1) I never found school to encourage creativity at all. Very much the opposite. YMMV. 2) My job, software engineering, is inherently creative. 3) Outside my i

1) I never found school to encourage creativity at all. Very much the opposite. YMMV. 2) My job, software engineering, is inherently creative. 3) Outside my immediate role, I have seen creativity discouraged or even punished (though the bosses always claim that creativity is important) but I have also seem it rewarded. It varies a lot. 4) When I worked in corporate research, they paid bonuses for patentable (and patented) ideas. I exploited that quite a bit and got a lot of satisfaction out of it. 5) One of my great joys in life is using my creativity OUTSIDE WORK. My job is not my life. 6) And even at work, I have seen people who created their own jobs by doing something new and different. This was a win for both the company and the (highly creative) employee. 7) Rethink your question. It's assumptions are too narrow.