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New study shows highly creative people’s brains work differently from others'

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Re: New study shows highly creative people’s brains work differently from others'

#91

Post by popcube »

inglor_cz wrote: post #36
robonerd wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you're speaking of interest and motivation, without which you won't try to be creative or hit the gym. But I believe the capability still exists within you, even if you choose to ignore it. Nobody is unable to be an artist because of the way they were born.

I am not sure if this is distinction without difference. A part of being an artist is, for me at least, the drive to do something. Myself, I write quite a lot (in Czech), I have published 7 books so far. I am not claiming to be a big artist, merely a mediocre one, but I notice that I don't really have a choice. I have to write something almost every day, much like a full toilet bowl has to overflow.

I will say this is your gift, a lot of talent people can work hard than anyone

Re: New study shows highly creative people’s brains work differently from others'

#93

Post by dboreham »

cutler wrote: post #52

This is why I disagree fundamentally with TDD - it kills the creative spark. Whatever happened to hiring dedicated testers in order to give the creatives freedom to do what they do best? Forcing a creative dev to constrain him/herself right out of the gate is an exercise in futility made even worse when you add the requirement to be a Docker+Kubernetes+AWS gun-slinger. Whatever happened to specialisation?

There are many other problems with TDD (caveat: it's a good idea for _some_ projects) besides "it's no fun". Watch the Jonathan Blow video on the subject for the details.

Re: New study shows highly creative people’s brains work differently from others'

#94

Post by user_named »

robonerd wrote: post #24

I believe that everybody has the capacity to be creative, and those who think they don't are impeded not by a lack of creative spark, but rather by their own inhibitions and belief that they aren't creative. Part of this is cultural; engineers are told by society that an engineer/artist schism exists and incorporate that meme into their self-image, writing off their own ability to be creative. This becomes a self-ful…

I have an engineering degree and work in tech. I've also been part of more than 30 exhibitions around the world.

Creating a new web app side project and an art project in whatever medium is exactly the same type of creative work.

However, being somebody working inside a large institution, whether tech or art, is not creative because you are limited by the org what you can say do and in practice even think. You cannot be creative there.

So the environment either permits you or restricts you from being creative. You need to breakout and create your own environment to be creative in.

And, once you become an established artist you have certain rules to follow so you can no longer be as creative as when you started out.

Re: New study shows highly creative people’s brains work differently from others'

#95

Post by jaten »

cutler wrote: post #52

This is why I disagree fundamentally with TDD - it kills the creative spark. Whatever happened to hiring dedicated testers in order to give the creatives freedom to do what they do best? Forcing a creative dev to constrain him/herself right out of the gate is an exercise in futility made even worse when you add the requirement to be a Docker+Kubernetes+AWS gun-slinger. Whatever happened to specialisation?

Wow. I have the exact opposite experience with TDD. I use TDD to set a specific goal, and to have the computer tell me almost instantly when I've reached it. Then I can unleash creativity in trying implementations, and know instantly if they've worked. Occassionally I'll get a lucky guess in that works. Such a great feeling knowing immediately that my intuition was right.

Re: New study shows highly creative people’s brains work differently from others'

#96

Post by jnash »

robonerd wrote: post #24

I believe that everybody has the capacity to be creative, and those who think they don't are impeded not by a lack of creative spark, but rather by their own inhibitions and belief that they aren't creative. Part of this is cultural; engineers are told by society that an engineer/artist schism exists and incorporate that meme into their self-image, writing off their own ability to be creative. This becomes a self-ful…

> I believe that everybody has the capacity to be creative

I like your optimism but it isn't my experience. Creative people can't help but be creative. They need no prompting, no encouragement, no practice etc. They just do it. I personally need to create things and feel like I am missing something or wasting my life if I am not busy with projects. Most people I know aren't like that at all.

Re: New study shows highly creative people’s brains work differently from others'

#97

Post by abernard1 »

robonerd wrote: post #32
inglor_cz wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"I believe that everybody has the capacity to be creative" Maybe, but I am almost certain that this capacity is highly unequal. Some people are like walking geysers of inspiration and you cannot suppress them culturally anymore than you can prevent the July sun from baking the sand. Others are decidedly low-voltage even when it comes to private creativity (such as decorating your own home). It is the same with muscle…

I think you're speaking of interest and motivation, without which you won't try to be creative or hit the gym. But I believe the capability still exists within you, even if you choose to ignore it. Nobody is unable to be an artist because of the way they were born.

