The Art and Science of Creativity - [English]: Tom Kelley at TEDxTokyo

Summary

In this engaging talk, the speaker explores the 'Art and Practical Science of Creativity,' debunking the myth that creativity is solely an art form by highlighting scientific research that supports practical methods to enhance creativity. The speaker presents five actionable ideas, including choosing creativity, capturing ideas, gaining mental distance, switching off self-critique, and leveraging morning moments for inspiration. These strategies aim to help individuals unleash their creative potential in daily life.

Takeaways

• 🎨 The historical belief was that creativity was an art form, separate from the analytical nature of science.
• 🗣️ The speaker humorously admits their limited Japanese skills, setting a light-hearted tone for the speech on creativity.
• 🧚‍♀️ Ancient Greeks attributed creative thought to the divine intervention of Muses, highlighting the romanticized view of creativity.
• 🔬 Modern science and psychology have been working to demystify creativity, suggesting it can be understood and enhanced through practical means.
• 🚀 The first key idea is to 'choose' creativity, emphasizing that extraordinary creativity is a deliberate decision rather than a passive gift.
• 📝 The second idea is about capturing ideas, suggesting that using a 'capture device' can significantly increase the retention of creative thoughts.
• 🔢 The 'math of creative yield' implies that capturing more ideas can exponentially increase the potential for creative solutions.
• 🌐 The third idea involves gaining mental distance from a problem, which research suggests can lead to more creative answers.
• 🎼 The fourth idea is about the importance of turning off self-critique during creative processes, as demonstrated by studies on jazz musicians.
• 🛌 The final idea is leveraging the early morning hours when the brain is less influenced by the frontal cortex, which can inhibit creativity.
• 📅 The speaker shares a personal anecdote of how using the 'muse button' on their alarm clock led to the spontaneous generation of a talk outline.
• 🌟 The overarching message is to encourage the audience to harness the practical science of creativity to unlock their unique creative potential.

Q & A

What is the central theme of the speech?

The central theme of the speech is 'The Art and Practical Science of Creativity,' exploring the intersection of creativity with scientific and psychological research to provide practical ways to enhance one's creativity.

Why did the speaker initially consider speaking in Japanese?

The speaker initially considered speaking in Japanese but admitted that their Japanese isn't very good, which is why they decided to speak in English instead.

What is the historical perspective on creativity mentioned in the speech?

The historical perspective mentioned is that for thousands of years, civilizations, such as the ancient Greeks, believed creativity to be pure art, separate from science, and attributed creative thoughts to the influence of Muses.

What is the first practical idea the speaker shares to boost creativity?

The first practical idea is to choose to be creative, emphasizing that all creative people the speaker researched had made a conscious decision to be creative at some point in their lives.

What is the significance of capturing ideas according to the speech?

Capturing ideas is significant because our short-term memory is fleeting, and capturing ideas can increase the creative yield, providing more material to work with when finding solutions.

How does the speaker suggest using mental distance to enhance creativity?

The speaker suggests using mental distance by imagining the problem comes from another country or by thinking like a person from a different age, which can lead to more creative answers.

What does the speaker say about the role of self-critique in creativity?

The speaker mentions that self-critique can hinder creativity, citing Dr. Charles Limb's research showing that the brain region associated with self-critique deactivates during creative tasks like jazz improvisation.

What is the 'muse button' concept introduced by the speaker?

The 'muse button' concept refers to using the snooze button on an alarm clock to allow the mind to wander in a state of relaxed attention, potentially generating new ideas before fully waking up.

How did the speaker apply the ideas from the speech in their own life?

The speaker applied these ideas by working in a creative field, capturing ideas, practicing mental distance, switching off self-critique, and using the 'muse button' to generate ideas, which led to the creation of the talk itself.

What is the role of the frontal cortex in creativity according to Jonah Lehrer's work mentioned in the speech?

According to Jonah Lehrer's work, the frontal cortex, also known as the executive center of the brain, is good for acting like a grown-up but can hinder creativity, as it is not conducive to creative thinking.

What was the outcome of the speaker's experiment with mental distance during a client workshop?

The outcome of the experiment was highly successful, with the team generating dozens of creative ideas for bars and nightclubs immediately, such as a zero-gravity bar and a nightclub with moveable walls.

