The Creativity Crisis

[Blank]

The Creativity Crisis - Newsweek

Interesting article.

 

[Amethyst]

Indeed. I've noticed this in a lot of people.
I think it's because most people have either enough satisfaction to creatively improve their lives or they feel like they can't in today's society. Or people could just be too focused on doing the routine, what's expected of them, so they don't get in trouble by their superiors and lose their job, in which would cause them to possibly have great difficulty in finding a new one.
It could also be computers...

 

[InsatiableCuriosity]

Is this a duplicate thread?

My first thought is They can stop medicating the creatives into mediocrity just because the world of linear thinking doesn't hold their attention!!

In all seriousness tho, I would be very interested indeed to see stats on this compared to previous cradles of creativity hot spots, and any data that could indicate if there is a percentage increase in ADD/ADHD diagnosis and medication.

 

[Blank]

Yeah, it's a duplicate thread.

I wanted an NT response and now an "academic" response.

 

[Queen Kat]

I think ritalin is the cause. Whenever they find a child with ADHD or ADD, they pump them full with that crap. The ADHD might disappear, but the advantages of it, like creativity, disappear too.


(It's actually also the reason why I don't take that crap: it'll ruin my only talent.)

 

[ragashree]

I think ritalin is the cause. Whenever they find a child with ADHD or ADD, they pump them full with that crap. The ADHD might disappear, but the advantages of it, like creativity, disappear too.

*Cue flaming from meds fans*

I tend to agree though

 

[JustHer]

Is creativity even useful for anything? I mean.. reallllyyy

 

[Queen Kat]

Creativity is fun. If it's fun, it's useful.

 

[Mole]

Is creativity even useful for anything? I mean.. reallllyyy

Creativity is completely useless, just like you.

We used to think you were put here by God for a purpose, but we find you evolved without any purpose whatsoever.

We used to think the world had a purpose like a book - a beginning, a middle and an end, composed of linear, sequential sentences, paragraphs, chapters, books and libraries. But instead we find the world is a random access search engine.

We used to think we were the centre of the universe but find the centre of the universe is everywhere.

We used to think pure mathematics was the language of God, but instead find it is incomplete.

We used to think our purpose was to bring order to chaos, but instead find creativity emerging from order.

We used to work instrumentally, but now we work intrinsically. We do things just for their own sake.

And when we do things for their own sake, we love them and they love us.

But if we use anything as a tool, it replies in kind and treats us like a tool too - we make our tools and our tools make us.

Some here are fond of telling us, everything is a tool - tooled up and ready for use.

But it is plain we are all useless - of no use to anyone but ourselves.

We are not means, but ends. We are not a means to an end, but an end in ourselves.

I am not a number - I am a metaphor. And this is my glory.

 

[Sparrow]

Imagine a world with out creativity, we would live like cows.

 

[FDG]

I think ritalin is the cause. Whenever they find a child with ADHD or ADD, they pump them full with that crap. The ADHD might disappear, but the advantages of it, like creativity, disappear too.


(It's actually also the reason why I don't take that crap: it'll ruin my only talent.)

Definitely. Let's burn big pharma!!!!11

Is creativity even useful for anything? I mean.. reallllyyy

Nothing is truly useful for anything. We are all slowly decaying towards a maximally disordered universe.

 

[BlackCat]

Imagine a world with out creativity, we would live like cows.

om nom nom nom.

 

[ragashree]

Nothing is truly useful for anything. We are all slowly decaying towards a maximally disordered universe.

I hope Entropie finds this thread to post on this issue.

 

[FDG]

I hope Entropie finds this thread to post on this issue.

lol

 

[Metamorphosis]

Ken Robinson says schools kill creativity | Video on TED.com

 

[Mole]

Ken Robinson says schools kill creativity | Video on TED.com

Yes, they use Prussian Pedagogy to teach reading and writing.

So one of the great advantages of the authoritarian personality is that they are literate.

However we now learn to use the radio, the telephone, the television and the internet without Prussian Pedagogy.

So we are now saying that schools kill creativity - but what that implies, we don't know yet - and that's the crisis.

 

[Pixelholic]

I agree its a combination of overmedication and an emphasis on shoveling kids through the school system and standardized testing rather than any emphasis on critical thinking.

