their activities. A period of focused concentration interchanges with a period of rest is important for their creativity. They have a high libido mixed with a period of celibacy. 2) Creative individuals tend to be smart and naive at the same time. After an IQ of 120, IQ and creativity do not have a high correlation. Someone who is a genius might get complacent and not have the necessary curiosity to do creative work. People who bring acceptable change in a given domain bring both convergent and divergent ways of thinking. While divergent ideas are necessary in generating ideas, convergent thinking is necessary in using good judgment in seeing which ideas are worth pursuing and which ones are a waste of time. 3) They are both playful and discipline in approaching a task. While playfulness is easy enough to understand in playful individuals, discipline takes the form of seeing the project through in a timeless fashion. 4) Creative individuals alternate b/w imagination and a rooted sense of reality. Art and science create new realities in the present. The novelty they see is rooted in reality. Banking like science is an evolutionary process in that nothing changed but the perception. 5) Creative people are both extroverted and introverted simultaneously. Extrovertion is needed for crosspollination of idea while introversion is needed to master the skills of a specific domain. 6) Creative individuals are proud and humble @ the same time. They look to future accomplishment instead o dwelling on the past. They focus on family @ the same time their achievement gives them a self-assurance that they can accomplish more. They are both ambitious and selfless. While ambition is necessary to accomplish big things, selflessness is needed to accomplish a goal without the ego being involved. 7) They tend to be psychologically androgynous. 8) They tend to start from a traditional and conservative base and later become rebellious/iconoclastic (Pope Francis). 9) They are both passionate and objective about their work. To be passionate is necessary in the creative process while being objective is necessary in order to separate good ideas from bad ones.10) Openness and sensitivity exposes them to great pain and enjoyment. They enjoy the creative process for its own sake without any external rewards. Conflicting traits are important for creative types b/c one has to be both able to change a system while being part of the system.THE WORK OF CREATIVITY:The first phase of the creative process involves immersion and preparation in a problem that is interesting and arouse curiosity. Insights usually come to those who have thought long and hard about a given set of problematic issues. 3 main source from which typically arise: personal experience, requirements of the domain, and social pressures. Artist find inspiration in "real life". Curiosity is key. Early experience predisposes a young person to be interested in a certain range of problems. Without a burning curiosity, a lively interest, we are unlikely to make a significant new contribution. The problem could be based on the domain itself as it relates to the creative person. The best ideas come from interdisciplinary thought. It is often dissatisfaction with the rigidity of domains that makes great creative advances possible but this presupposes familiarity with a specific domain. One cannot transform a domain unless one first thoroughly understand how it works. One cannot be creative without becoming dissatisfied with that knowledge and rejecting it for a better way. Also, stimulation by colleagues or some sort of public need can create a tension that starts the creative process. Discovered problems are superior to presented or "pre-formed"problems in changing a specific domain.2) The idea is incubated below the threshold of consciousness being churned around. It is during this time that unusual connections from the norm are found. People who keep themselves occupied all the time are generally not creative. Despite the subconscious nature of the incubation period, the foundation is still built upon a specific domain.3) Insight to the problem is then found. It occurs when the subconscious connections b/w ideas fits so well that it is forced to pop out into awareness.4) evaluation whether the insight is worth pursuing.5) Elaboration or execution of the task. 4 main conditions are important in this process: 1) the person must remain open to new insights and flexible in how he views the work 2) one has to pay attention to one's goals and feelings to ascertain its progress 3) keep in touch with domain knowledge so one can us the best methods and theories out there 4) listen to colleagues out there who will check ones workTHE FLOW OF CREATIVITY:Although creative individuals differ in their personality, they are united in the fact that they are passionate about the work they do and would do it even if they were not paid. Creative people describe what they like most about their work the process of "designing or discovering something new." While the vast majority of people are conservative in conserving their energy, we also feel a dopamine high from discovering new things. Enjoyment consists of flow the feeling when things are going well as an almost automatic, effortless, yet highly focused state of consiousness.Flow consists of:1) clear goals every step of the way2) there is immediate feedback to one's actions3) there is balance b/w challenges and skills - we feel that our abilities are well matched to the opportunities for action4) action and awareness are merged - our concentration is focused on what we are doing.5) distractions are excluded from consciousness6) there is no fear of failure as though we are in total control7) self-consciousness disappears - we feel "one with the universe" yet after the event we feel stronger sense of self.8) sense of time gets distorted9) the activity becomes autotelic - the activity is done for its own sakeA scientist or a writer has to internalize the feedback mechanism so they know if their work is good or not. What they felt fortunate about was that they could get paid for something they had such fun doing and that in the bargain they could feel that what they did might help the human condition along. The link b/w flow and happiness depends on whether the flow producing activity is complex, whether it leads to new challenges and hence to personal as well as cultural growth.CREATIVE SURROUNDINGS:Creative individuals tend to gravitate toward centers of vital activity, where their work has a chance if succeeding. The great centers of learning and commerce are such places. The place where one lives is important for 3 main reasons: 1) one must be in a position to access the domain in which one plans to work. Domains are clumped into specific areas. 