Creativity (50 page)
Authors: Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Divergent Thinking
Not all thinking involves the solution of problems. Sometimes we are asked to respond to what other people say, or to produce ideas in response to events, without having a particular problem that needs to be formulated and solved. There are more or less creative ways to pursue these less focused mental tasks. In talking to a friend I can use trite phrases or I can try to say things in a fresh, topical way that more closely represents what I feel at the moment. I can use stock images or try for more vivid ones, based on common experiences.
Most commercial programs designed to increase individual creativity focus on this particular aspect. They try to enhance three dimensions of divergent thinking that are generally held to be important to creativity: fluency, or the knack for coming up with a great number of responses; flexibility, or the tendency to produce ideas that are different from each other; and originality, which refers to the relative rarity of the ideas produced. Brainstorming programs are ways to stimulate people to increase the fluency, flexibility, and originality of their ideas and responses. You can o
btain the same results by taking things in your hands and following these suggestions.
Produce as many ideas as possible
. If you have to write a thank-you note, a report, or a letter, identify a key word and then try to generate as many synonyms for it as possible. If you get stuck, turn to a thesaurus. Or instead of words that mean the same thing, shift to meanings that are similar but lead in different directions. At first go for quantity; later you will be critical and edit for quality.
If you are planning a weekend or a vacation, do the same thing: First, come up with as many options as you can think of, even if they are not all very sensible. A crazy suggestion may jolt you into thinking in new directions and lead to more acceptable alternatives you would not have considered otherwise. If you are shopping for clothes in a department store, don’t just go straight to the familiar floor but try on the greatest variety time allows. Browse for books outside the accustomed categories. If your boss asks for an opinion, don’t give only the predictable pet viewpoint based on your
interests. Surprise her with a whole range of ideas, options, and possibilities—how wild you can afford to be depends on how conservative she is.
Have as many different ideas as possible
. Quantity is important, but try to avoid redundancy. Variety in conversation, in the selection of music, in a menu, is generally appreciated. It pays off to learn how to alternate topics of conversation, types of restaurants, kinds of shows, ways of dressing. Robert Galvin of Motorola trained himself to do a simple mental exercise: Whenever someone says something, he asks himself, What if the opposite were true? Imagining alternatives to what others hold to be true is probably going to be useless 99 percent of the time. But that one other
time the practice of flipping to a divergent perspective might generate an insight that is not only original but also useful.
Try to produce unlikely ideas
. Originality is one of the hallmarks of creative thinking. If asked to come up with names for a baby, or ways to use a paper clip, or things to do at a party, a creative person is likely to give answers that are different from the answers of the majority. But these answers won’t be bizarre. Once people hear them, they are likely to say, “Of course! Why didn’t I think of it myself?”
It is more difficult to learn how to think in original ways than to learn how to be fluent and flexible. It requires cultivating a taste for quality that is not necessary for the other two. One exercise involves taking a random paragraph from the paper each day and seeing if you can find unique, more memorable ways of expressing the same ideas. If the paragraph is too dull or obscure, substitute another. Or you can look at your office or your living room, and ask yourself whether it reflects your personal taste, and if not, what you could do to bring it in closer harmony with your unique self.
If your job involves frequent meetings and conferences, you might cultivate the habit of jotting down brief summaries of what the others around the table have said. Then you can quickly generate alternative positions to those that have been expressed, or integrate the various perspectives in a more comprehensive perspective. Instead of stating views that are based on your previous positions, use the lines of force emerging in the meeting to suggest new ways of thinking about the issues.
To think in a divergent mode requires more attention than thinking in the usual convergent style. As usual, it takes more energy to be
creative than to be a routine thinker. Therefore, you must choose when to try for creativity and when not to; otherwise you might burn yourself out in a blaze of intense originality.
Choosing a Special Domain
If creativity consists in changing a particular domain, then personal creativity consists in changing the domain of personal life. We call a physicist creative if he or she changes the way physics is practiced; a person who can change his or her own life we call personally creative. The domain of personal life consists of the rules that constrain psychic energy, the habits and practices that define what we do day in, day out. How we dress, how we work, how we conduct our relationships define this domain, and if we can improve on it, the quality of life as a whole is improved. The s
uggestions in this chapter have been about how to increase creativity in the domain of everyday life.
