One of the main tenants of creativity and leading a creative life is experiencing the interdependence of all things everywhere. Nothing could be more telling of this truth than the myth of “pure” races. The curiously creative human organism first arose in Africa, some 150,000 years ago, then migrated north, south, east, and westwards, developing […]
Understanding Creativity Across Art, Science, and Religion Part I
It is common for people to pigeonhole creativity into a specific type of activity such as art, invention, or innovation. It is also common for people to say that there are creative “types” out there, those that seem to be inherently more creative than others. But from my own perspective, all of human activities share […]
New Report Confirms Age-Old Wisdom: Walking About In Nature Sparks Creativity
Like many of you, as the owner of both a smartphone and a laptop computer, so long as my devices are on, I tend to be inundated with information, much of which is totally useless. To have creativity be an integral part of your life, it is essential that you learn to take breaks from […]
Co-Designing and Creativity: Developers and Users Team Up to Create Better Products
When it comes to creativity and innovation, inferior products are those that fail to meet the aesthetic and functional needs of the user. On the other hand, superior products have a deep understanding of the user’s need built right into the product. In this article Catalina Naranjo-Bock explores how research teams are interacting and inviting their […]
Creativity 101: What Does It Mean to Be Creative?
Here is a really good overview of creativity by Michele and Robert Root-Bernstein entitled, “(Almost) Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Creativity.” The article includes a basic definition of what it means to be creative, goes on to explain the way creative people think, and concludes with what you can do to improve your […]
Creativity and Nonduality: The Self and the Built Environment
Here is another abstract that my co-host of the Conscious Design Build talks, Hristiyan Atanasov, and I submitted to the 2012 Science and Nonduality Conference: It has been estimated that the construction and operation of buildings consumes over a third of the world’s energy consumption and 40% of all the mined resources. Furthermore, the built […]
Creativity versus the Automated Essay Grader
Here’s an interesting and (somewhat disturbing) article on a new technology from the Education Testing Service, those same folks who’ve invented the SAT’s and other tests and made standardized testing a nation-wide phenomena. Apparently, their new technology can grade some 16,000 essays in under a minute. But what are the consequences for true creative expression […]
When is the optimal time for creativity?
For me, creativity and the creative process is not limited to those times when we are in our so-called right brains or coming up with new and innovative ideas. It also includes those times when we draw upon the skills that we’ve developed over time to bring our creative insights into some sort of fruition. […]
Creativity and Forgiveness: How Releasing Past Hurt Improves Creativity
When you feel yourself being creative, there is a sense of flow. Like the tides moving in and out of an estuary, being in the throws of the creativity has a felt sense of gathering and release, an enlivening exchange with the world around you. When you hold onto resentment or withhold trust from a […]
What is the relationship between creativity and problem solving?
Recently, I found myself participating in an interesting exchange on LinkedIn, on the Architecture for Humanity thread. I am sharing it with you today because I believe it unveils some important aspects of our ability to use creativity as a means for positive change or to use creativity for a means of subtly adding to […]