Creativity

I like the 1991 lecture of John Cleese in the material today, talking about the model of the creativity, including two modes of operating — open mode (where we take a wide-angle, abstract view of the problem and allow the mind to ponder possible solutions) and closed mode (where we zoom in on implementing a specific solution with narrow precision).

He believes that: 

• “Creativity is not a talent. It is a way of operating.”
• “We need to be in the open mode when pondering a problem — but! — once we come up with a solution, we must then switch to the closed mode to implement it. Because once we’ve made a decision, we are efficient only if we go through with it decisively, undistracted by doubts about its correctness.”
• “To be at our most efficient, we need to be able to switch backwards and forward between the two modes. But — here’s the problem — we too often get stuck in the closed mode. Under the pressures which are all too familiar to us, we tend to maintain tunnel vision at times when we really need to step back and contemplate the wider view. This is particularly true, for example, of politicians. The main complaint about them from their nonpolitical colleagues is that they’ve become so addicted to the adrenaline that they get from reacting to events on an hour-by-hour basis that they almost completely lose the desire or the ability to ponder problems in the open mode."
• "This is the extraordinary thing about creativity: If just you keep your mind resting against the subject in a friendly but persistent way, sooner or later you will get a reward from your unconscious."

Enjoy the awesome lecture!

Create your day and live it.
K.K.

Image Source: morguefile.com