Seven Habits of Highly Creative People | Dr. Pavan Soni | TEDxIBSPune
Summary
TLDRThe speaker emphasizes the importance of creativity in the age of automation, asserting that humans should focus on being creators rather than competing with machines for efficiency. They define creativity as the generation of novel and useful ideas, distinguishing it from innovation, which is the commercialization of ideas. The talk highlights habits of highly creative individuals, such as not compartmentalizing science and art, having an 'opposable mind' to defer decision-making, and the significance of hobbies in fostering creativity. The speaker encourages embracing hobbies, taking half-chances, and maintaining low latent inhibitions to cultivate creativity.
Takeaways
- đ Humans should focus on creativity as machines become more efficient at routine tasks.
- đ€ Creativity is the ability to produce novel and useful ideas, while innovation is the ability to commercialize those ideas.
- đš Leonardo da Vinci exemplifies creativity through his blend of science and art, taking a long time to perfect his work.
- đ§ Creative individuals often have an 'opposable mind', deferring decisions and holding contrasting ideas without immediate judgment.
- đ» Hobbies are crucial for creativity, providing new perspectives and connections that can lead to innovative ideas.
- đ« 'Latent inhibition' refers to low constraints on thought, which can enhance creativity, as seen in the brains of people like Einstein.
- đŻ Taking half-chances and embracing failure through experimentation can foster creativity.
- đ§ Low IQ with low latent inhibition can correlate with higher creativity, suggesting that attitude matters as much as intelligence.
- đ€·ââïž Having low alertness and being open to small stimuli can lead to more creative connections.
- đ Creativity can be cultivated; it's not just an innate trait, and habits such as protecting hobbies and taking risks can enhance it.
Q & A
What is the main difference between creativity and innovation as discussed in the script?
-Creativity is defined as the ability to generate novel and useful ideas, whereas innovation is the ability to commercialize these ideas. Creativity focuses on idea generation, and innovation focuses on the application and commercial success of those ideas.
Why did it take Leonardo da Vinci 22 years to paint the Mona Lisa?
-It took Leonardo da Vinci 22 years to paint the Mona Lisa because he was deeply involved in connecting science with art. He spent six years just drawing the lips, as he was studying biology and optics to understand how light reflects, deflects, and absorbs, integrating this knowledge into his artwork.
What is the concept of 'opposable mind' as mentioned in the script?
-The 'opposable mind' refers to the ability to hold two contrasting ideas in the mind simultaneously and not immediately decide between them. It's about deferring judgment and decision-making, allowing for more creativity and flexibility in thought processes.
How does playing the violin relate to Albert Einstein's theory of relativity?
-Albert Einstein was an excellent violin player, and his ability to think spatially, developed through playing music, is believed to have contributed to his formulation of the theory of relativity. Spatial thinking involves thinking in space, which helped him conceptualize complex scientific theories.
Why are hobbies important for creative individuals as discussed in the script?
-Hobbies are important for creative individuals because they provide self-confidence, a new perspective, and new connections. They allow individuals to engage in activities for intrinsic motivation rather than external rewards, which can lead to innovative thinking and problem-solving.
What is latent inhibition and how does it relate to creativity?
-Latent inhibition is the brain's filtering system that ignores familiar stimuli. For creativity, having low latent inhibition allows individuals to pay attention to a wider range of stimuli, which can lead to more diverse and innovative ideas.
How does the speaker relate the concept of taking half-chances to creativity?
-The speaker suggests that creative individuals are more likely to take half-chances, or risks, which can lead to new opportunities and learning experiences. This approach can foster creativity by encouraging experimentation and embracing the unknown.
What is the significance of the 'mirror box' experiment mentioned in the script?
-The 'mirror box' experiment is significant because it demonstrates a simple, non-invasive method to alleviate the sensation of a phantom limb. It shows how creativity in science can lead to effective and low-cost solutions to complex problems.
Why does the speaker emphasize the importance of not being too serious in life?
-The speaker emphasizes the importance of not being too serious because it can hinder creativity and the ability to enjoy life's randomness. By maintaining a sense of humor and light-heartedness, individuals can be more open to new experiences and ideas.