Outlines

00:00

🎨 Embracing Creativity as a Choice

The speaker begins by acknowledging the historical belief that creativity is an art form disconnected from science. They introduce the concept that creativity can be a deliberate choice, citing Dr. Robert Sternberg's research which shows that all creative individuals made a conscious decision to be creative. This choice is essential for cultivating creative confidence, as the speaker emphasizes that creativity is not the default setting for the adult brain. The audience is encouraged to make this choice to potentially transform their lives.

05:00

📚 Capturing Ideas to Boost Creative Yield

The speaker discusses the importance of capturing fleeting ideas to enhance one's creative output. They mention the short duration of short-term memory and the idea of using a 'capture device'—either digital or analog—to record thoughts before they are lost. The concept of 'creative yield' is introduced, suggesting that increasing the percentage of ideas captured can lead to a significant increase in material for creative problem-solving. The speaker encourages the audience to choose their preferred method for capturing ideas to maximize their creative potential.

10:01

🌏 Gaining Mental Distance for Enhanced Creativity

The speaker explores the benefits of creating mental distance from a problem to foster creativity. They reference research indicating that people are more creative when they consider questions from a different cultural or temporal perspective. The speaker shares a personal anecdote of applying this concept during a client workshop in the liquor industry, which resulted in the generation of numerous innovative ideas. They suggest that taking a step back, either in time or space, can unlock fresh and imaginative solutions to challenges.

🎷 Switching Off Self-Critique to Unleash Creativity

Drawing from Dr. Charles Limb's research on jazz musicians, the speaker explains how the brain's self-critique region quiets during creative activities like improvisation. They propose that consciously switching off self-critique can enhance creativity, as it allows for uninhibited idea generation. The speaker relates this to personal experiences in business and suggests that embracing personal risk and silencing the inner critic can lead to creative leaps.

🌅 Harnessing the Morning Muse for Creative Insights

The speaker concludes with the idea of utilizing the early morning hours to tap into creativity. They discuss how the frontal cortex, responsible for executive functions, is less active during this time, allowing for more creative thinking. Inspired by Jonah Lehrer's work, the speaker suggests renaming the snooze button on an alarm clock to the 'muse button' and using that time for relaxed, unfocused thought to generate new ideas. They share a personal story of how this practice led to the spontaneous creation of a talk outline, emphasizing the power of the practical science of creativity.

Keywords

💡Creativity

Creativity is the ability to transcend traditional ideas, rules, and patterns to create meaningful new ideas, forms, and interpretations. In the video's theme, creativity is presented as both an art and a science, emphasizing that it is not just a mystical gift but can be cultivated and enhanced through deliberate practices and mindsets. The speaker discusses various strategies to boost creativity, such as choosing to be creative and capturing ideas, which are central to the video's message.

💡Practical Science

The term 'practical science' in the video refers to the application of scientific research and theories to everyday life, specifically to enhance creativity. It suggests that there are tangible, actionable methods derived from scientific studies that individuals can use to improve their creative thinking. The video contrasts this with the traditional view of creativity as a purely artistic endeavor, highlighting the speaker's interest in making creativity more accessible through science-backed techniques.

💡Muses

In the context of the video, 'Muses' refers to the inspirational goddesses of Greek mythology who were believed to provide artists and thinkers with creative inspiration. The speaker mentions this concept to illustrate the historical belief that creativity was a divine gift rather than something that could be developed. This is contrasted with the video's main argument that creativity can be a deliberate choice and a skill that can be practiced and improved.

💡Capture Device

A 'capture device' in the video is a tool or method used to record or remember ideas as they come to mind. The speaker suggests that using such a device can significantly increase the retention of fleeting thoughts and ideas, thereby boosting creative output. This concept is tied to the 'math of creative yield,' where the speaker illustrates how capturing more ideas can lead to a richer pool of material to draw from for creative solutions.

💡Mental Distance

Mental distance in the video is the concept of creating a psychological space between oneself and a problem or challenge to foster creativity. The speaker explains that thinking about a problem from a different perspective, such as imagining it's from another country or considering it from the viewpoint of a different age, can lead to more creative solutions. This idea is exemplified through the story of a client workshop where participants were asked to think about the future and as a different age group.

