Creativity is such a vague, broad term; but the irony is that everyone needs a splash of creativity for breaking the monotony, and to find some really interesting solutions.
If you are an entrepreneur, then creativity holds special significance. In fact, America’s greatest marketer, Seth Godin, has said that all entrepreneurs are artists because they solve a problem in a unique way, and they have to think differently, otherwise how will they survive?
Creativity has so many forms – that toddler playing with colors is creativity (which somehow gets lost as he grows up), that chess player forming a new strategy to stun his opponent is creativity; Google showing only a text box on its home-page is creativity, which shocked and rocked the startup world; Apple launching McBooks without USB slots is creativity and to some extent weird as well.
Maybe that’s the whole point – to be weird, to be an outclass, to be the chaotic.
If you are looking for some creativity, then stop looking for solutions on the Internet, because creativity cannot be copied. Just like art, it can be only created once.
But yes, you can certainly get some inspirations by understanding what other creative minds did or do to induce that creativity into their day to day lives.
Here are some interesting, unusual creative activities which past & current legends did and are doing right now.
Word of caution here: Some of them are so weird, that emulate them on your own risk:
Contents
1) Beethoven Generated Ideas Inside Washroom
Ludwig van Beethoven, the famous German composer and pianist got his most intriguing ideas inside the bathroom. His student and secretary Anton Schindler wrote that Beethoven would stand on “his washstand and pour large pitchers of water over his hands, bellowing up and down the scale or sometimes humming loudly to himself.” As per Anton, this phase was described as meditation.
2) Thomas Edison Rejected Sleep
Thomas Edison, inventor of light bulb, who is considered as America’s greatest inventor, refused to sleep when he was on a roll. Some legends say that he often worked as extreme as 72 hours, without any sleep. He didn’t considered loss of sleep as a serious problem. In a 1921 letter, he said, “We are always hearing people talk about ‘loss of sleep’ as a calamity. They better call it loss of time, vitality, and opportunities.”
3) Charles Dickens Watched Dead Bodies
Charles Dickens, arguably one of the greatest authors this world has ever produced, often visited morgues and looked at dead bodies for getting creative ideas, especially while writing criminal stories, and when the detective was solving a special case. As per Dickens, this was part of his “attraction to repulsion” strategy, which helped him create those blockbuster novels.
4) Yoshiro Almost Died While Seeking Creativity
Yoshiro Nakamatsu, Japan’s most famous inventor who invented floppy disk in 1952, and has filed more than 3000 patents had a very weird habit: He used to hold his breath, and starve his mind of oxygen, in order to get better ideas. He said, “To starve the brain of oxygen, you must dive deep and allow the water pressure to deprive the brain of blood. Zero-point-five seconds before death, I visualize an invention.” Doctors will tell that this is very dangerous operation. Yoshiro could have died as well.
5) Demosthenes Put Stones Inside Mouth
Famous Greek orator Demosthenes used to practice speeches by speaking with mouth full of stones. He even retreated to a dark underground room for days, in order to practice for a speech.
6) Steve Jobs’ Magic Formula For Creativity
Steve Jobs, the entrepreneur who fuelled a million more dreams across the world, used to take long walks in order to find a solution to a long lasting problem. His legendary walks are famous inside Apple campus, and scientists have declared that this is indeed a very noble way to relax brain, and invite creative solutions.
What are your methods for inducing creativity? Do let us know by commenting right here!
I hate to wait for creativity to happen-I find it quite a passive and ineffective way. Not denying the fact that external circumstances can provide “inspirational and motivational settings” with a moderate probability of finding ideas (read solutions). I am in favour of the active and more intentional methods of “getting” ideas – methods like
1. deliberately creating alternatives (read ideas) even though the ones I have are adequate
2. directing my attention to seemingly irrelevant aspects of the problem situation
3. being super conscious about the assumptions, biases and myths running in the background and then challenging them for their validity – once the problem is free from the wicked influence of these factors, the problem context gets expanded rendering the problem approachable/accessible from multiple points.
4. extracting ideas present at various levels of the problem and then thinking up alternative ideas to replace them.
5. considering thought experiments along the line “what if ……..”
6. Tossing the problem around, disassembling it and reassembling it in nonstandard ways, making the inside become outside, top become bottom, left become right – all sorts of “tinkering” – with the intention to generate different ways of looking at the problem. I know each different way of looking at the problem has the potential to lead the train of thoughts to unique ideas.
7. Wording the problem statement/description in different ways so as to liberate the problem from the connotations carried by the words/lables/titles/definitions etc. This allows me to see underlying arbitrary ideas.
8. I have trained myself to observe my thoughts as I apply them to solving problems. I can thus identify if I am applying the same thought (disguised as another thought). I keep a mental track of all the thoughts I think up and pause to think, “What have I not thought up so far? Let’s think that up and see what happens”.
It’s a lot of probabilistic exploration for me as against the deterministic “standard formula” highlighted in the examples you have given.
It was a good read though.
Thanks
I work out, gives me immense quietness in the mind , letting free thoughts to flow.