What is the speaker's advice on how to cultivate creativity?
-The speaker advises cultivating creativity by developing habits such as not compartmentalizing thoughts, having an opposable mind, protecting hobbies, having low latent inhibitions, taking half-chances, and maintaining a sense of humor and light-heartedness.
Outlines
đ€ The Role of Humans in Creativity
The speaker begins by emphasizing the importance of creativity in the face of increasing automation. They argue that humans should focus on being creators, as machines will surpass human efficiency. The speaker proposes cultivating habits of highly creative individuals and differentiates between creativity and innovation. Creativity is defined as the ability to generate novel and useful ideas, while innovation is the commercialization of those ideas. The speaker uses Leonardo da Vinci as an example of a polymath who combined science and art, suggesting that creativity involves not compartmentalizing but integrating various fields of knowledge.
đ§ The Opposable Mind and Hobbies
The speaker discusses the concept of the 'opposable mind,' which is the ability to hold two contrasting ideas without making a quick decision, exemplified by Steve Jobs' insistence on a buttonless phone. They also touch on the importance of hobbies in fostering creativity, suggesting that hobbies provide self-confidence, new perspectives, and opportunities for making new connections. The speaker encourages the audience to protect their hobbies from the demands of work and societal expectations.
đ» Hobbies and Latent Inhibition
The speaker explains how hobbies can be crucial in later life, especially during retirement, by providing self-confidence, new perspectives, and opportunities for networking outside one's professional domain. They introduce the concept of 'latent inhibition,' which refers to the brain's filtering system that can limit creativity. The speaker argues that individuals with lower latent inhibition are more creative, as they are more open to new experiences and ideas.
đ§ The Relationship Between Creativity and Latent Inhibition
The speaker delves deeper into latent inhibition, explaining how individuals with lower inhibitions are more creative, even if they have moderate IQs. They discuss the implications of this finding, suggesting that attitude is more important than intelligence in fostering creativity. The speaker also emphasizes the importance of asking questions over knowing answers, especially in the information age where answers are readily available through search engines.
đ€čââïž Embracing Chances and Experimentation
The speaker concludes by advocating for taking half-chances and embracing failure as a means to learn and grow. They discuss the importance of low alertness and being open to small stimuli for fostering creativity. The speaker also encourages the audience to take it easy, to not confuse seriousness with sincerity, and to enjoy the randomness of life. They suggest that creativity can be cultivated like stamina, and they end with a call to action for the audience to adopt habits that foster creativity.
Mindmap
Keywords
đĄCreativity
đĄInnovation
đĄHabits of Creative People
đĄOpposable Mind
đĄDeferring Decision-Making
đĄHobbies
đĄLatent Inhibition
đĄPolymath
đĄSpatial Thinking
đĄTaking Half Chances
đĄPhantom Limb
Highlights
Humans should focus on creativity as machines become more efficient.
Creativity is the ability to generate novel and useful ideas.
Innovation is different from creativity; it's about commercializing ideas.
Leonardo da Vinci exemplified creativity by combining science and art.
Highly creative individuals don't compartmentalize; they blend science and art.
The opposable mind in creativity involves deferring decision-making.
Steve Jobs had an opposable mind, delaying decisions until necessary.
Albert Einstein's violin playing influenced his development of the theory of relativity.
Hobbies are crucial for creativity as they provide self-confidence and new perspectives.
Creative people protect their hobbies fiercely from external pressures.
Latent inhibition is a characteristic of highly creative individuals.
People with lower IQ but low latent inhibition can be highly creative.
Creativity can be cultivated, similar to building stamina.
The importance of asking questions over knowing the answers in the information age.
M.S. Dhoni is a role model for taking half chances and developing muscle memory.
Experimentation is key to understanding one's life calling.
The mirror box experiment shows creativity in solving neurological issues.
Taking half chances and viewing life's randomness can lead to creativity.