But even though personal life can be very complex, it is also limited in scope. Much of what makes life interesting and meaningful belongs to special domains: Music, cooking, poetry, gardening, bridge, history, religion, baseball, and politics are symbolic systems with their own special rules, and they exist outside any individual’s life. They and thousands of other such systems make up culture, and we become human by seeing the world through the lenses they provide. A person who learns to operate by the rules of one of these domains has a chance to expand enormously the range o
f his or her creativity.
Too many people assume that most of the world is off-limits to them. Some consider art as being beyond the realm of possibility, others sports or music. Or dancing, science, philosophy—the list of things that are “not for me” can be endless. And it is true that some domains just don’t agree with some people. But generally the problem is that cultural resources are underutilized. Either because of ignorance, low self-esteem, or habits of thought established early, we discount the possibility that we could enjoy and be good at many of the things that make others happy. It took sever
al years of jail for Malcolm X to realize the power of religion and of politics, and to discover that he had gifts for both.
Few of us know in advance what domains we may have an affinity for. Prodigies are children who from an early age show a definite gift in some direction, but most of us are not prodigies and it takes us
decades of trial and error to find out what we are best cut out for. Even in our sample, some individuals did not realize what their vocations were until they were middle-aged. And often the realization was forced on them by outside factors, such as a war or the necessity to do something that then turned out to be just right.
It is important to try as many domains as possible. Start with things you already enjoy and then move to related domains. If you like to read biography, you might try history. Swimming may lead to skin diving, to scuba, and then—why not?—to skydiving. Learning to operate within a new domain is always difficult, and love at first sight is rare. A certain amount of persistence is necessary. On the other hand, it makes no sense to persevere in an activity that gives no joy, or the promise of it.
Eventually you should be able to find one or more domains that fit your interests, things that you enjoy doing and that expand your life. Ideally we should be able to do so in as many domains as possible. But in practice the limits on psychic energy make it impossible to take on more than a few discrete activities seriously.
There are two dangers as you become involved in a domain. The first is addiction; some domains are so seductive that you may invest so much attention into it that you have none left for your job and family. Some chess players become so taken by the game that to all intents and purposes they become zombies; the same can be true of betting on horses, collecting art, studying the Bible, or cruising the Internet.
The other danger is the opposite: You can become so diffuse, so eclectic, that what you feel in different domains ends up being the same superficial experience. Like the traveler who goes everywhere and is still the same boring, provincial soul he was before he left, many people seem to gain nothing from sampling the best that the culture has to offer. As is usually the case, the best solution does not lie with the extremes.
As you learn to operate within a domain, your life is certainly going to become more creative. But it should be repeated that this does not guarantee creativity with a capital
c
. You can be personally as creative as you please, but if the domain and the field fail to cooperate—as they almost always do—your efforts will not be recorded in the history books. Learning to sculpt will do wonders for the quality of your life, but don’t expect critics to get ecstatic, or collectors to
beat a path to your door. The competition among new memes is fierce; few survive by being noticed, selected, and added to the culture. Luck has a huge hand in deciding whose
c
is capitalized. But if you don’t learn to be creative in your personal life, the chances of contributing to the culture drop even closer to zero. And what really matters, in the last account, is not whether your name has been attached to a recognized discovery, but whether you have lived a full and creative life.
Adler, Mortimer J.
Male. b. 12/28/02. Philosopher, author. American. Recipient, Aquinas Medal, American Catholic Philosophical Association (1976). Honorary Trustee, Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies (1973-). Author,
How to Read a Book
(with Charles Van Doren, 1940);
Six Great Ideas
(1981);
The Paideia Program
(1984). Chairman of the board of editors,
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(1974-). Associate editor,
Great Books of the Western World
(1945-; editor in chief, 2d ed., 1990),
Syntopicon
(1952, 1990); editor in chief,
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Mortimer J. Adler: Ph
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(1977). Interviewed by Kevin Rathunde (1/17/91). Age 88.
