BBGMBC Discussion Question #6 for Imagine: How Creativity Works by Johah Lehrer

[I didn’t finish this post last night, so I’ll post it now, with the final post in this discussion coming later today.]

Today, July 14th , we continue the discussion for the Beyond Busy Global Monthly Book Club’s fourth book.

Anyone who has read our current discussion book can participate by commenting. You can also join our public BBGMBC Facebook group, if you would like to join us in reading one excellent quality book per month and then discussing it here.

And without further ado, let’s keep the discussion of Imagine: How Creativity Works by Johah Lehrer going.

I found this quote really interesting from Lee Unkrich, a Director at Pixar, “I’m not capable of surprising myself every day with some great new idea. That kind of magic can only come from the group.”

I disagree with this statement. In the context of Lehrer’s chapter what Unkrich is saying is that the group creates superior results compared to individuals.

I understand what he is saying. I agree that Pixar is socially designed to maximize the creativity of groups with the goal of creating superior movies. Although they didn’t accomplish this with their most recent movie, Brave, in my opinion, they certainly have a very solid track record.

My point is that I think this assumption, that we are not capable of surprising ourselves every day is wrong. Dead wrong.

We are capable of surprising ourselves and others with great regularity. But, of course, that doesn’t mean we will.

I think the culprit here may spring from conclusions from Lehrer’s research on the prefrontal cortex that came earlier in the book:

…all of us contain a vast reservoir of untapped creativity. The desire to make something beautiful, to express our luminous sensations, is not a rare drive confined to those with artistic training. That same desire is present in cellular biologists and stockbrokers, janitors and housewives. We don’t notice this need because we constantly suppress it, because the timid circuits of the prefrontal cortex keep us from risking self-expression.

This statement rang true for me. I believe that we are all creative powerhouses, mostly tied up in chains of our own making that prevent us from expressing our best work. Whether they are wrought from brain mechanics or peer pressure is not the point. The point is that we have to break out of the prisons we choose to live inside.

Unlike many of the opinions in this book, I don’t agree that working in groups, living in cities, and working for corporations are the only ways to get maximum creativity out. There are many other methods available to us in the Internet age and many individuals are operating at an extremely high level of creativity.

I believe we are capable of surprising ourselves every day and that when we do, it does feel like magic. I also feel like the people who do this on a regular basis make better problem-solvers and contributors to groups. However, if we don’t recognize the inherent power of the creative mind, then we are all sunk.

I think the early chapters of Lehrer’s book made clear the creative potential of the individual, but it’s disappointing for me as a reader to then think that the only logical outlet for individual creativity is working for corporations who have figured out ways of maximizing individual creativity to serve their production goals.

I much preferred the conclusions from the research on the schools that valued creativity. Like this one:

The vocational approach at NOCCA helps build grit in students. It teaches them how to be single-minded in pursuit of a goal, to sacrifice for the sake of a passion. The teachers demand hard work from their kids because they know, from personal experience, that creative success requires nothing less.

Sustained creativity takes grit. That’s for sure. And I love the idea that creativity can be taught.

Nevertheless, the guiding principles of NOCCA—that creativity can be taught, and that our kids are reservoirs of untapped talent—deserve to be widely implemented.

I loved the idea that the kids were learning more about merely the subjects that they were delving into. I loved the idea that they could apply what they had learned about their own creative potential and their own grit to any situation or professional field. One student commented:

“Oh, no way,” she says. “I’m not just learning how to dance here. It might look like that when you look at our classes because we’re always dancing. But that’s not it. What I’m really learning is how to say something.”

I think this is a key. When an individual is committed to creativity, both their own and participating with others, it leads to an ability to self-express. And that ability to self-express is truly a rare gift in our modern society. And one that is worth striving for both as individual and in the education of children.

What do you think?