> But I believe the capability still exists within you

Maybe, but the thing about creative people is they create. Creativity isn't about potential, it's about an objective act of making something new.

Re: New study shows highly creative people’s brains work differently from others'

#98

Post by astrange »

SeanAnderson wrote: post #83
matthewsmith2 wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your comment reads a bit like this: I am creative. If you are not, it is because you lack the willpower. Funnily enough, it is the reverse expectation that is often placed. "If you can't concentrate, it's because you lack the willpower" etc. I lived under this burden that something was wrong with me my whole life; that I had some character flaw that made me unsuccessful at things that other people find easy. And then…

May I ask how you know your new, medicated behavior is representative of how normal human beings think? I don't consider myself to have ADD, but I have taken Adderall. It increased my ability to focus, focusing on tasks is rewarded in society, and I felt like the positive effects of it made me a better version of myself. I stopped because I didn't appreciate some of the negative side-effects. It seems common for peop…

Stimulants make you better than baseline on some tasks, but definitely not all of them, and not all creative ones. (Especially if you lose out on sleep or your teeth start falling out from abusing them.)

It's usually pretty obvious if you have ADD, and it's not "you're bad at your job", it's more like "everything outside your job is falling apart". Your job provides enough stress to concentrate on it most of the time.

Adderall also doesn't make you "more stimulated" like caffeine does - a regular psychiatric dose should make you a little calmer, since your life isn't falling apart anymore.

Re: New study shows highly creative people’s brains work differently from others'

#99

Post by exmadscientist »

UnpossibleJim wrote: post #26
exmadscientist wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Speaking as someone with family experience with a very closely related thing... oh man, it's totally 100% visible from birth or nearly so. Some brains are just different . And, unfortunately, the schizophrenia thing discussed above is real too. Not that it's necessarily genuine schizophrenia or even some watered-down version, just that these things live in the same metaphorical neighborhood and you cannot pretend oth…

I only bring it up because I graduated from art school and now I code all day for my job (I'm older with a family to support) and the difference in my thinking styles is noticeable. Not only to me, but to my friends by the way I speak and in my personality. This leads me to the "chicken and the egg" question. So often people look at coding as an acquisitionable ability, where as they view creative ability as somethin…

> the difference in my thinking styles is noticeable. Not only to me, but to my friends by the way I speak and in my personality

I agree that's a real effect. (I think a big part of it is the people around you, too.) I'm pointing out that there are some people in this world whose thinking is not like the rest, and there's no amount of environmental difference that can explain or erase it.

> This leads me to the "chicken and the egg" question. So often people look at coding as an acquisitionable ability, where as they view creative ability as something you have to be born with, discounting the years if effort that goes into those abilities. Be they cooking, painting, writing, what have you.

I also completely agree with this. I think that even if not everyone can be the "Michael Jordan of creativity" (okay, there's a better example... just, my own creativity, you know...), it still does every one of us massive good to exercise our brains.

Re: New study shows highly creative people’s brains work differently from others'

#100

Post by astrange »

dboreham wrote: post #93
cutler wrote: post #52

This is why I disagree fundamentally with TDD - it kills the creative spark. Whatever happened to hiring dedicated testers in order to give the creatives freedom to do what they do best? Forcing a creative dev to constrain him/herself right out of the gate is an exercise in futility made even worse when you add the requirement to be a Docker+Kubernetes+AWS gun-slinger. Whatever happened to specialisation?

There are many other problems with TDD (caveat: it's a good idea for _some_ projects) besides "it's no fun". Watch the Jonathan Blow video on the subject for the details.

The classic example is sudoku, where all the TDD advocates failed to get there because they spent their time testing incorrect ideas instead of actually thinking their way to a solution. You can't build a moon rocket a step at a time, as they say.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3033446

But I do think if you're going to write sudoku you should start with an end to end test, i.e., a solved sudoku problem.

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