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One justification for this might be that the greater the number of words in your vocabulary, the more "colors" with which you can paint your linguistic construc

by Fwirt 4y ago

One justification for this might be that the greater the number of words in your vocabulary, the more "colors" with which you can paint your linguistic constructs. More complex words can have a subtlety of meaning that distinguishes them from one another, so you can "pack" your sentences with more meaning. The more nuance in a word, the more potential cognitive distance between it and another word. E.g. He had a green car. versus He leased an olive drab Jeep. Surely a distinguished artist could produce a masterpiece with three crayons, but most would not choose to.

Ansil849 4y ago
> The more nuance in a word, the more potential cognitive distance between it and another word. I don't see that. What is the cognitive distance between a more common color and a more obscure color? They're both colors. In your example, describing the color as olive instead of just green is certainly more specific, and maybe more accurate, but how is it more creative? If anything, it is less creative because it's more analytical and merely descriptive. For instance, saying something is '.01 centimeters' long is not more creative than saying something is 'small' or saying that something is '.1 centimeters', it's just more precise.
- Fwirt 4y ago
  If you're writing a story and trying to flesh out a character, someone who leases an olive drab Jeep is likely (a) someone who has money and (b) someone who likes to go off-roading, or at least give the appearance of being rough-and-tumble. Olive drab is also a color commonly associated with military usage, so that plays into it. On the other hand, you could have a character who owns a lime Honda Insight. That is an old, unstylish hybrid, so that character is likely frugal, square, and perhaps more environmentally conscious. And yet both characters could be said to have a green car. But the more detailed word choices can help give the story more life.
  - Ansil849 4y ago
    > And yet both characters could be said to have a green car. But the more detailed word choices can help give the story more life. Given that 'green' encompasses _all_ of the scenarios you describe, whereas olive/lime narrows the scenario, that would then seemingly be an argument that more specific words actually inhibit creativity by limiting the potential scenarios you can imagine with just a 'green' car.
    - Fwirt 4y ago
      I believe one of the ideas behind the evaluation is being creative enough to be able to imagine the scenario with those details, and then being able to select the words that best fit the scenario you've created. If you know words that encompass more disparate concepts, then the "cognitive distance" between them is greater. If you haven't told us which shade of green the car is, how do we know that you're not imagining everything to be the same shade? If you're the most creative person in the world, but are incapable of expressing yourself, are you actually creative? It could be the same logic as "I've never played this game, therefore I have never lost, therefore I am the best in the world " All this being said, I'm not trying to necessarily defend the usefulness of this survey. By their nature, none of these tests for "creativity", "intelligence", or "personality" will ever be able to perfectly capture or categorize or numerically label what is at heart a subjective quality.
    - harperlee 4y ago
      > inhibit creativity by limiting the potential scenarios Constraints are a typical tool for augmenting creativity, by restricting the easy path to a solution.
  - kqr 4y ago
    Is exposition-by-possessions really that powerful though? I would not infer all of the military off-roading stuff from a car, even if it was a camouflage painted Humvee. I'd argue the creative writer would put this person in a situation where they make choices in a way that reveals their affluence and fondness of terrain driving. Unless maybe this part of their personality is a shallow veneer and not really who they are at their core, in which case I guess possessions might work because it's also not as critical that the reader understand it.
sva_ 4y ago
That reminds me of this research: https://www.math3ma.com/blog/language-statistics-category-theory-part-3 https://www.math3ma.com/blog/language-statistics-category-th...

by Fwirt 4y ago

Ansil849 4y ago

> The more nuance in a word, the more potential cognitive distance between it and another word. I don't see that. What is the cognitive distance between a more common color and a more obscure color? They're both colors. In your example, describing the color as olive instead of just green is certainly more specific, and maybe more accurate, but how is it more creative? If anything, it is less creative because it's more analytical and merely descriptive. For instance, saying something is '.01 centimeters' long is not more creative than saying something is 'small' or saying that something is '.1 centimeters', it's just more precise.

Fwirt 4y ago
If you're writing a story and trying to flesh out a character, someone who leases an olive drab Jeep is likely (a) someone who has money and (b) someone who likes to go off-roading, or at least give the appearance of being rough-and-tumble. Olive drab is also a color commonly associated with military usage, so that plays into it. On the other hand, you could have a character who owns a lime Honda Insight. That is an old, unstylish hybrid, so that character is likely frugal, square, and perhaps more environmentally conscious. And yet both characters could be said to have a green car. But the more detailed word choices can help give the story more life.
- Ansil849 4y ago
  > And yet both characters could be said to have a green car. But the more detailed word choices can help give the story more life. Given that 'green' encompasses _all_ of the scenarios you describe, whereas olive/lime narrows the scenario, that would then seemingly be an argument that more specific words actually inhibit creativity by limiting the potential scenarios you can imagine with just a 'green' car.
  - Fwirt 4y ago
    I believe one of the ideas behind the evaluation is being creative enough to be able to imagine the scenario with those details, and then being able to select the words that best fit the scenario you've created. If you know words that encompass more disparate concepts, then the "cognitive distance" between them is greater. If you haven't told us which shade of green the car is, how do we know that you're not imagining everything to be the same shade? If you're the most creative person in the world, but are incapable of expressing yourself, are you actually creative? It could be the same logic as "I've never played this game, therefore I have never lost, therefore I am the best in the world " All this being said, I'm not trying to necessarily defend the usefulness of this survey. By their nature, none of these tests for "creativity", "intelligence", or "personality" will ever be able to perfectly capture or categorize or numerically label what is at heart a subjective quality.
  - harperlee 4y ago
    > inhibit creativity by limiting the potential scenarios Constraints are a typical tool for augmenting creativity, by restricting the easy path to a solution.
- kqr 4y ago
  Is exposition-by-possessions really that powerful though? I would not infer all of the military off-roading stuff from a car, even if it was a camouflage painted Humvee. I'd argue the creative writer would put this person in a situation where they make choices in a way that reveals their affluence and fondness of terrain driving. Unless maybe this part of their personality is a shallow veneer and not really who they are at their core, in which case I guess possessions might work because it's also not as critical that the reader understand it.

sva_ 4y ago

That reminds me of this research: https://www.math3ma.com/blog/language-statistics-category-theory-part-3 https://www.math3ma.com/blog/language-statistics-category-th...