2) novel stimulation is not evenly distributed. Certain environments have a greater density of interaction and provide more excitement and a greater effervescence of ideas; therefore, they prompt the person who is already inclined to break away from convention to experiment with novelty more readily than if he had stayed in a more conservative, more repressive setting. Science have certain hot spots where people congregate. Texas oil was able to make UT a first rate public institution. But being in the nexus of your domain also means one has to perform or perish.A beautiful environment is key for creativity. "When persons with 'prepared minds' find themselves in beautiful settings, they are more likely to find new connections among ideas, new perspective on issues they are dealing with." Creative pondering seems to be greater when the person is involved in a semiautomatic activity that takes up a certain amount of attention, while leaving some of it free to make connections among ideas below the threshold of conscious intentionally. Life-threatening situation also has the same effect as beautiful natural surroundings to stimulate creative thinking. For the day-to-day work, the macroenvironment needs to be a crossroad of culture, where information from different traditions are exchanged and synthesized. Microenvironments needs to make the individual comfortable and in control. A home needs to have personal touch to be comfortable for a creative person to do their job. "What helps to preserve and develop individuality, and hence creativity, is an environment that we have built to reflect ourselves, where it is easy to forget the outside world and concentrate completely on the task at hand." Creative types impose their own routine and stick by it outside external time constraints. They have to master their environment and their own time. Whereas in preparation, evaluation, and elaboration a stable routine environment is preferable, the incubation and epiphany moments need to be in a novel beautiful setting that allows one a creative process.CREATIVE INDIVIDUALS: THE EARLY YEARSWhat allows certain individuals to shape their lives to suit their own goals instead of letting external destiny forces rule their destiny. Creativity involves changing a way of doing things, or a way of thinking, and that in turn requires mastering the old ways of doing or thinking about things. Myths are born out of our need to explain genius precociousness with consistency. So when someone becomes a genius at something, we tend to emphasize things that relate to that genius and deemphasize any contradiction to the main storyline.The only consistent theme of creative geniuses in early childhood is "a more than usually keen curiosity about one's surroundings." "Practically every individual who has made a novel contribution to a domain remembers feeling awe about the mysteries of life..." Initial childhood interest in a specific domain, gets reinforced by adult adulation for that specific skill. If a child has a competitive advantage in relation to other children in a specific domain then he is more likely to pursue it. It seems the only thing that is hereditary is musical and mathematics skills.Parental influence in shaping a creative individual domain of choice. Parents should maximize exposure to the greatest opportunity possible. Also to minimize sibling rivalry each child should be good @ something that the other is only ok in. Parental influence becomes more important the more disadvantage the child is especially setting moral and intellectual standards to live by. Parents were most influential in shaping a person's character especially honesty. Honesty is important to have long-term success in a specific domain. Extreme home environments seem to stimulate creativity from being orphaned to being raised in a loving family. Also there is a disproportionate percentage of people who came from upper middle class and lower middle class who become creative but not from thr vast American middle class. 30% of creative children who made an impact in their specific domain come from lower middle class but the family never identified with their lower class position but instead had high aspirations for their children's academic achievement. 60% of creative individuals that impact their domain come from the professional classes.A successful individual remembers their past with warmth so the past is consistent with the present. What matters more for people is their subjective interpretation of an objective past not what actually happened.Great teachers stimulate a child curiosity in a given study. The teacher influence creative by noticing the student, believed in his ability, and cared. Furthermore, the teacher showed care by giving the child extra work to do, greater challenges than the rest of the class.Popularity makes kids want to conform instead of developing their unique talents. "Nostalgia for the teenage years is almost entirely absent. Marginality---the feeling of being on the outside, of being different, of observing with detachment the strange rituals of one's peers---was a common theme." The common denominator to creative-types in relation to their early years is that instead of being shaped by events, they shaped events to suit their purposes.CREATIVE INDIVIDUALS: THE LATER YEARSFor many creative professional, college was the high point in their lives when they found their voice and their vocation became clear. While they had come from small provincial settings where they felt odd and disoriented, college provided place where people found their uniqueness."After curiosity, the quality of concentrated attention is what creative individuals mention most often as having set them apart from their peers. Curiosity and drive are the yin and yang that need to be combined in order to achieve something new." While curiosity is playful and deals with objects for its own sake, drive is competitive and achievementoriented. Luck plays a role being in the right place at the right time meeting with the right people.The individuals had stable satisfying marital relationships. While sexual drive certainly fuels the creative process, the majority conformed to a more sedate sexual pattern. Perhaps due to the age of the respondents, the majority mentioned family and children as part of their greatest accomplishments. Spouse is key to accomplish what creative want to accomplish. Stability in family life is key if one wants to fight external demons. Women also have to be supported to thrive in their careers. Sometime being married to an equally ambitious woman can strain family life. Creative individuals are aware that a lasting, exclusive relationship is the best safeguard of that peace of mind they need in order to focus on their creative pursuits. Most creative achievements are part of long-term commitments to a domain of interest. Creative individuals are forced to invent jobs they will be doing all through their lives. Creative individuals don't have careers; they create theIr own path. For example, Yalow parlayed her physics degree into founding the field of nuclear medicine. Creative career path is similar in that " a new way of doing things is discovered b/c the person is always open to new learning and has the drive to carry through the new idea that emerges from the learning.
