In one of my favorite animated movies, The Lego Movie, there is a double-decker couch. It appears early in the film when the main character, Emmet, and his two friends magically enter the space inside Emmet’s mind. Emmet: Whoa, are we inside my brain right now? It’s big. I must be smart. Friend 1:... Continue Reading →
The Larsen Effect Some books on the topic define creativity as an idea or process that is original, novel, surprising, adaptive, functional, or workable.[1] I don’t buy it. According to this definition, Emmet’s double-decker couch should be considered remarkably creative—it is original, novel, and surprising—especially to the audience, and proves to be adaptive, functional, and... Continue Reading →
Gatekeepers and the A-flat Sometimes I worry that listening to gatekeepers is dangerous. I don’t want to get sucked into “kleptomentia”—the unintentional stealing of ideas.[1] How can creative ideas be original if they come from someone else? Isn’t the point of creativity to break free of societal norms? If you feel this way too, you... Continue Reading →
P-creativity & H-creativity So, if choice is central to creativity, how do we go about making choices? That depends on our motivations. In her book entitled The Creative Mind: Myths and Mechanisms, Margaret Boden divides creative motivation into two main categories: P-creativity and H-creativity. P-creativity (shorthand for psychological creativity) is motivated by a sense of... Continue Reading →
The Two Q’s—Creativity in Practice My first swim coach, Coach Mike, had lungs like a sergeant. I remember standing on the pool deck with my teammates—a twiggy band of eight- and nine-year-olds—dripping and shivering, as Coach Mike walked up and down the poolside, a whistle around his neck and bushy chest hair visible above his... Continue Reading →
Busting through Creative Blocks Some days I don’t want to practice creativity. I’m not a quality-er or a quantity-er—I’m just stuck. Usually, this happens when I start to compare my creative work to the work of others. This piece of music, I think, is just the worst. In such moments, it feels like other people... Continue Reading →
Your Genius and the Double-Decker Couch Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love, gave a TED Talk with the best advice I have ever found for how to continue making creative choices toward your goals even when you feel “just the worst.” In the talk, she admitted that she too worries about her creativity and... Continue Reading →
I began The Goose Girl with the expectation that it would be a "girl book" (largely because Shannon Hale, the book's author, is known for writing princess books). I was pleasantly surprised, however, to discover that I enjoyed the book, and didn't feel like it was distinctly "girly". Now, when I say "girly" I am referring to... Continue Reading →
My math brain fell apart again and now I can’t be sure, whether nine is more than ten ‘cause nine is spelled with four, and ten is spelled with three, and three is spelled with five, and five is spelled with four again, which shows how I arrive at thinking nine’s the same as five,... Continue Reading →