Transcripts
so thank you very much Suzanne absolute
privilege to talk about creativity and
today's tomorrow is creativity with the
advent with which machines are taking
over the piece of work that is supposed
to do it's important that humans carve
out the niche that we have left far
behind
I strongly propose that humans are the
agent of creation there's nothing better
than creation that we are supposed to do
you're not supposed to be as efficient
as machines are and in the fight that we
have between humans and machines
eventually machines will take over so
what I am proposing to all of you today
are the habits of highly creative
individuals what I use of phrases habits
these are habits the way successful
people have a few habits even creative
people have a set of habits and their
way habits can be cultivated my
resolution to all of you would be and
let us see if you can cultivate some of
these habits but even before I delve
into that I would like to propose a
working definition of what is creativity
because as students employees at all we
often confuse these two phrases what is
creativity and what is innovation let us
start with creativity creativity is the
ability of an individual or a group of
individuals to come up with ideas which
are novel and useful there has to be
novelty and there has to be utility if
an idea is not useful it's like a
daydream but if an idea is useful but is
not novel it's like a common sense we
all have one let's look at innovation
innovation is not same as creativity
innovation is the ability of a company
or a group of individuals to
commercialize an idea it doesn't need
you to generate an idea but needs you to
commercialize an idea so allow me for
the next few minutes to take you through
some of the most creative people that
have dealt amidst us and the practices
that they have let's start off with this
one of the most famous polymaths that we
have ever known
da Vinci now what you see on the image
here is a vitruvian man
this figure is less known that it took
about 200 scientific measures for da
Vinci to draw this figure one other
rather more famous paintings of da Vinci
is Mona
it might be very surprising to most of
you that it took da Vinci good 22 ears
to roam on ELISA 22 years if you compare
that with the standards of living that
we have today
that is pretty much 1/3 of a living life
you can pretty much declare da Vinci has
a very tardy lethargic man who has taken
22 years draw a single painting so much
so that he took six long years to draw
the lips of Mona Lisa six years draw the
lips of Mona Lisa why why did he take
such an excruciating amount of time to
do something close about 600 years back
the answer lies in his ability to
connect science with art same applies to
Steve Jobs or Elon Musk so another very
important characteristics of people who
are highly creative is that they don't
compartmentalize in their head science
and art they pretty seamlessly mix
science are not he was an artist a
scientist a biologist a physicist in
equal measures so much so that six years
into drawing Mona Lisa he was on going
anywhere he abandoned the project and it
took a course in one of the universities
in Italy where he was on biology and for
all that you know is our dissecting
human beings and this very golden ratio
that we know of three is to four which
is very eloquently depicted in this book
called a da Vinci Code
wasn't learned by theory he practiced he
dissected human bodies of course dead he
dissected horses he dissected almost all
animals and then he wasn't done yet he
joined a null universe in Italy and this
time he studied optics in optics he
studied that when a light falls on a
certain object how does it reflect
deflect absorb absorb and he brought the
understanding of biology and optics to
Mona Lisa now Mona Lisa then is not a
painting it's science
so my first submission to you is that
whether you are a scientist or an artist
drone draw the boundaries in your head
things have to be far more seamless than
what you're supposed to be thinking as
second important thing about creative
people is what we call as opposable mind
you are said to be a great manager or
even a great thinker if you can take a
decision
quickly where there is the funny thing
about the creative people creative
people don't take decisions quickly
on the contrary creative people defer
decision-making we have a phrase in
creativity which says that if you have
to take a choice don't don't take a
choice don't even make a choice and
that's what we call as opposable mind
opposable mind is like your opposable
thumb you know we all have these two
opposable thumbs
you must never had this opposable thumb
what happened to us was that through
years of evolution this this fifth
finger over here started slipping it
didn't happen overnight nobody woke up
saying that oh I have got something
funny here it didn't happen in one
generation either nobody said look my
kid has a thumb it didn't happen that
way it happened through years of
evolution when this fingers are slipping
from here and the moment this became
this opposable thumb a revolution
happened for the very first time the
primordial scan now hold things like
this I can hold things I can make tools
with the help of these tools I can go
and kill and from a nest whether all of
a sudden I become a hunter-gatherer with
the hunter-gatherer I need to
communicate back to my nest I can't
