Friday, 30 August 2013

The unfortunate (but necessary) negativity of young genius

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* Because creativity is bound-up with character (specifically, the personality trait of high Psychoticism), it comes in a package. And som...
Monday, 19 August 2013

Shamans and creativity

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* About a decade ago I was reading everything I could find on the subject of shamans - scholarship, ethnography, memoirs and journals, lit...
Saturday, 17 August 2013

Thinking about thinking creatively

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* Creativity is about abstraction of function from the social situation - this is a necessary preliminary to being creative about somethi...
Wednesday, 14 August 2013

Genius, creativity and breakthrough innovations

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* It is necessary to be clear about the relationship between creativity and genius - and the relationship between genius and breakthroughs...
Tuesday, 13 August 2013

Is creativity random? An intrinsic ability? No: ultimately it is a matter of sensitivity to external inspiration

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* Most scientific accounts of creativity converge onto the idea that creativity is one half of a kind of natural selection process by whic...
Monday, 12 August 2013

In an evil society, most creativity will be evil: most creatives will be engaged in destruction of The Good

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* Although I argue for the importance of creativity in human affairs, and therefore of the importance of the creatives who do the primary...

Ordinary genius? Is it real genius? No - only the 'magicians' are real geniuses

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* No ordinary genius is the title of a photographic biography of Richard Feynman. The term comes from a quotation from Mark Kac which s...
Sunday, 11 August 2013

Fake creativity versus real creativity

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* In discussing creativity, a decision must be made as to whether we are going to give primacy to process or outcome. (Not neglecting th...

How to be more creative - gratuitous advice

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* Increasing the proportion of unstructured time alone is the key - as Glenn Gould once said: GOULD: I don't know what the effective ...
Thursday, 8 August 2013

The rarity of creativity

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* I believe creativity is rare, because creative people are rare - and by rare I mean a small minority, the size of which varies between ...
Wednesday, 7 August 2013

Why Concientiousness, Agreeableness/ Empathizing are anti-creative

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* The positive correlation between creativity and Eysenck's Psychoticism trait, also implies a positive correlation with the more spec...
Tuesday, 6 August 2013

Creative is not what you *do*, but who you *are*: the phenomenology of creativity

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* Creative people are made that way: it is personality. But why? What do creatives get out of being creative? What, on other words, is...
Tuesday, 30 July 2013

The (annoying) arrogance of creativity

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* Creativity is a trait: a personality trait. Therefore, although its overall level and expression can be modulated by self-training and...
Monday, 29 July 2013

What of the Mute Inglorious Miltons? - unacknowledged creativity

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* Perhaps in this neglected spot is laid Some heart once pregnant with celestial fire; Hands, that the rod of empire might have sway...
Sunday, 28 July 2013

Implications of the group selection of genius?

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* Suppose that genius benefits group fitness rather than individual fitness, as seems likely to be the case - then this is a precarious si...
Thursday, 25 July 2013

The Head Girl Syndrome - the opposite of creative genius

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* The ideal Head Girl is an all-rounder: performs extremely well in all school subjects and has a very high Grade Point Average. She is ex...

Creative genius probably requires lop-sided cogntive abilities (NOT all round high intelligence)

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* Given that the concept of 'g' or general intelligence breaks down at higher levels of cognitive ability - it is plausible that t...
Friday, 19 July 2013

Dishonesty reduces applied intelligence: re-wires the brain

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* Surveying the modern intellectual scene, the world of public discourse among the educational elites, I conclude that dishonesty does not...

Is intelligence also personality?

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* In contrast to yesterday's posting, which attempts to differentiate qualitatively between intelligence and personality - with person...
Thursday, 18 July 2013

What is "personality"?

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* This is a tricky question - and one to which I do not have a settled answer.  But in the classic research programme into interpersonal...