(continued...)
Judgment, Patterns and Creativity
Everyone knows that instant judgment is the enemy of creativity.
That is certainly true because judgment will force us back
to our present position. The brain is not designed to think
creatively but to set up routine patterns of perception
and behavior and to make sure we do not deviate from these.
Judgment is the powerful tool we have for keeping on these
routine tracks. Judgment is like the stern father forbidding
the playfulness of a child. So if judgment prevents creativity
then all we have to do is to suspend judgment, defer judgment
or delay judgment in order to be creative. So we believe
it is sufficient to be crazy and free and nonjudgmental.
Surely we will then be more creative? It is not as simple
as that.
Children are often creative. Innocence can be creative.
Ignorance can be creative. If you do not know the usual
approach to a problem, you can more easily come up with
a fresh approach. There is a story of a group of women being
shown around a wartime factory. Someone mentioned that there
was a problem in the sharpening of the carbon rods that
were used in searchlights. In her innocence, one woman suggested
the use of a pencil sharpener-it worked. When the Montgolfer
brother flew the first hot air balloon in France, word reached
the king in Paris. The king sent for his chief scientific
officer (M. Charles, whose name we still use in the law
of gaseous expansion with temperature) and demanded a balloon.
Ignorant of what the Montgolfer brother had done, M. Charles
proceeded to invent the hydrogen balloon using the newly
discovered gas.
So if we think like children, will we not be more creative?
If we take off our ties, sit on the floor, and play some
fun games, will we not approach that childhood state of
innocence in which everything is possible?
Then there is the matter of the right side of the brain.
This is the more innocent side of the brain and has not
learned "how things should be." In using the right side
of the brain we tend to draw things as they are rather than
as we know them to be. We believe the right side of the
brain represents creativity, but it does not. It represents
innocence, which may play a role in creativity-particularly
in artistic expression.
So if we suspend judgment, feel innocent and childlike,
and try to use the right side of the brain, should we not
then be creative? We will certainly be more creative than
before, but not very much more. We will be able to use our
natural creativity. Unfortunately, natural creativity is
not very powerful. As I shall try to demonstrate later,
creativity is an unnatural process.
