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Finding Creative People Is Easy (And Here's How)

9 points by grellas 15y ago

wccrawford 15y ago
Oh jeez. At the first sentence I hoped the answer was not going to be 'Everyone is creative', but yup, there it is. No, they aren't. 'Creative' as a attribute for a person means that they have creative impulses and aren't afraid to express them. Nobody is arguing that people are born without brains. They are arguing that people are disinclined to use their brains in that fashion, or that it's difficult for them. When it comes to coding, I'm amazingly creative and I have no problem admitting it. When it comes to visual, audio, or any other artistic expression, I cannot claim to be creative at all. I'm simply not that kind of person. I would love to be! I want to play piano, and draw, and write novels... But I know the effort involved in doing those things far surpasses the effort needed to be creative at programming on the same scale.
- RyanMcGreal 15y ago
  > No, they aren't. You seem to be confusing "creative" with "artistic". Creativity can mean a customer service employee coming up with an imaginative, memorable and successful way of satisfying an upset customer. It can mean a driver finding ways to shave five or ten minutes off a delivery route. It can mean a coffee shop owner turning a "cash only" sign into a "we accept these currencies" sign (as per a recent HN post). It can mean reorganizing a paper route to reduce "dead-walking". It can mean finding a way to cut 50 pounds of onions without getting teary-eyed. It can mean reorganizing a desk to make it more effective. It can mean taking the time to codify a word-of-mouth business process in a clear process document. It can mean a manager setting up a venue for staff meetings that encourages meaningful participation. It can mean tweaks to an assembly procedure that reduce errors. I'm firmly of the opinion that there is no job so menial and mechanical that it can't benefit from creative input by the people doing it. Companies that cherish and empower their employees unleash these kinds of creative improvements and enjoy the productivity gains they produce.
  - wccrawford 15y ago
    Since I very clearly wrote that I'm 'creative' when it comes to programmer, I'm sure I'm not confusing those things.
    - RyanMcGreal 15y ago
      Maybe I misunderstood you, but it seemed to me that you were circumscribing creativity to 'traditionally' creative activities, like music, painting, programming, and so on. My point is that you can be creative in any field of human activity, even fields we don't normally associate with creativity.

9 points by grellas 15y ago

Oh jeez. At the first sentence I hoped the answer was not going to be 'Everyone is creative', but yup, there it is. No, they aren't. 'Creative' as a attribute for a person means that they have creative impulses and aren't afraid to express them. Nobody is arguing that people are born without brains. They are arguing that people are disinclined to use their brains in that fashion, or that it's difficult for them. When it comes to coding, I'm amazingly creative and I have no problem admitting it. When it comes to visual, audio, or any other artistic expression, I cannot claim to be creative at all. I'm simply not that kind of person. I would love to be! I want to play piano, and draw, and write novels... But I know the effort involved in doing those things far surpasses the effort needed to be creative at programming on the same scale.

RyanMcGreal 15y ago
> No, they aren't. You seem to be confusing "creative" with "artistic". Creativity can mean a customer service employee coming up with an imaginative, memorable and successful way of satisfying an upset customer. It can mean a driver finding ways to shave five or ten minutes off a delivery route. It can mean a coffee shop owner turning a "cash only" sign into a "we accept these currencies" sign (as per a recent HN post). It can mean reorganizing a paper route to reduce "dead-walking". It can mean finding a way to cut 50 pounds of onions without getting teary-eyed. It can mean reorganizing a desk to make it more effective. It can mean taking the time to codify a word-of-mouth business process in a clear process document. It can mean a manager setting up a venue for staff meetings that encourages meaningful participation. It can mean tweaks to an assembly procedure that reduce errors. I'm firmly of the opinion that there is no job so menial and mechanical that it can't benefit from creative input by the people doing it. Companies that cherish and empower their employees unleash these kinds of creative improvements and enjoy the productivity gains they produce.
- wccrawford 15y ago
  Since I very clearly wrote that I'm 'creative' when it comes to programmer, I'm sure I'm not confusing those things.
  - RyanMcGreal 15y ago
    Maybe I misunderstood you, but it seemed to me that you were circumscribing creativity to 'traditionally' creative activities, like music, painting, programming, and so on. My point is that you can be creative in any field of human activity, even fields we don't normally associate with creativity.