communicate back to my nests in
syllables like birds or chirping like
birds I need a strong vocal cord for a
strong vocal cord I need an erect
backbone for erect backbone I need to be
able to have a vocabulary storing
mechanism and that's what is called as
neocortex so if you look back at the
evolution of human beings it all
happened
with this very lucky accident called the
opposable thumb so the creative people
have something called the possible mind
which means that they can hold two very
contrasting ideas in their mind
simultaneously and choose none it's not
about choice making it's about deferring
the judgment Steve Jobs the poster boy
the late Steve Jobs the poster boy of
innovation he wanted a cell phone that
works like any other cell phone without
a button and for the first six months
the entire battery of brilliant
engineers fought with him that sir at
least give us two buttons so he said no
no button and now he must be turning his
grave with iPhone X coming without a
single button now and that's what we
call is a possible mind
don't take a decision unless and until
it is required
stay with the problem when I'm what I
mean by staying with the problem I also
mean sleeping with the problem and for
those of you are married you would
understand what I mean sleeping with the
problem so a possible mind is very
critical when it comes to creativity
another important thing is this now have
you ever imagined Albert Einstein
playing violin for God's sake the only
images that might conjure up in your
mind about this man is either is stung
stretching out or some very unimaginable
unconceivable mathematical equation on
the blackboard behind him playing a
violin doesn't occur to us isn't it but
less known phenomena is that he was an
extremely good violin player so much so
that the recent studies of Albert
Einstein's brain and I'm sure you must
be knowing that Albert Einstein's brain
was smuggled when it's autopsy was done
so the guy who was doing his autopsy
smuggled his brain without any
permission of the family and when the
family did the you know the rituals they
realize that the most important organ is
missing so he dissected the brain into
small pieces shipped it to various
people across US and Canada with the
advancement in the CT scans they rebuilt
his entire brain and realized something
very interesting with Albert Einstein's
brain what they realized is that one of
the sections of the brain of Albert
Einstein was quite similar in its
structure to the section of extremely
good musicians and then they started
talking to musicians extremely good
musicians like hands em er of the fame
of Dark Knight and when they realize
that how musicians become great they
don't start reading the notes they just
don't refer to the notes at all beyond a
point so when musicians become great
they develop what we call a spatial
thinking spatial thinking means thinking
in the space and the less known fact
then remains that is ability to think in
space which came out of his able to play
violin is exactly what helped him
conjure up the theory of relativity so
if I were to propose to all of you that
E is equal to MC square came out of
violin you wouldn't believe me
but that's not too far-fetched and
imagination either which means that we
all need to take our hobbies seriously
let's go back to our childhood days when
did we develop hobbies as a child
hobbies were developed by all of us -
pretty much
occupy the time when a good eight hours
ten hours between sleeping and perhaps
going to that kindergarten and between
that time we're to fill that time
somehow those were the days when we
didn't have these electronic gadgets so
picked up hobbies then we had schools
and more recently we have jobs what a
job does is a job eats away into our
hobbies the fundamental difference here
between a job and a hobby is this a job
is something that you do and you
continue to do with a very clear
external motivation such as a salary a
promotion incentives or whatever else
you have whereas a hobby is something
that you do and you continue to do with
a very intrinsic motivation what I'm
proposing to all of you is that creative
people protect their hobbies very
ferociously they protect their hobbies
from their jobs they protect their
hobbies from the people who evaluate
their hobbies and these hobbies will be
very useful when all of us will be
retiring by the time most of the
students sitting before me will retire
the life expectancy in this country
would be about eighty-five years so you
are actually twenty five boring years in
your life between 60 and eighty-five
boring years when you would not have
huge physical strength when you can't go
out and that's where the hobbies will be
very crucial to you hobbies do three
things to you first thing is that hobby
gives you self-confidence because here
is a point in time when you are not
getting judged in comparison with
somebody else the second thing that
hobby gives you is a new perspective
when you're gardening when you're
cooking when you're painting singing
dancing for your own benefit by the way
you shift your mindset you shift your
mindset from the problem zone to the
solution zone and still keeping in your
mind the problem which you want to solve
and the third thing is that allows you
to have new connections when you're part
of a bike club blood donation camp
gardening camp
Bharatnatyam club etc etc you end up
engaging with people who are outside
