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Ask HN: How do you learn to be creative?
I overheard an MIT admissions representative talking about what they look for and he focused on the concept of expressed creativity. His views were that creativity is very difficult to teach. Hence the question.
- mtinkerhess 18y agoKnow your craft. Find inspiration in everything. Practice, practice, practice.
- chacha102 18y agoThat summed up everything. I spent 5 minutes trying to be creative enough to think of something to add, but all of it was covered under that.
- iamwil 18y agomm. I guess I'd add read about and learn about a wide variety of things. Learn to cultivate your sense of curiosity. When you have a good nose for the interesting, you'll be able to put things and ideas together in a novel way.
- jacoblyles 18y agoAn example, in the 60's through the 90's, many economists created entire new fields of economics by applying it to other domains and vice versa. Economics + math produced game theory. Richard Posner, a judge, started the economic study of the law. Others, such as Olson, Buchanan, and Tullock, noticed that the theories of economics could be applied to the government as well as the market, and public choice was born (and Nobels were won). Lastly, psychologists got involved in economics recently, spawning the new discipline of behavioral economics.
- eru 18y agoI agree. Though game theory predates the 60's. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_theory#History http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_theory#History
- amichail 18y agoI believe creativity is a result of a genetic predisposition that manifests itself in the presence of extensive experience/knowledge. So yes, it helps to check out cool ideas (e.g., on TED, TechCrunch, etc.) and to think critically about those ideas. A creative idea is often the result of a novel pairing of two things. So the more things you know about, the better your chances are that you will stumble upon a compelling pairing.
- Confusion 18y agoFind inspiration in everything I think that begs the question. How does one find 'inspiration' in something?
- paraschopra 18y agoI know this sounds weird but try to imagine yourself hallucinating. Try to imagine what could be the most weird thing you could do with something. Try laughing at yourself when you think of useless and most off-the-beat ideas with a thing. Observe your trajectory of thought.
- jacoblyles 18y agoIt is certainly easier to be creative when one has reached a high level of proficiency at one's craft. Sugar Ray Leonard can pull off dance moves in the boxing ring, I keep my hands up and my jab out or I'll get my head knocked off.
- anamax 18y agoThat's just an argument to not get in too far over your head. Start where you can grow and then do so.
- qaexl 18y agoIt is easier because (1) The tasks becomes so automatic, you no longer have to think about it and "work through it". It sinks into the subconscious. This is important. (2) When the tasks becomes automatic, you naturally relax. Being relaxed, creativity and inspiration comes out. You cannot force it out. Stress kills creativity. Fear-inspired creativity typically manifests as paranoia. (3) This is why some people can get oddly-inspired brilliance as a complete n00b in a craft. He doesn't know anything, yet sometimes he is relaxed enough that some randomly brilliant thing comes out. Often, this fades away with more mastery of the craft. It is why children are often perceived as naturally more creative. (4) Someone who has mastered a craft to the point where it requires no thinking can be far more creative than the complete n00b. A master's inspiration takes advantage of deep understanding of his craft, so not only would it be far more effective, it is much more consistent. (5) The four stages of competancy: unconsciously incompetant, consciously incompetant, consciously competant, unconsciously competant. Most people reach the stage of consciously competancy (which requires concentration) and stop there. This is the stage where you've "learned" something and you "get" it. To reach the stage of unconsciously competancy, however, requires an incredible amount of practice and repetition (Malcom Gladwell's ballpark-nice-round-number of 10,000 ... which depending on the skill, really isn't all that much). An example in the case of programming: I remember when I first learned the Ruby syntax. While I had other languages under my belt, I still had to mentally, and deliberately parse the syntax, and then try to understand the flow. Now, if I look at a codebase I am reasonbly familiar with, I can glance at it. I don't really see the code itself so much as how it all fits together. I have not yet mastered the syntax to the point where I can glance at unfamiliar code and do that. Another example related to programming: I've seen would-be-programmers struggle to type their programs. For them, they have not reached a stage of unconscious competancy with typing. They have to frame bits of their thoughts and then deliberately type it out. Some touch-typists I know are not that much better. For me, having played so much MUDs back in its heyday, I've learned how to type well enough that it is no longer an interface bottleneck for me. Example from martial arts: There is actually a ton of material written about this subject of creativity in the "boxing ring", some of the surviving ones written a couple hundred years ago or more. One of my favorite is the Japanese densho, Neko no Myojutsu. A modern (though more obtuse) treatise about this subject is "Effortless Power". Both books discusses the cases about creativity, the newbie, and the master craftsmen.