💡Self-Critique

Self-critique refers to the internal process of evaluating and judging one's own work or ideas, often with a critical eye. In the video, the speaker discusses the importance of switching off self-critique to allow for more creative freedom. This is supported by research from Dr. Charles Limb, who found that the brain region associated with self-critique becomes less active during creative tasks like jazz improvisation, suggesting that reducing self-judgment can enhance creativity.

💡Frontal Cortex

The frontal cortex, as mentioned in the video, is the part of the brain associated with higher cognitive functions such as decision-making and self-control. It is described as being less conducive to creativity due to its role in logical thinking and executive control. The speaker suggests that the frontal cortex's reduced activity during sleep and the early morning hours provides an opportunity for increased creativity, as it allows for more imaginative and less constrained thinking.

💡Snooze Button

In the video, the 'snooze button' is reimagined as the 'muse button,' symbolizing the opportunity to leverage the early morning hours for creative thinking. The speaker advises using the snooze button not to go back to sleep but to allow the mind to wander in a relaxed state, which can lead to the generation of new ideas. This concept ties into the broader theme of the video, which is finding practical ways to enhance creativity.

💡Jazz Improv

Jazz improvisation is used in the video as an example of a creative process where musicians create music spontaneously and without prior planning. The speaker cites Dr. Limb's research, which shows that when jazz musicians switch from playing memorized music to improvising, the brain's creativity region activates while the self-critique region deactivates, illustrating the link between reduced self-judgment and enhanced creative expression.

💡Robert Sternberg

Robert Sternberg is a renowned psychologist mentioned in the video who has conducted extensive research on creativity and genius at Yale University. The speaker references Dr. Sternberg's findings that all creative individuals he studied had one thing in common: they made a conscious choice to be creative at some point in their lives. This underscores the video's message that creativity is a choice and a skill that can be developed.

💡Jonah Lehrer

Jonah Lehrer is a neuroscience writer cited in the video, known for his book 'Imagine,' which explores the science of creativity. The speaker refers to Lehrer's work to discuss the role of the frontal cortex in creativity and how its reduced activity during sleep can lead to more creative dreams. Lehrer's insights are used to support the video's theme of practical techniques for enhancing creativity.

Highlights

The speaker initially wanted to deliver the speech in Japanese but decided against it due to language proficiency.

The topic of the speech is 'The Art and Practical Science of Creativity', challenging the traditional view that creativity is purely an art form.

Historically, civilizations like the ancient Greeks believed creativity was a divine gift from Muses, not a human capability.

The speaker emphasizes the need for daily creativity, suggesting it is more scientific than magical.

Scientists and psychologists have been researching creativity, and the speaker is interested in practical applications of their findings.

The first idea presented is to 'choose to be creative', based on research by psychologist Robert Sternberg.

Dr. Sternberg found that all creative individuals made a conscious decision to be creative at some point in their lives.

The decision to be creative is seen as a crucial step towards creative confidence.

The second idea is about capturing ideas using a 'capture device', leveraging the concept of 'creative yield'.

Using a capture device can increase the amount of ideas recorded from 10% to potentially 90%.

The third idea is to gain mental distance from a problem to enhance creativity, as supported by research.

Mental distance can be achieved by imagining the problem is from another country or considering it from a different age perspective.

The speaker shares a personal experience using mental distance to generate creative ideas in a client workshop.

The fourth idea is to switch off self-critique, inspired by Dr. Charles Limb's research on jazz musicians' brains during improvisation.

Dr. Limb found that self-critique deactivates during creative activities, suggesting a conscious effort to switch it off could enhance creativity.

The final idea is to utilize the early morning hours when the frontal cortex is less active to foster creativity.

The speaker suggests using the snooze button as a 'muse button' to capture early morning creative thoughts.

The speaker's own experience with the 'muse button' led to the spontaneous generation of ideas for a talk.

The speech concludes with an encouragement to apply the practical science of creativity to unleash one's unique potential.

Transcripts

Transcriber: Eunice Lo Reviewer: Tanya Cushman

Hello.

Today's topic is "Art and the Practical Science of Creativity."

(Applause)

Thank you, wow.

I wanted to do my entire speech in Japanese.

