Can Adults Be More Creative?

Can Adults Be More Creative?

According to current research, young children are more imaginatively creative than adults. And indeed that is true... but they're not as good as adults at divergent thinking. This can only mean that there are alternate pathways to creativity. - AH

Creativity is the "ability to generate novel ideas that are useful". Let's say you put wings on a fish tank. This is indeed novel but it isn't creative. We won't be amazed by your creation. Why? Because it needs it to be useful. Children are better at coming up with these ideas but there is a newly-discovered way for adults to be as creative.

It's called "Narrative Building". It's an exercise where you a) shift facts about the world, by for example, imagining cats can fly or b) holding a different perspective, by for example, imagining you are seeing the world from the eyes of Dwayne Johnson or a sibling.

This alone will shift your entire world view and make you notice things you've never seen before. But there's still one important step. Remember, creativity is "novel ideas that are useful". So to make it useful, do this:

Right after building this new narrative, start performing on whatever you want to improve in. For example, making a new product feature, coming up with ideas for a meeting, playing guitar, etc. This action generation allows you to merge the world/worldview in front of you with the one you just created in your head. The possibilities are endless, or at least the science says so.

Here's an example.

1. Choose what you need help with (ex. creative ways for getting a new job in 1-2 weeks)

2. Change something about the real world (ex. having robots as coworkers)

3. See it from the eyes of someone else (ex. HR teams)

So, hmm, if we're working day-to-day with robots, what would the HR team look for in a candidate? How can I show them I have the right traits? Use your learnings to create something useful to your endeavor (ex. apply to some jobs, take notes on it, share your ideas with friends, etc.). Just get it out of your head and make it tangible in the real world.

​

So, when you want to be more creative. Shift reality, perspective, and/or actions. (P.S. https://chat.openai.com/chat can help😉)

Sorry if this was kinda confusing. Here is Andrew's explanation from the creativity episode (15 minutes).