- noodle 18y agoin my humble opinion, everyone is creative in their own area of expertise. its just much more difficult and less obvious when expressing creativity in fields like engineering. and it is difficult to express creativity when jumping fields. as an engineer-type, i can't really do creative graphic design. i've tried, and i just can't seem to cough anything up. but i can definitely come up with creative solutions to a problem. and if that fails, this essay is kind of interesting http://www.scottberkun.com/essays/56-creative-thinking-hacks/ http://www.scottberkun.com/essays/56-creative-thinking-hacks...
- tjpick 18y agoBeing creative is not something you learn. It's something you _do_. Examples: start building webapps or working on free software, publish writings on your blog, do paintings, record yourself playing music and put it on youtube, tinker with mechanical devices or build your own electronics, build furniture, conduct physical or chemical experiments, publish your cooking recipes... and so on and so forth. It's not "expressed" if it's all in your head. Quite literally: make something, and show people.
- dbul 18y agoMy bias is that creativity is something that you develop as a child. Nevertheless, I also think creativity can be emergent: when you are focusing on being creative in one area, draw analogies from other areas (interdisciplinary). I knew someone who once determined where to situate a package shipping center by using physics for example.
- nreece 18y agoI feel that one of the ways to realize and induce (your) creativity is by getting bored - proscrastinate - do nothing, and let your thoughts guide you. Often, I see/find people trying to stay busy doing something or the other all the time, but I think somewhere down the line it blocks their creative side. Try taking a walk through the park, and relax on the grass for sometime. You'll feel more connected to your creative side.
- qaexl 18y agoThis is the best advice I've seen here. You have to relax enough for the creative side to come out. This is one thing that striving forth with a Type-A personality will hinder you. The more you try to be creative, the less creative you will be. The reasons are rooted in physiology. I've posted two comments pointing out the specific physiology, though they are buried and you'd have to scroll down.
- patio11 18y agoIf I were a cynical man, I'd note that "expressed creativity" means anything you want it to mean, that it is largely in the eye of the beholder, and that you can find it in any applicant you want to accept and fail to find it in any applicant you don't want to accept. Ask your MIT admissions representative whether music is creative. Then ask him whether it matters if the music is freestyle rapping or concert violin since the age of three. Then tell him the rapper was Asian and the violinist was black.
- chris11 18y agoWhile I see your point, I'd argue that some expressed creativity is easy to see. I'd argue that an accomplishment in a domain marginalized in a person's environment requires some creativity. When I am not in school, I live in Colorado. So the skiing there is great. So if I found out someone had been a competitive skier at some level, I would not be shocked. If I found out that someone had lived in Colorado while successfully competing as a surfer, I would be shocked. I think that being able to effectively train as a surfer while surrounded by mountains would show some creativity.
- kwamenum86 18y agoGo against the grain. Look for beauty in unusual places and you will find untold riches.
- erlanger 18y agoHunan King tonight?
- kwamenum86 18y agoThat is how I come up with interesting ideas.
- brianto2010 18y agoBe around creative people. Participate alongside them.
- tsally 18y agoYou don't. It's not so much that you learn to be creative as it is finding something you're inspired by. I've never seen someone fail to be creative at something they were inspired by. I'm not sure you can teach someone to be creative about a non inspirational thing. How do you find the inspirational thing? Iteration.
- tokenadult 18y agoI overheard an MIT admissions representative When was this? Undergraduate admissions?
- quizbiz 18y agoYes, an undergraduate admissions booth at a robotics conference.
- Zev 18y agoIts pretty hard (if not impossible) to write a step by step guide on how to be creative. This makes it very hard to teach someone creativity, which is probably what the admissions rep was talking about. But if I had to take a gander at answering "How to be creative", It would go something along the lines of... Take initiative. Do something, anything. Then ask "What if this was done differently?" and follow through on the question or modification. See where that leads you and question/modify that. Ad infinitum. Once you start, don't ever stop doing things or questioning everything about them. If you're stuck, or just need a change in something, talk to other people. Creativity doesn't mean being alone forever.