Anderson, Jack.
Male. b. 10/19/22. Journalist, author, writer. American. Recipient, Pulitzer Prize for national reporting (1972). Author,
The Anderson Papers
(with George Clifford, 1973);
Fiasco
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Asner, Edward.
Male. b. 11/15/29. Actor. American. Recipient, five Golden Globe awards; seven Emmy awards. President, Screen Actors Guild (1981-1985). Roles in theater, motion pictures, and television, including
The Mary Tyler Moore Show
(TV series, 1970-1977);
Roots
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Lou Grant
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Bardeen, John.
Male. b. 5/23/08; d. 1/30/91. Physicist, teacher. American. Recipient, Nobel Prize in physics (1956; with Walter Brattain and William Shockley) for research in semiconductors and the discovery of the transistor effect; Nobel Prize in physics (1972; with Leon Cooper and J. Robert Schrieffer) for their jointly developed theory of superconductivity. Author of many scientific papers. Interviewed by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, with Kevin Rathunde (6/14/90). Age 82.
Baskin, Leonard.
Male. b. 8/15/22. Sculptor, graphic artist (print-maker, painter). American. Recipient, medal of merit for graphic arts, National Institute of Arts and Letters (1969). Represented in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art; Museum of Modern Art; Library of Congress; National Gallery of Art; others. Founder, Gehenna Press. Author,
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Male. b. 7/2/06. Physicist, teacher. American (b. Germany). Recipient, Nobel Prize in physics (1967) for his work on stellar energy; National Medal of Science (1976); Albert Einstein Peace Prize (1992). Author,
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(with Robert F. Bacher and M. Stanley Livingston—the “Bethe Bible” to generations of nuclear physicists, 1986); others. See
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Male. b. 4/21/33. Composer, eductor. American. Appeared as soloist with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra at age 14; studied with Oliver Messiaen, Berkshire Music Center (1949); Paul Hindemith, Yale (1950-54); and Nadia Boulanger, Paris (1954-1957); Appointed to faculty of University of Chicago (1958). Recipient: Fulbright Fellowship (1954); first prize, Koussevitzky Music Foundation (1958, for Symphony No. 1); Brandeis Creative Arts Award (1968); commissions from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Library of Congress. Composer: four symphonies; Symphoni
c Fantasy (1965); 3 Short Fantasies for Piano (1965);
Un Voyage à Cythère
for Soprano and 10 Players (1966); 12 Micro-tonal Etudes for Synthesizer (1982). Interviewed by Grant Rich (5/23/95). Age 62.
Booth, Wayne.
Male. b. 2/22/21. Literary critic, teacher. American. Recipient, Christian Gauss Prize, Phi Beta Kappa (1962); David H. Russell Award, National Council of Teachers of English (1966). President, Modern Language Association (1981-1982). Author,
The Rhetoric of Fiction
(1961);
The Company We Keep: An Ethics of Fiction
(1988); others. See his
The Vocation of a Teacher
(1988). Interviewed by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and Kevin Rathunde (6/7/90). Age 69.
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Female. b. 7/6/20. Sociologist, activist, teacher. American (b. Norway). Recipient, Ted Lentz Peace Prize (1977); National Woman of Conscience Award (1980); Jessie Bernard Award, American Sociological Association (1981). Author,
The Underside of History
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Building a Global Civic Culture: Education for an Interdependent World
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Male. b. 1/18/10; d. 3/19/93. Economist, philosopher, teacher, writer (poet). American (b. England). Recipient, John Bates Clark Medal, American Economic Association (1949); Ted Lentz International Peace Research Award (1976). President, American Economic Association (1968); Peace Research Society (1969-1970); others. Founder (with others),
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The Economics of Peace
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The Image
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Beyond Economics: Essays on Society, Religion, and Ethics
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Creative Tension
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Female. b. 8/12/19. Observational astronomer, professor. American (b. England). Research on physical properties, energy sources, and radiation mechanisms of quasistellar objects and active galaxies. Director, the Center of Astrophysics and Space Sciences (1978-1984). Recipient, numerous prizes and awards, including the Helen B. Warner Prize (1959); Bruce Gold Medal, Astronomical Society of the Pacific (1982); Russell Lectureship Award (1984); National Medal of Science (1984); Albert Einstein Medal (1988). Author,
Quasi-Stellar Objects
(with G. Burbidge, 1967); also more than
300 research articles. Interviewed by Carol A. Mockros (10/3/95). Age 76.
