The Myths of Creativity summary

We’re all familiar with how Isaac Newton discovered gravity. One day, whilst sitting under a tree, an apple fell on him, which sparked his realization of the phenomenon.

Yet, this tale is a great example of a common myth that creativity comes from out-of-the-blue divine inspiration. Although most of us accept this myth, it’s wrong. Creativity doesn’t just fall to us from thin air.

For example, Newton’s discovery of gravity isn’t exactly accurate. He, in fact, observed the apple fall whilst he was with someone else, which sparked a scientific discussion between them.

Their discussion involved reviewing what they already understood in terms of the phenomenon of gravity. Therefore, rather than Newton being the sole receiver of a sudden revelation; the idea surfaced from the interaction between two intelligent minds. It was only after years of intensive research that Newton could then finally put forward his mathematical formula on gravity.

So even though we love stories of lightning-bolt revelations, we can see that creativity often requires time and effort.

Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi actually found that insight is only a central step out of a number of steps that successful creatives move through before their idea has come to fruition.

Ideas can only emerge after a foundation has been prepared and left to germinate for a while.

In order to get the best out of the process, many highly creative people such as da Vinci and Edison had a number of projects on the go simultaneously. This allowed all their ideas to have the necessary amount of time to develop whilst their creators worked on others.

However, as we will see, creativity is not just limited to these famous ‘geniuses.’