- erlanger 18y agoYou can't learn creativity, but you can keep it in good shape. It has plenty to do with social inhibitions as well. With a tendency to question others' ideas and to trust yourself comes creativity. Here's a start: Be more creative than to ask others for this answer.
- wenbert 18y agoI think you would have to change your mindset, the way you think etc.
- chaosmachine 18y agoThere are some interesting connections between creativity and schizophrenia. http://www.google.com/search?q=creativity+schizophrenia http://www.google.com/search?q=creativity+schizophrenia Furthermore, there are various drugs that induce schizophrenic-like mental states. It's been shown drugs can make you smarter, faster, stronger, why would creativity be any different.
- deleted 18y ago[deleted]
- briancooley 18y agoI don't know how to actively increase creativity, but I do know how to actively decrease my fear of failure. It seems like the less I fear failing, the more my creativity emerges.
- Eliezer 18y agohttp://www.overcomingbias.com/2007/10/original-seeing.html http://www.overcomingbias.com/2007/10/original-seeing.html http://www.overcomingbias.com/2007/10/cached-thoughts.html http://www.overcomingbias.com/2007/10/cached-thoughts.html http://www.overcomingbias.com/2007/10/how-to-seem-and.html http://www.overcomingbias.com/2007/10/how-to-seem-and.html http://www.overcomingbias.com/2007/10/outside-the-box.html http://www.overcomingbias.com/2007/10/outside-the-box.html
- bkbleikamp 18y ago"Observe everything. Communicate well. Draw, draw, draw." Frank Thomas (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Thomas_(animator) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Thomas_(animator))
- vamsee 18y agoHmm, I think creativity comes from being bold, and not being afraid to experiment and putting something out there that is uniquely your own. I takes being comfortable with oneself and what you have to say. And being able to handle ridicule/disappointment if it flops, and being able to keep experimenting.
- rjurney 18y agoFeed your muse by consuming creative things, and then repetition.
- jyothi 18y agoHave a lot of peace, smile - be happy then pump in a lot of passion, get excited and just think how to make things better.
- spaghetti 18y agoSolving algorithm puzzles helps a lot for general creativity. I think the most important thing to understand and embrace when being creative is: a lot of people will not understand/like/approve of your creative efforts. Do NOT let this get you down or discourage you. Enjoy being creative simply because it's fun. Don't think about the opinions of other people!
- whacked_new 18y agoI'm with the camp that it's hard to teach. I'm talking about "creative" in the romantic sense of the word: the kind that is stereotypically exhibited by mad scientists, hermit authors, and bipolar playwrights. The kind of "useful abnormality" that does not occur to the common mind. In these cases, I would argue the creativity stems from a different brain structure, and I would not be wrong in saying so. To this extent, it cannot be taught. But in the same vein, everybody is creative in their own ways. But it needs to be coaxed. The coaxing is the job of the perceptive teacher, and I think the early years of life are critical for healthy development in this area. How do you learn to be creative? I would sum it up as "de-inhibit your brain." If you grew up in an oppressive environment where you could be punished for any arbitrarily bad expression, it is imaginable that you would be conditioned to avoid thinking in certain non-standard ways.
- grandalf 18y agoCreativity is the process of getting your brain not to shut down ideas that it comes up with before you can really give them a chance. One way to do this is to focus on asking questions: - What if this is the wrong approach? - How can this be made more general? - Should it be more general? - Should I be doing the opposite? - What other uses might this have? - What problem is this a better solution to? - What are the pieces of this idea? - What can I make with each piece? - (Repeat first steps) - How can I implement this idea? - On a budget? - With an unlimited budget? - "Green" - For Red staters - For blue staters - For the third world? - For free? - Why not do this before now? - Why not do this after now? You get the idea. Just let your questioner run wild and enjoy the process. I recommend asking about 1000 questions and figuring out what makes you most excited or what you think packs the most punch. I think creativity is more of the absence of a trait (excessive internal "downmodding" of thoughts) vs the presence of a trait. Oh, and this may be a bit cliche, but sleep on it. Doze off thinking about it and then maybe in the shower the next day you'll get some ideas. Also brainstorming with a friend can be a fun way to flush out cool ideas.
- simianstyle 18y agoGet outside of your comfort zone and experiment with things that would otherwise seem 'ugly' to you.
