What It Means To Be Creative

not easy for me to say it in english.

a few times ago, during the foundry workshop in Mexico, someone once told us about a reportage he had to do on mobile phones. in a first time, he wasn’t himself interested in it, but finally found a way to make it enjoyable at least for him. and if you enjoy doing it, probably it will be so for the reader/audience.
that’s what is called creativity… no?
at least this is how i can understand it.

just my one peso thought.

I don’t know of creativity having anything to do with religion or money in the English language.
Perhaps you could give me some examples, I would love to hear them.

Many of the most creative people I know in America are working class and atheist.
I don’t see the relationship.

I hear the Finnish language is very different from the English language.
Perhaps something is being lost in translation?

He was obsessed with EVP, or electronic voice phenomena,
because he was one of the first to observe EVP, having helped invent magnetic tape.

Supposedly he spent the last 10-11 years of his life developing a necrophone,
a device that enabled people to talk to the dead.

When he died all his blueprints and prototypes for the necrophone could not be located.

*

Also, here’s a quote via (Howard Owens’ Blog) relating to creativity from Theodore Roosevelt:

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles,
or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.

The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood;
who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again,
because there is no effort without error and shortcoming;
but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions;
who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement,
and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly,
so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."

“If Edison had a needle to find in a haystack, he would proceed at once with the diligence of the bee to examine straw after straw until he found the object of his search. I was a sorry witness of such doings, knowing that a little theory and calculation would have saved him ninety per cent of his labor.”

“My method is different. I do not rush into actual work. When I get a new idea, I start at once building it up in my imagination, and make improvements and operate the device in my mind. When I have gone so far as to embody everything in my invention, every possible improvement I can think of, and when I see no fault anywhere, I put into concrete form the final product of my brain.”

“Before I put a sketch on paper, the whole idea is worked out mentally. In my mind I change the construction, make improvements, and even operate the device. Without ever having drawn a sketch I can give the measurements of all parts to workmen, and when completed all these parts will fit, just as certainly as though I had made the actual drawings. It is immaterial to me whether I run my machine in my mind or test it in my shop. The inventions I have conceived in this way have always worked. In thirty years there has not been a single exception. My first electric motor, the vacuum wireless light, my turbine engine and many other devices have all been developed in exactly this way.”

“Like a flash of lightning and in an instant the truth was revealed. I drew with a stick on the sand the diagrams of my motor. A thousand secrets of nature which I might have stumbled upon accidentally I would have given for that one which I had wrestled from her against all odds and at the peril of my existence.”

“The scientists of today think deeply instead of clearly. One must be sane to think clearly, but one can think deeply and be quite insane.”

Quotes by Nikola Tesla – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla

…i was with you (him) right up until be brought up sanity.

;)

“Creativity is knowing to hide your sources.” A.Einstein

I used to work in science, but I think the arts allow people to be really creative and original. I find photography to be rather limiting, though, because in photography you take a picture of the preexisting objects. Now because of the digital manipulation, one might be able to create something unique from a picture you have taken.

When you are very creative, it might be difficult for you to have your creations accepted by many people at first. For example, I have created some photos that one friend of mine bought, but the same friend lectured me how I should compose based on her impressions of one of my latest musical compositions.

I might add that Stupid`s quote, “Creativity, like genius, is 1% inspiration, and 99% stupid perspiration.” reminded me of a book a mountain climber Reinhold Messner wrote called “Moving Mountains: Lessons on Life and Leadership.” I have a copy of the German original, and he has a diagram called “Grenzgaenger in Aktion” (I might translate Grenzgaenger as pioneer). First the person posesses selfunderstanding in the center. He (or she) will have meaning and vision, style and creativity, risk, leadership, motivation, strategie, action, and capability. He drew a man/woman and placed selfunderstanding at the center. Creativity is one of the branches from the selfunderstanding center. Therefore in this scheme, creativity is just one tiny part of the whole pioneering process.

I had another look at the Messner book. He listed what he call “my creativity tricks” at the end of his book, Moving Mountain…. His list includes dreaming, a cold shower, etc.

One of my psychologist friends told me that higher levels of creativity
relate to what’s called “self-actualization” on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.

I did a little research on it and compiled some excerpts from some articles about self-actualization:
http://gonzopj.blogspot.com/2008/07/are-you-living-up-to-your-full.html

Maslow’s description of self-actualization characteristics reminded me of people like Chomsky.

SP, thanks for those Tesla quotes. He was a total badass who was also way ahead of his time.
He was also suppressed by the establishment and marginalized by society, what a surprise.

Mustafah, great work on the MJR Photo Collective Blog man!
Very “creative” vision you have.

Laetitia, great quote, well said. Thanks for sharing.