Creativity articles
If there is one thing that I miss since the COVID Pandemic began, it is travel. Travel has always been a passion of mine, driving me to see landmarks at the edges of the world, meet new people and explore new cultures. And along the way, find out more about myself as well. But not [...]
Whenever I am giving a public lecture on the science of creativity and there is an open Question & Answer round, one of the most common questions I get is: Does taking XXX help you be more creative? Now, sometimes the substance listed is very common, like alcohol. Sometimes it is illegal in some areas, [...]
Most people would agree that children are naturally more creative than adults. After all, there is evidence that creativity falls steadily as we get older. However, did you know that there is a time period at school when many children may also become temporarily less creative? It was first discovered by influential creativity researcher Paul [...]
What happens in your brain when you are not actively thinking about anything? Does it go into a sort of low power, "battery saver" mode in order to use less energy? This would theoretically make sense from an evolutionary perspective. However, in reality something even more interesting happens. When we are actively thinking about something, [...]
Every school will tell its students and teachers that they aim to promote creativity in their classrooms. What their teachers might however not be aware of is that, in practice, they don't actually want their students to be creative. Might it be possible that even though teachers think that they are encouraging their students to [...]
A lot of people are scared by the information that creativity appears to decrease as we get older. This often combines with their own experience as to how much harder it appears to be to learn new things compared to when you were a child, whether it be a language, academic skills or even new [...]
While going through some scientific literature, I recently made a startling discovery. One which I have not seen anywhere in other summaries of how creativity works or how it can be improved. It is about what happens in your brain when you are sleeping. There are several stages which your brain goes through when you [...]
Do you want to come and watch my one-man show? I cannot think of a phrase which generates more fear, cringe and excuses for why you are not available that night, or for the rest of the year. Now don't get me wrong. There are many examples of beautiful Solo Performances in Theatre, Film, Comedy [...]
One of the most important pieces of creativity and innovation research from the past couple of decades can be found in the book The Progress Principle: Using small wins to ignite joy, engagement and creativity at work. In it, authors Professor Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer analysed nearly 12,000 diary entries provided by 238 employees [...]
I want you to do a couple of short mental tests with me. It will only take a minute and you will be fascinated by the results. You will be fascinated by what this teaches you about innovation and creativity. Let me explain the rules. You have some water jugs of different sizes which each [...]
