7 ms·

Tangent. Is creativity rated highly enough in business? I specialise in creative problem solving (not always with tech). Solutions that have eluded many others,

Tangent. Is creativity rated highly enough in business? I specialise in creative problem solving (not always with tech). Solutions that have eluded many others, often seem obvious to me. Except after they are solved everyone else thinks the solution was obvious too! It is kind of valued, but when it comes to pay review its always...if you had x qualification and other people in the market. Except other people don't get my results! On the other hand it is draining, keeps me up at night etc. Job interviews never ask 'how creative are you at solving problems'? Are there employers who want this?

nine_k 10y ago
Employers don't value problems solved creatively. They value problems solved quickly and reliably. Creativity often helps it.
- jimnotgym 10y ago
  I'm talking about the problems that a long running company fails to solve for years or decades. The ones that it has become the norm to think of as insoluble. Especially areas where you have been asked to solve a symptom, and instead you solve the cause. Yes regular stuff gets solved quickly and reliably.
  - sverige 10y ago
    When you solve those kinds of problems, you have a new business, or maybe a new industry. You probably don't have a quick route to CEO of the fossilized company. That involves daggers in the back of your colleagues.
cam_l 10y ago
Design / creativity is unfortunately not valued, but it is a value add. It is a reason to choose between you and the other guy, but not to pay you more. No one cares about the money spent or the money saved in business.. just on the projections. Think about it like a classical tragedy. For narrative impact you need to flag the event well before it happens. Maybe we need to make creativity look hard, stretch it out, make it play. Just reading the HN submission on Gatto.. "He also learned to make hard tricks look hard, to pantomime the exertion and self-doubt of a man working at the edge of his ability even though his ability stretched on and on." Though, of course, Gatto quit..
- jimnotgym 10y ago
  Or maybe be an asshole about it like Hugh Laurie in 'House'! Make everybody else suffer too
Fricken 10y ago
The nail that sticks out gets hammered back down. If you take a creative risk, and it turns out you were wrong, you'll be punished for it. If you use a conventional approach, and it turns out you were wrong it's not your fault, you were just doing things the way they've always been done.
- jimnotgym 10y ago
  Makes me wonder if I would be better in my own business..
  - pdimitar 10y ago
    Makes me wonder the same thing for years now and I believe it's about damn time I finally get to it. Even if it takes another batch of several years down the line, it's definitely gonna be a time better spent -- as opposed to always trying to educate colleagues and bosses on the added business value of giving people space and time to be creative. I am at a point where I finally concluded I am wasting my time, that people by default have zero interest in evolving their views -- or simply see things through your eyes, even for a minute. And I see no real profit for me being able to do that for them. So yeah, being your own boss looks to be the best course, with all the hardships, uncertainty and gray hair that comes with it.
tonyedgecombe 10y ago
No because it's difficult to measure, the current cult of Taylorism doesn't value anything it can't measure. I suspect this is changing but we have a huge distance to go.
pdimitar 10y ago
Business values tasks being done on schedule and with minimum friction and noise. I fought the good fight of trying to educate people on the added value of creativity. The most positive response I've ever received was "Look, I am aware that you're correct. But your approach doesn't produce positive and quick results 100% of the time, while everybody else somehow manages to do it" -- and the arguments for technical debt go down the drain in seconds. Everybody wants to please their direct supervisor now -- and to hell with everything else. As I mentioned in another comment few levels below your comment (but inside it), the people like us who appreciate creativity are probably ill-suited for employees and have to start chasing own business, as nightmarishly hard that is 99% of the time.

nine_k 10y ago

Employers don't value problems solved creatively. They value problems solved quickly and reliably. Creativity often helps it.

jimnotgym 10y ago
I'm talking about the problems that a long running company fails to solve for years or decades. The ones that it has become the norm to think of as insoluble. Especially areas where you have been asked to solve a symptom, and instead you solve the cause. Yes regular stuff gets solved quickly and reliably.
- sverige 10y ago
  When you solve those kinds of problems, you have a new business, or maybe a new industry. You probably don't have a quick route to CEO of the fossilized company. That involves daggers in the back of your colleagues.

cam_l 10y ago

Design / creativity is unfortunately not valued, but it is a value add. It is a reason to choose between you and the other guy, but not to pay you more. No one cares about the money spent or the money saved in business.. just on the projections. Think about it like a classical tragedy. For narrative impact you need to flag the event well before it happens. Maybe we need to make creativity look hard, stretch it out, make it play. Just reading the HN submission on Gatto.. "He also learned to make hard tricks look hard, to pantomime the exertion and self-doubt of a man working at the edge of his ability even though his ability stretched on and on." Though, of course, Gatto quit..

jimnotgym 10y ago
Or maybe be an asshole about it like Hugh Laurie in 'House'! Make everybody else suffer too

Fricken 10y ago

The nail that sticks out gets hammered back down. If you take a creative risk, and it turns out you were wrong, you'll be punished for it. If you use a conventional approach, and it turns out you were wrong it's not your fault, you were just doing things the way they've always been done.

jimnotgym 10y ago
Makes me wonder if I would be better in my own business..
- pdimitar 10y ago
  Makes me wonder the same thing for years now and I believe it's about damn time I finally get to it. Even if it takes another batch of several years down the line, it's definitely gonna be a time better spent -- as opposed to always trying to educate colleagues and bosses on the added business value of giving people space and time to be creative. I am at a point where I finally concluded I am wasting my time, that people by default have zero interest in evolving their views -- or simply see things through your eyes, even for a minute. And I see no real profit for me being able to do that for them. So yeah, being your own boss looks to be the best course, with all the hardships, uncertainty and gray hair that comes with it.

tonyedgecombe 10y ago

No because it's difficult to measure, the current cult of Taylorism doesn't value anything it can't measure. I suspect this is changing but we have a huge distance to go.

pdimitar 10y ago

Business values tasks being done on schedule and with minimum friction and noise. I fought the good fight of trying to educate people on the added value of creativity. The most positive response I've ever received was "Look, I am aware that you're correct. But your approach doesn't produce positive and quick results 100% of the time, while everybody else somehow manages to do it" -- and the arguments for technical debt go down the drain in seconds. Everybody wants to please their direct supervisor now -- and to hell with everything else. As I mentioned in another comment few levels below your comment (but inside it), the people like us who appreciate creativity are probably ill-suited for employees and have to start chasing own business, as nightmarishly hard that is 99% of the time.