tl;dr: many of the usual pathways for exposing ourselves to new ideas have been shut down. The most creative will force new ones to develop.
Without citing the research, the consensus seems to be that scientists have no real idea where creative sparks come from.
They appear to come out of nowhere, but according to Steven Johnson, one theory is that they happen as the frequency of exchange of unfamiliar ideas increases.
I’ve written about creativity a few times already, always citing the same video (probably because it is so good). For more, see:
The point here is that the random interactions and the new experiences that come by getting exposed to different ways of doing things are what allow us to develop new neural pathways and increase the probability that neurons will collide in our own brains, sparking innovation.
The Covid Exposure Deficit
Now, maybe it is just me, but I’ve been feeling a dearth of true creative spark/inspiration.
There may be many reasons for this, but I suspect that one of them is the fact that I’m not getting as much exposure to new concepts as I used to.
Travel is obviously a zero. And even errands and social gatherings are down by a whopping 95%.
What I think the solution is that we all need to be more deliberate in searching out new ideas and concepts that will kick start our internal creative processes.
And, since ideas come from anywhere, it’s not about what you read or expose yourself to, it’s about the fact that you are deliberately going deep in exploring new ideas.
This is where we all need to reinvent ourselves.
As my friend Jacob says,
“there’s something about exposing yourself to obscure ideas with no expectation of a return.
There’s something about putting this in your brain because ‘you just never know.’
You can’t orchestrate serendipity.”
Creative Shots of Espresso
To this end, I am thinking about organizing a “NSM Blog Readers Curiosity Meet-Up” to bring together folks who read this blog AND are willing to share a bit of their perspectives with others, just for the purpose of sharing ideas.
Hopefully, it would give all of us a shot of creative espresso.
Let me know if this is something that would be of interest to you.
Whether we do it or not doesn’t matter.
What matters is that each of us redouble our efforts to expose ourselves to new ideaviruses, so we can increase the odds of generating ideas that help us…even if we never know where or when they are coming.