Butler, Margaret.
Female. b. 3/27/24. Mathematician, computer scientist. American. As staff mathematician in the early 1950s, she assisted in the development of one of the first digital computers. First woman elected a fellow of the American Nuclear Society. Executive Board, Association of Women in Science. Interviewed by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Carol A. Mockros, and R. Keith Sawyer. Age 77.
Campbell, Donald.
Male. b. 11/20/16. Psychologist, teacher. American. Recipient, Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award, American Psychological Association (1970); award for distinguished contribution to research in education, American Educational Research Association (1980). President, American Psychological Association (1975). Author,
Methodology and Epistemology for Social Science: Selected Papers
(1988);
Experimental and Quasi-Experimental Designs for Research
(with Julian C. Stanley, 1966); others. Interviewed by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (4/21/91). Age 77.
Chandrasekhar, Subrahmanyan.
Male. b. 10/19/10; d. 8/21/95. Astrophysicist, author, teacher. American (b. India). Recipient, Nobel Prize in physics (1983; with William A. Fowler); Royal Astronomical Society
Gold Medal (Great Britain, 1953); National Medal of Science (1966). Author,
An Introduction to the Study of Stellar Structure
(1939);
Radiative Transfer
(1950);
The Mathematical Theory of Black Holes
(1983); others. Author (general science),
Truth and Beauty: Aesthetics and Motivations in Science
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Chandra
, by Kameshwar C. Wali (1991). Interviewed by Kevin Rathunde (3/26/91). Age 80.
Coleman, James.
Male. b. 5/12/26; d. 3/25/95. Sociologist, teacher. American. Recipient, Paul Lazarsfeld Award for Research, American Evaluation Association (1983); American Sociological Association Publication Award (1992). Author,
Introduction to Mathematical Sociology
(1964);
Equality and Achievement in Education
(1990; includes a summary of the 1966 “Coleman Report” on equality of educational opportunity);
Foundations of Social Theory
(1990); others. See his “Columbia in the 1950s” in
Authors of Their Own Lives: Intellectual Autobiographies of Twenty American Sociologists
, edited by Bennett M. Berger (1990, pp. 75-103). Interviewed by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (4/20/90). Age 63.
Commoner, Barry.
Male. b. 5/28/17. Biologist, teacher, activist. American. Recipient, Newcomb Cleveland Prize, American Association for the Advancement of Science (1953); Phi Beta Kappa Award (1972). Author,
The Closing Circle
(1971);
The Politics of Energy
(1979);
Making Peace with the Planet
(1990); others. Presidential candidate, Citizens Party (1980). See “Barry Commoner: The Scientist as Agitator” in
Philosophers of the Earth
, by Shirley Chisolm (1972, pp. 122-39). Interviewed by Kevin Rathunde (5/7/91). Age 73.
Davies, Robertson.
Male. b. 8/28/13; d. 12/03/95. Writer, journalist. Canadian. Recipient, Louis Jouvet Prize for directing, Dominion Drama Festival (1949); Lorne Pierce Medal, Royal Society of Canada (1961); Governor-General’s Award for Fiction (Canada, 1973). Editor and publisher,
Peterborough
(Ontario)
Examiner
(1942-1962). Author, Deptford Trilogy (1970, 1972, 1975);
What’s Bred in the Bone
(1985); others. See
Robertson Davies: An Appreciation
, edited by Elspeth Cameron (1991). Interviewed by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (5/11/94). Age 80.
Davis, Natalie.
