Transcript What is Creativity?

Creativity in Science
Dr. James Tiedje
Michigan State University
Components of Creativity •
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Fluency - number of ideas
Flexibility- ability to shift among ideas
Originality- The rare idea
Elaboration- Ideas in the details
What is Creativity?
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Originality is part of it: imagination, curiosity, independence, risktaking.
More like a cat than a dog.
State of grace; moment of inspiration
Sho-shin;
Bill Moyers: “ It can’t be defined but it can be exemplified Creative
people go to a subconscious well more often.”
Max Planck: “Again and again an imagery plan one attempts to build
breaks up, and we tray another..and another… imagination, vision
and faith are indispensable”
Albert Einstein: “For creation of a theory, the mere collection of facts
never suffices - there must be an invention of the mind which attacks
the heart of the matter. Press on, look for the underlying pattern.”
Howard Hughes Medical Inst (HHMI): The defining moment – when
enthusiasm, energy, intellectual curiosity and determination come
together to produce discovery.
Can creativity be taught?
•Personality traits - awareness
•It can be nurtured
– Can educate to distinguish between ideas and good ideas
– L. Pauling:”The best way to have a good idea is to have lots
of ideas”
– Alice in Wonderland: You should think 6 impossible
thoughts before breakfast
•Be un (or under) employed
– James Watson: “Relative state of unemployment”
– Steve Jobs: “Lightness of being a beginner again..It freed
me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life”
– Bill Gates (Microsoft)
– Larry Page and Sergey Brin (Google)
– Mark Zuckerberg and roommates (Facebook)
Creativity is a Process
How good are venture capitalists at recognizing creativity?
David Cowen of Bessmer Venture Partners (BVP) missed it list
David Cowan, #4 on Forbes Midas list Hall of Fame
One example: Silicon Valley; why & how?
• Shockley Semiconductor: William Shockley Co-invents
transistor; founds Shockley Semiconductor in 1955.
• Hires Gordon Moore, Sheldon Roberts, Eugene Kleiner,
Robert Noyce, Victor Grinich, Julius Blank,
Jean Hoerni and Jay Last—the "Traitorous Eight”
• Sherman Fairchild of Fairchild Camera invest $1.5 mil, and
the option to buy Shockley Semiconductor, and does.
• But, the “Eight” become frustrated by slow moving East
management, and “Fair children” are borne, e.g. Moore
and Noyce form Intel, and others take similar path.
Lessons:
New ideas (on applications, how to improve, how to produce)
Risk-taking, energy, inspiration, self-confidence.
Another study: Sony vs Samsung
What are you doing to enhance your
creativity?
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Where do you get your ideas?
What do you read?
Who do you talk to?
When do you think? (do you text too much?)
What inspires you?
What further knowledge do you need?
Who is your role model?
Creativity is Individualized
What can you do to enhance your creativity?
•Build base of sound fundamental knowledge
•Chose role model(s)
•Assemble the facts: read broadly; communicate; go to
stimulating, broadening events; sort the facts
•Inspiration: positive attitude, talk to people, avoid
staleness
•Brain-storm
•Develop critical thinking, reflective thinking
•Look for the analog; Build pictorial models
•Establish strategic connections, collaborations
•Don’t force the idea before its “time”
•Vision for the future!
Skills can be achieved through Practice !
Assignment
• Chose an individual that you think is
creative, then:
– Write a half page or less that states
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Who
What is their creative product
Why you consider them creative
What about their life might have enhanced their
creativity
--Turn in your “answer” at breakfast. I will
summarize and ask a few to orally summarize