However, my Japanese isn't very good.

And probably, therefore, I'm going to have to speak in English.

(Applause)

So the topic is "The Art and Practical Science of Creativity."

And for thousands of years of human history,

civilizations have believed that creativity was pure art,

that it had nothing to do with science,

because science was, well, you know, scientific or analytical,

while creativity was magical.

You know, the ancient Greeks

believed that the human mind wasn't even capable of creative thought,

but that we were visited by Muses,

those beautiful, creative goddesses

who bestowed us with just brief moments of brilliance.

And I find the idea of muses very romantic.

If you have time to wait for weeks or months

for your muse to arrive, great.

Great.

But most of us need creative solutions every day,

and daily creativity,

that doesn't sound like muses or magic,

that sounds a lot more like science.

And luckily, scientists and psychologists have been hard at work on creativity,

and I'm intensely interested

in the ways that their research and theories

can translate into simple, practical things

that we can all do to boost our creativity.

And I've brought five of those simple ideas along today.

And this first one is so simple

that the skeptical, analytical part of your brain

may try to reject it.

And this idea

is if you want to be extraordinary,

try to stop being ordinary, right?

Try to choose to be creative.

And no, I am not kidding.

And no, I am not making this up.

I interviewed this legendary psychologist

named Robert Sternberg,

who had researched creativity and genius

at Yale University for 30 years.

And Dr. Sternberg said

that the one thing all the creative people he researched had in common,

the one thing they had in common

is that all of them, at some point in their lives,

they just chose to be creative.

They just decided to be creative.

And Dr. Sternberg says this decision to chose creativity

is an important, perhaps essential, step on the path to creative confidence,

because, he says, creative is not typically the default setting

for the adult human brain.

But his findings on choosing creativity is good news, really,

because it means you all have the power to choose.

Today, right now, before you leave the room,

you have the power to choose creativity

and maybe, just maybe, change your life.

So that first one about choosing creativity

is a very powerful one,

but I know it's also a bit intangible.

So next up

is this very concrete, actionable idea about capturing your best ideas.

Because, you know, scientists tell us

that our short-term memory lasts only 15 to 30 seconds, right?

So content is streaming across our brain all of the time,

and the vast majority of that content just floats away.

It just escapes - right? -

never written into long-term memory.

But what if you had a capture device?

What if you had some sort of virtual butterfly net

that would allow you to capture the best of your ideas.

And the good news is you get to pick your own capture device.

You know, I'm a digital immigrant, so I still like paper,

and so I pretty much always have

some sort of little notebook in my back pocket to capture those ideas.

But for you digital natives,

I'm sure there's an app for that,

using some clever digital device that you're already carrying around.

But whether you use analog or whether you use digital,

you still have to try this

because this idea of a capture device

leverages something I would call "the math of creative yield."

Imagine that maybe right now

you're capturing, say, 10 percent of the stuff,

that content, the ideas that flow across your brain.

What if using a capture device,

you could increase that to, say, oh, I don't know, 90%?

Think about that! Right?

You would have nine times as much material to work with

when you sort through those ideas to find your favorite solution.

So pick your own favorite butterfly net

and see how much you can increase your own creative yield.

So this third one kind of sneaks up on you

because it seems like it shouldn't work as well as it does,

and this idea is that when you're working on a tough challenge,

do whatever you can to get a little mental distance from the problem.

Because research shows

that people come up with way more creative answers

when they think the question came from another country.

And they're also more creative

if they imagine

that they themselves are a distant age -

so if they're told to think like a seven-year-old.

And so any kind of mental distance

can help you come up with more creative ideas.

So, could this work?

I mean, I wasn't so sure myself

until one day last year I risked trying it.

It was an important client workshop.

The client was in the liquor industry,

and we were trying to get them to think creatively

about bars and nightclubs, right?

And I've been in hundreds of IDEO client workshops,

and to be honest,

teams can be a little slow to get started,

but not that day

because I gave them a chance to get a little mental distance.

I said, imagine it's 10 years into the future -

you know, a distant time, right? -

and imagine you've just turned 21 years old -

you know, a distant age.

And wow! This team was amazing.

They came up with dozens of ideas right away.

I mean, immediately, they imagined a zero-gravity bar

in which there was a different room for every planet.

