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Yeah, I also think "outside the box thinking" as defined by the article is particularly bogus. Their opening example of a 4 year old suggesting the grandfather
by scottLobster 9y ago
Yeah, I also think "outside the box thinking" as defined by the article is particularly bogus. Their opening example of a 4 year old suggesting the grandfather stop eating all vegetables because eating vegetables defines an adult is cute, but I wouldn't say it leads anywhere productive or meaningful. In fact that kind of outside the box thinking is likely to kill the grandfather sooner.
I suppose this doesn't matter so much if we're talking about purely artistic creativity, which is typically thinking outside the box solely for the sake of thinking outside the box. Sure, maybe that decreases with age, but I'd say objective-based creativity, where the goal is to solve a specific problem, should actually increase with age and accrued knowledge if a person can remain open to new solutions.
Thinking outside the box is easy. Most adults simply don't do it because they're focused on productivity and goals. A kid might think that a great way to feed a family is to build their house out of pizza, so they can just eat the walls and never go hungry. Good luck with that...
- gt_ 9y agoI also agree with all of these things. I think you're right about 'purely artistic creativity'. In addition, I think it's a distraction, a bit misleading. Let's say the boxes are a warehouse of boxes stacked in perfect cubular formation. So, when you leave one box, you find yourself in another.
- gt_ 9y agoand we can muse on what the outside of the ware house is haha.
- fiatjaf 9y agoI stopped reading the article on that first paragraph, because they presented a stupid correlation from the kid as creativity. It's not creativity, it's a correlation. It's logical thinking. It's wrong logic, does it make it better than correct logic?
- subroutine 9y agoI feel similarly. The scenarios they presented to measure creativity provided an ad hoc definition of creativity that does not appeal to me. As in, if that is the definition of creative, I don't care if I become less creative with age. On the other hand if these kids were solving problems that adults were struggling with, due to lack of imagination, I would feel a greater desire to preserve my juvenescent outlook. Then again, maybe that is merely a senescent definition of creativity biased by the trials and tribulations of adulthood, and the constant mission to be an efficient problem solver.