Female. b. 11/8/28. Historian, teacher. American. Decorated chevalier, l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques (France, 1976). President, American Historical Association (1987). Author,
Society and Culture in Early Modern France
(1975);
The Return of Martin Guerre
(1983);
Fiction in the Archives
(1987). See her interview in
Visions of History
, edited by Henry Abelove (1983, pp. 99-122). Interviewed by Kevin Rathunde (6/28/91). Age 62.
Domin, Hilde.
Female, b. 7/27/12. Poet, essayist, translator. German. Recipient, Rilke-Preis (Germany 1976); Bundesverdienstkreuz (1983). Author (poetry),
Nur eine Rose als Stutze
(1959);
Ich will dich
(1970); others.
See her
Von der Natur nicht vorgesehen
(1974). Interviewed by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (9/9/90). Age 78.
Dyson, Freeman.
Male. b. 12/15/23. Physicist, teacher, author. American (b. England). Recipient, Max Planck Medal (Germany, 1969); Enrico Fermi Award (1994); National Book Critics Circle Award (1984). Author of many scientific papers. Author (general science),
Weapons and Hope
(1984);
From Eros to Gaia
(1992); others. See his
Disturbing the Universe
(1979). Interviewed by Kevin Rathunde (9/1/91). Age 67.
Eigen, Manfred.
Male. b. 5/9/27. Chemist. German. Recipient, Nobel Prize in chemistry (1967; with Ronald Norrish and George Porter) for work on rapid chemical reactions; Otto Hahn Prize (Germany, 1962). Author,
Laws of the Game
(with Ruthild Winkler, 1981);
Steps Towards Life
(with Ruthild Winkler-Oswatitsch, 1992); others. Interviewed by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (9/17/90). Age 62.
Faludy, György.
Male. b. 9/22/10. Poet, translator. Canadian (b. Hungary). Recipient, honorary doctorate, University of Toronto (1978). Author (in English translation),
Selected Poems
(1985), others; (in Hungarian)
Villon Ballads
(1937, burned by the Nazis in 1944; 1947 edition pulped by the Communists in 1948);
A Keepsake Book of Red Byzantium
(1961); others. See his
My Happy Days in Hell
(1962). Interviewed by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (6/5/91). Age 80.
Franklin, John Hope.
Male. b. 1/2/15. Historian, teacher. American. Recipient, Clarence L. Holte Literary Prize (1986); Sidney Hook Award, Phi Beta Kappa (1994). Author,
From Slavery to Freedom: A History of Negro Americans
(1947; 7th ed., 1994);
George Washington Williams: A Biography
(1985);
Race and History: Selected Essays 1938-1988
(1990); others. See his “John Hope Franklin: A Life of Learning” in
Race and History
(pp. 277-91). Interviewed by Kevin Rathunde (11/7/90). Age 75.
Galvin, Robert.
Male. b. 10/9/22. Electronics executive. American. Recipient, Golden Omega award, Electronic Industries Association (1981); National Medal of Technology (1991); Bower Award for Business, Franklin Institute (1993). With Motorola, Inc. 1940-present (president, 1956-1990; CEO, 1964-1986). Motorola, Inc. received the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (1989 [the first year awarded]). Author,
The Idea of Ideas
(1991). Interviewed by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and Kevin Rathunde (9/10/91). Age 68.
Gardner, John W.
Male. b. 10/8/12. Psychologist, writer, teacher. American. Recipient, honorary degrees from various colleges and universities; USAF Exceptional Services Award (1956); Presidential Medal of Freedom (1964); National Academy of Sciences Public Welfare Medal (1966); U.A.W. Social Justice Award (1968); AFL-CIO Murray Green Medal (1970); Christopher Award (1971). Chairman, Urban Coalition
(1968-1970). Founder and chairman, Common Cause (1970-1977). Member, Task Forces on Education under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson. Director, Time, Inc. (1968-1972). Author,
Excellence
(1961, 1984);
Self-Renewal
(1964, 1981);
On Leadership
(1990). Interviewed by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (8/18/91). Age 78.