And they started thinking of this idea of a nightclub with moveable walls,

so it's small and cozy at the beginning of the evening

when people start arriving,

and then it grows to become this giant space

when you got the pulsing crowd at 2 am.

And so powered by this mental distance,

my team that day actually glowed with energy.

They just came up with so many creative ideas.

So next time you're facing a tough challenge,

see - try getting a little mental distance,

and see if doesn't help you generate some fresh, new ideas.

So the fourth idea

from the intersection of science and creativity

is about switching off self-critique,

and it comes from a brilliant researcher and surgeon

at Johns Hopkins University

named Charles Limb.

And I hope you've seen Dr. Limb's great Ted Talk,

in which he takes jazz musicians

and he puts them into a fMRI machine

to see what happens to their brains when they're creating music in real time.

So as soon as he puts them in there

and they switch from playing the memorized music -

the ones that require no creativity -

to the more creative mode of jazz improv,

as soon as they do that, two things happen.

First, a region of the brain associated with creativity lights up -

no surprise there, right?

But at the same time,

a region of the brain associated with self-critique,

it gets deactivated.

It goes quiet during the period of jazz improv.

And I'm not a jazz musician,

but as soon as I heard about Dr. Limb's discovery,

it occurred to me that I thought I was recognizing

a familiar pattern from the business world.

Ever give a speech or a presentation,

and afterwards, a friend of yours says,

"Well, how'd it go?"

and you have no idea?

You're not being evasive; you have no idea.

And the reason that is, you know, my theory at least -

which I would love to have Dr. Limb test -

my theory is that your brain is helping you out.

You know, that you're risking embarrassment,

sharing new ideas with a bunch of people

and your brain says,

"Look, I'll switch off self-critique here to help you get through this."

And if your brain can switch it off subconsciously,

I bet you can switch it off consciously.

I bet you can say to yourself,

"Yes, I am taking a little personal risk here,

but I still have got to try this.

I am going to switch off self-critique and take a creative leap."

Right?

And so, none of these have been hard, right?

You'd have to say those are pretty easy,

but this is the easiest one of all

because here is a way you can boost your personal creativity

without even getting out of bed.

If you've read any of the work of Jonah Lehrer,

that wonderful, brilliant neuroscience writer,

now most famous for his book "Imagine."

Jona Lehrer talks about the frontal cortex,

sometimes called the executive center of the brain,

which is really good at helping you act like a grown up

but not really so good about creativity.

It actually gets in the way of creativity.

In fact, many kids -

around the fourth grade, they see a drop in creativity,

and that's exactly at the time

that the frontal cortex is growing in size, in influence,

and starting to say, "I'm in charge."

But there's still a daily window of opportunity

because that bossy frontal cortex,

it goes to sleep at night,

which is why you have those wonderful, creative dreams,

and like some people you may know,

a little bit slow to wake up in the morning.

So if you can re-purpose that snooze button on your alarm clock,

you might even want to rename it.

Because if you can start thinking of that as the "muse button,"

you can take good advantage of those first precious moments of the day.

So tomorrow, when the alarm clock rings,

press that "muse button,"

and then do not go back to sleep, right?

Do not jump out of bed, as I suspect some of you do,

but instead, let your mind wander in a state of relaxed attention,

working in an unfocused way

on some problem you've been wrestling with,

and see if you don't suddenly have some new ideas on that problem.

Now, I've been working on all five of these things.

You know, I chose to work in a creative field.

You know, I started capturing as many ideas as I could.

I've practiced at the art of getting mental distance.

I've learned to switch off self-critique.

And then, on March 15th of this year,

my alarm clock rang at 6 am,

and I pushed that muse button,

and I let my mind, let me say that again,

my mind wander,

and, I swear, what happened next

is that my brain spontaneously generated

both an introduction and a pretty complete outline

of a talk I was dreaming of giving someday.

So I reached for a pad of paper, which I always have nearby,

and wrote some notes about those ideas.

And those ideas really did become a talk,

opening up a whole new adventure for me.

In fact, those notes from the snooze button

on March 15th,

became the talk you heard just now.

(Laughter)

So let the practical science of creativity

help you unleash your own unique creative potential.

Thank you very much.

(Applause)