your work domain and that is why you
realize that maybe the problems that you
are so grappling with have been solved
already by somebody else in some other
domain so why not just learn from them
and that's why some of the most creative
people are absolutely polymaths they
don't define their life by their titles
or by their roles they define their
lives quite broadly the canvases are
drawn quite neat and quite broad so have
a hobby and more importantly protect
your hobbies hobbies are very important
in life go back to your childhood and
you realize why another important thing
about about the creative class is what I
call as latent inhibition what you see
on the screen over here is a very
interesting gentleman by the name John
Nash the very fascinating movie made on
him by the name Beautiful Mind which got
our man Russell Crowe win the Oscar and
John Nash won the Nobel Prize in
Economics for his work on game theory I
don't know how many have seen the movie
but the movie is an amazing movie I
strongly suggest you watch that movie
what happens in the movie is a depiction
of this man's thinking he is known to be
suffering from mental disorder called
six affray Nia what happens if Sue
frania is that it manifests itself into
two dimensions one dimension is called
paranoia paranoia means that somebody is
conspiring against me a bunch of people
are going to kill me if I cross in my 18
minutes that's called paranoia the
second thing is called hallucination
hallucination moon shot imagining for
example what I am doing right now is
again a bunch of people listening to me
intently
that's called hallucination if you
combine hallucination with paranoia that
becomes six affray Nia now the
interesting thing is this for many years
scientists had this very fascinating
finding the finding was the brain
mapping of people who are sick so
phrenic it's quite similar to the brain
mapping of people who are highly
creative now how is that possible does
it mean then that the people who are
sick so phrenic are bound to be more
creative or worse still does it mean
that the
people who are highly creative abound to
be six or phrenic which is very
disturbing thought isn't it there is a
correlation but there is no causality
one doesn't lead to another both of them
perhaps work together recently there was
this very interesting research paper
that came out in one of the magazines
and this figure popped out in the
research paper what you see on the
screen allow me a minute to explain this
figure do and this will be quite a I
open er to all of you it was to me
actually what is she on the screen are
two categories of people one with a
moderate IQ and one with a very high IQ
let's look at IQ what is IQ IQ is your
mental age divided by your chronological
age multiplied by 100
that's your IQ score mental divided by
chronological in 200 is IQ score
generally IQ score ranges from about 100
to about 160 anybody about 160 is called
a genius anybody below hundred is called
mentally most of us have a IQ
of about 110 at home and one fife at
office depends on a designation however
and 110 at home also depends upon if you
are married or not
having said that pay attention to this
particular image on the y-axis you have
something called creative achievement
score which also suggests that yes
creativity can be measured like
intelligence can be measured with IQ
score even creativity can be measured
and how the creativity part can be
measured that's for some other time and
some other day but remember this one
important thing so to set of people
moderate IQ about say 110 and high IQ
about 150 and then you're trying to
measure their creative scores you have
two cohorts one with a high latent
inhibition and second with a low latent
inhibition let me explain this to you
what is latent inhibition put
constraints on to our cells which does
not allow us to be free and express
ourselves what this image shows is very
interesting that the people who have a
low IQ play pay close attention to all
and especially in the
the parents or maybe tomorrow's parents
today's tomorrow the people with a with
a low IQ score are far more creative
than the people with the higher Q score
provided their inhibitions are low which
means what which means that between
intelligence and attitude its attitude
that matters and not intelligence if I
tell this to my dad he wouldn't agree
because all his life and all my life the
only thing he focused on was how good am
I squaring in-school intelligence now
when my teacher walked into my
classrooms this is what she asked me
that hey Pavan what is 5 into 2 and the
answer was 10 had my teacher acid
slightly different question this time
not what is 5 introduced she would have
asked me power and tell me what are the
various ways I can come up to the number
10 the answer could have been and all of
us would have started yelling out
actually the answer would have been 5
plus 5 5 into 2 2 into 5 10 into 1 11
minus 1/9 plus 1/8 plus 2 30 minus 3 you
see the moment that changed the question
from one answer which is 10 I have so
many answers so what is more important
is not the answer what is more important
is the question and more so in the
Google economy in the Google economy I
don't need to know the answer actually I
just need to know the question what's my
search phrase that's more important
because there are zillions of results
that Google is throwing at me in