- jpedrosa 18y agoOver produce according to one's own standards. ;-) Keep pushing.
- qaexl 18y agoKeep pushing won't make you more creative. Sometimes, it keeps you from becoming inspired. If anything, you stop pushing.
- tripngroove 18y ago"creativity" is all about process. come up with methods for putting ideas / objects / anything together and when you have a whole series, pick the ones that are most intriguing and run with them. it's a tough sell to imply that any product, any idea, or any thing is creative in the sense that it appeared out of some sort of magical, big-bang of inspiration. your brain works by building connections, so anything you build is going to be an expression of everything you know; it's just a matter of not being afraid to experiment, and of iterating as fast as possible to find combinations of ideas virulent enough to claw their way above the slew and become something special. and the energy you spend searching, identifying and implementing those combinations of ideas is directly related to the likelihood of their success... however you choose to define it. don't be afraid to fail. by failing you're educating yourself about what doesn't work, which, in turn, makes it easier to identify what will. also, when you're trying to be creative, the easiest way to fail is to not do anything at all. it's too easy to cogitate endlessly about what good solutions COULD be, rather than taking real steps to implement and identify what good solutions ARE. i'd go with nike... "just do it." ...or maybe, "obey your thirst."
- braindead_in 18y agoDissect things which appeal to you. Break down the elements. Get to the root of it. Learn from them. Most importantly keep it simple.
- ambulatorybird 18y agoI believe Einstein once said, "The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources."
- stevenjames 18y agoApply your imagination.
- DarkShikari 18y agoI wrote a post here: http://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/862en/you_and_your_research_a_lecture_on_how_to_win_a/c08clzk http://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/862en/you_and_your_... that, IMO, somewhat explains how "creativity" comes about--how seemingly great ideas come out of nothing (or do they?).
- cb33 18y agothink different
- chris11 18y agoScientific America had a good article on creativity: http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=how-to-unleash-your-creativity&print=true http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=how-to-unleash-your-crea... Brief guidelines for creativity: 1. Get a good system for capturing and preserving new ideas without judging their merits. 2. Challenge yourself. Challenging problems will force you to use more diverse skills. 3. Learn. Become skilled in more than one area. 4. Manage your physical and social surroundings. Get to know a diverse set of people. Make sure your day is filled with interesting and novel things.
- jacoblyles 18y agoDepends on the field. If you are a musician, empirically I would recommend drugs.
- josefresco 18y agoI would expand that advice to all artistic pursuits.
- wallflower 18y agoFor artists and maybe hackers, I have some friends who found inspiration through this book (it's not easy to do some of the exercises, very internal) Book recommendation: The Artist's Way "The Artist's Way is a workbook for anyone who is creative, feels blocked in their creativity or wishes that they were more creative. The book begins with the statement that everyone is creative and has an artist within them, and the point of this course is to recover that inner artist. It is divided into a twelve-week course, with assignments much like any semester-long college class." http://www.theartistsway.com/ http://www.theartistsway.com/ http://paperartstudio.tripod.com/artistsway/ http://paperartstudio.tripod.com/artistsway/
- blue1 18y agoAlso, "Creating" by robert fritz is not bad. But beware, reading books about creatity may become a form of procrastination.
- bengtan 18y agoI used to read an article 'How to be creative'. This is the updated version: Ignore everybody http://www.gapingvoid.com/Moveable_Type/archives/000932.html http://www.gapingvoid.com/Moveable_Type/archives/000932.html
- HeyLaughingBoy 18y agoIt may be difficult to teach, but it's not hard to learn. 1) Hang around other creative people 2) Do stuff. Just try to build something, don't be afraid of failing. Some people get together for "bad art nights" 3) I am always inspired when I visit museums, galleries, etc. It just makes me want to do something
- ggruschow 18y agoOne way may be to get stupid. "Thinking outside of the box" is tough when you're used to living in the box. Maybe it's easier to just get away from things you're familiar with to see creativity expressed. For instance, take your average boring chemistry student out of a lab, and tell them they've got to make 20 loaves of bread every day next week for the local bakery.. but don't tell them how, let them look it up, or give them the standard equipment. Just give them the ingredients -- maybe even throw in more than is necessary including some that aren't normally used. I bet you'd get some creative work out of people that weren't considered very creative in their normal work.