 

[InsatiableCuriosity]

Howard Gardner has an interesting book I have just ordered in which some of you may be interested - "The Unschooled Mind: How Children Think And How Schools Should Teach":

Amazon.com: The Unschooled Mind: How Children Think And How Schools Should Teach (9780465088966): Howard E. Gardner: Books

Thom Hartmann and Lucy Jo Palladino's "The Edison Gene: ADHD and the Gift of the Hunter Child":

Amazon.com: The Edison Gene: ADHD and the Gift of the Hunter Child (9781594770494): Thom Hartmann, Lucy Jo Palladino: Books

...another interesting read is "In the Mind's Eye: Creative Visual Thinkers, Gifted Dyslexics, and the Rise of Visual Technologies" by Thomas G. West:

Amazon.com: In the Mind's Eye: Creative Visual Thinkers, Gifted Dyslexics, and…

 

[InsatiableCuriosity]

I think we may also missing some of the other cultural differences that contribute to ADHD.

I am an old fogie of 55. When I was a child, my parents could not afford to sate my every whim in terms of toys and keeping me occupied. I had my Junior Encyclopedia - a trade off for my curious mind to keep my mother sane after she taught me to read at 3-4. Typical INTP - always wanting to know why. Mum's answer was "go and look it up"

I did not have parents buying me every latest toy under the sun, nor did I have the internet, TV and electronic games constantly stimulating me, so I had to learn to be inventive, creative and imaginative with what I had.

Arthur Mee had a lot of mythology, stories, poetry and stories from other lands, travel to which was not nearly as accessible as they are today. I would imagine myself somewhere else or that faerie lived under the moss but I developed a creative imagination as a consequence.

I drew and constructed things in Meccano, created tents over the lounge with sheets and had a wonderful time.

My grandson, by comparison, does not know how to be still and pretend. His parents indulge his every whim and when he has nothing to do they put on videos or buy him a new game, or take him out.

We had the freedom (and the safety) to disappear after chores with a sandwich and a piece of fruit and not come back until 5pm.

I can't help but wonder whether ADHD is not a combination of factors such as foods (proven culprits), over-stimulation and little imaginitive play, and natural tendency to not think in a linear way and yet being taught in a linear way as that is how the majority of the population learns???

 

[Mole]

I think we may also missing some of the other cultural differences that contribute to ADHD.

I am an old fogie of 55. When I was a child, my parents could not afford to sate my every whim in terms of toys and keeping me occupied. I had my Junior Encyclopedia - a trade off for my curious mind to keep my mother sane after she taught me to read at 3-4. Typical INTP - always wanting to know why. Mum's answer was "go and look it up"

I did not have parents buying me every latest toy under the sun, nor did I have the internet, TV and electronic games constantly stimulating me, so I had to learn to be inventive, creative and imaginative with what I had.

Arthur Mee had a lot of mythology, stories, poetry and stories from other lands, travel to which was not nearly as accessible as they are today. I would imagine myself somewhere else or that faerie lived under the moss but I developed a creative imagination as a consequence.

I drew and constructed things in Meccano, created tents over the lounge with sheets and had a wonderful time.

My grandson, by comparison, does not know how to be still and pretend. His parents indulge his every whim and when he has nothing to do they put on videos or buy him a new game, or take him out.

We had the freedom (and the safety) to disappear after chores with a sandwich and a piece of fruit and not come back until 5pm.

I can't help but wonder whether ADHD is not a combination of factors such as foods (proven culprits), over-stimulation and little imaginitive play, and natural tendency to not think in a linear way and yet being taught in a linear way as that is how the majority of the population learns???

Yes, at home we had a horse, dog and cats. We built things. We formed gangs and had mock battles. We made sledges and canoes. We went on day long bicycle rides in groups. We made bows and arrows. We did naughty things together. We shot sparrows with airguns. And we went rabbiting with ferrets. We had bicycle races. We joined the pony club for dressage, jumping, polo cross and the gymkhana. And we played tennis and football. Sometimes we rode the steam train all the way into the city and went across Sydney harbour on the ferry, all the way to Manly Beach. And on Saturdays we went to the movies to see two feature films, the news, a serial and a cartoon. And at night we listened to the serials on the radio. We would play a game of monopoly that would start on Friday evening after school and end on the Sunday evening. And our parents would read to us at night until the owl started to hoot.

And at school on Saturday mornings, we would have Atheneum where we learnt to formally entertain one another.

Bliss it was in that dawn to be alive, but to be young was very heaven.