milliseconds and I'm not even willing to
go below beyond the page number one and
that's what questions are very important
and having low inhibitions are very very
important don't be so critical about
what others are saying it's perfectly ok
it's absolutely ok because I know for a
fact then if you give too much heat to
people around you possibly you're not
paying attention to yourself and
somebody's very very rightly that the
recipe of sucks is not known but the
recipe of failure is your intent or your
desire to please everybody around
yourself so have inhibitions low it's ok
if you are going to a room going to a
conference where people are completely
straight
it's okay if you're talking about
something where you are not sounding
very intelligent it's okay it's
absolutely okay to have the mind of a
child in the body of an adult and
believe me you this will do a lot of
good to all of us so have inhibitions in
control don't have a very high level of
alertness your alertness has to be low
you should be open to small small
stimulus around yourself small things
start enjoying small things and start
drawing connection on small things and
that's very critical in my opinion
another important thing is taking half
chances he is my role model ms dhoni
and I really wish one day he watches
this video me praising him if you look
at the story of ms dhoni
nothing went along the plan his entire
life is dotted by taking half chances
look at this one over here when he
started stomping off these batsmen eight
out of ten times the guy was in the
crease the batsman was in the crease but
what it did in this entire process of
taking of the bales is develop almost a
muscle memory it took so many half
chances that over a period of time his
reaction time became 0.1 seconds the
best in the field taking half chances
what happens to all of us and more so
with the higher education levels that we
achieve is we start waiting for the
right opportunity in the right frame to
be coming all the way to us but what I'm
suggesting is that creative people
always look at the crack in the door and
they sniff through it they never wait
for the opportunities to be coming to
them decorated the Creator fortunate is
and there are fewer examples in my mind
from this country then this gentleman
over here very created opportunities all
along this way so take half chances you
will fail and if you fail what you need
to understand is the importance of
experiments now this is one of my most
favorite experiments from the space of
neurology what you see on the screen is
a man with a missing limb we call this
is a phantom limb now this is very funny
thing that happens suppose a man's limb
or a a person's limb gets computed the
interesting thing is that this person
whose limbs
because of an accident or disease or a
war when the limb is cut often people
feel a sense of itchiness in the limb
now how do you H a limb that doesn't
exist now there is a very interesting
professor a famous professor in the US
by the name V s Ramachandran who studies
this phenomenon he called this is
phantom limbs phantom limbs means that
of limbs that do not exist but troubles
you now how do we scratch a limb that
does not exist now for long the solution
that these elegant neurologists had was
to do a mental surgery now brain being
such a complex organ there are more
chances of you creating more problems
and solving one if you ever venture in
so he came with this very simple elegant
experiment that works called the mirror
in the box what happens in this
experiment is that a person who has a
amputated limb goes to the box with a
mirror stretches the actual limb on one
side of the mirror and he sees the
reflection of the actual limb stretching
the phantom limb on the other side and
he this reflection fools him to think
that perhaps his limb has got
resurrected and believe me you this
experiment has shown to cure his problem
almost permanently now compare the cost
of this experiment with a neuro surgery
or the cost comparable not at all and
that's what I mean by doing cheap easy
dirty experiments life has to be full of
experiments and only then you will
realize what your calling in life is and
most importantly taking it easy v in our
country have this very fundamental
problem that we confused between
seriousness and sincerity
isn't it true we assume that for a
person to be sincere he or she has to be
serious and that's why my role model the
joker comes to play here what happens is
that because life is so random as a
speaker before me narrated life is so
random there is absolutely no reason to
either draw a lot of pride from your
success a lot of guilt from your failure
when you move along the way keep doing
experiments have latent inhibitions take
half Chancellor's have multiple
affiliations is when you start realizing
and start enjoying
the randomness that life has to offer to
you so my submission to all of you is
that creativity can be cultivated like
stamina can be cultivated and for you to
cultivate creativity there are some
habits that you can I request to all of
you right here is that if you can't pick
up one habit let me call this is one
hobby or one practice from this list
over here that will make my narrative
who was talking about so thank you so
very much and have a good day ahead
[Applause]
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Unit 2: Creativity and Ideas
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