- josefresco 18y agoGet happy and optimistic. Creativity comes to me when I'm feeling good about life and my future. Pessimism and slacking creeps in when I'm down and feeling negative about past/future events.
- qaexl 18y agoThis link was posted up on YC recently: http://the-programmers-stone.com/about/ http://the-programmers-stone.com/about/ While it does not directly address "creativity", I have found that the "juxtapositional thinking" state it describes as a required state for creative thinking. Look on the second article for the precise neuroscience. In summary, the pre-frontal cortex has (at least) two different mode: focused attention, and juxtapositional thinking. The first works well when you have predictable task order. You know precisely what steps you need to do something in. However, it also shuts down any chance you have to be "inspired" or "creative". It is the precise reason when you try to be creative, you stop being creative. The site lists some easy ways to encourage juxtapositional thinking in people. There are other methods I have found help trigger this. I do want to point out though, the juxtapositional state will not automatically make you more creative, though it is a pre-condition that needs to be fulfilled before you creative insight pops up in your head. However, this precondition does show why creativity is difficult to teach. It is something you learn, not something you teach. It requires a state of mind that you have to access yourself, you cannot be simply be told "be creative". Whatever the case may be, creativity is not a genetic or an edge case.
- qaexl 18y agoLet me mention some more specifics. There are skills you can use to help trigger this that goes beyond the specific suggestions in that linked article. Specifically, you train yourself to increase the amount of alpha-band and theta-band activity in your brain. Theta-band is where you start getting creative; alpha-band allows your working consciousness (the one you use to read these words) to visualize/verbalize it in a form that you can understand and remember. The book I sourced this from and use is Anne Wise's High Performance Mind. Note that I didn't really see any double-blind papers cited in there. I can only offer anecdoptal evidence that the techniques in there works for me. YMMV.
- csomar 18y agoCreativity needs to think: Good Learning and practicing. It's simple, if you want to write English, then first you should learn the basics of grammar and spelling. Next, depth learning, like reading articles on news papers or blogs. Finally practicing like writing on own blog or on forums.
- csomar 18y agoCreativity needs to think: Good Learning and practicing. It's simple, if you want to write English, then first you should learn the basics of grammar and spelling. Next, depth learning, like reading articles on news papers or blogs. Finally practicing like writing on own blog or on forums.
- wensing 18y agoGive yourself a chance to have an original thought--dramatically reduce or eliminate TV, and at least temporarily cut out 90% of the music you listen to. You'd be surprised how stuck in a rut you are until you try it.
- ganley 18y agoJust produce. A lot. It's hard to produce original work in a medium without first mastering the medium itself. There's an old chestnut about the pottery class in which half was graded on quality and the other on quantity; in the end, the quantity half produced better work. Picasso's early work, while technically good, was pretty run-of-the-mill as far originality. Also, as some other commenters have said, expose yourself to as much different stimulus as possible. If you're not an out-of-the-box thinker, this serves to make your box bigger.
- KentBeck 18y agoMy experience is that I am often creative but I am inconsistent in my follow through. When I get an odd idea, at my best I just try it. That makes me more likely to have another odd idea, and if I try that the cycle accelerates. If instead I listen to The Editor and get back to the humdrum, the cycle runs in reverse: fewer ideas, less follow through, fewer ideas. So I think, paradoxically, that action is the key to creativity. It's not the ideas, it's what you do with them.
- jpwagner 18y agoLearn to re-define problem statements!
- gcheong 18y agoBe widely read, dabble in a lot of different things and always look for opportunities to apply solutions from one field to problems in another field.
- lpolovets 18y agoMichael Michalko has two excellent books on creativity: Thinkertoys (http://www.amazon.com/Thinkertoys-Handbook-Creative-Thinking-Techniques-2nd/dp/1580087736 http://www.amazon.com/Thinkertoys-Handbook-Creative-Thinking...) and Cracking Creativity (http://www.amazon.com/Cracking-Creativity-Secrets-Creative-Genius/dp/1580083110 http://www.amazon.com/Cracking-Creativity-Secrets-Creative-G...) They're both among my fave books of all time, though they are relatively similar in content so getting just one is fine. They cover a lot of different strategies for thinking creatively and outside the box, provide tons of examples, and have a lot of exercise that you can try yourself (and while it sounds cheesy, the exercises are actually fun)