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The Myth Of Creativity

hanson.gmu.edu

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Re: The Myth Of Creativity

#11

Post by moserware »

The author, Robin Hanson, has done some really great work in prediction markets. One of his papers directly led to the founding of Inkling Markets (YC06).

I sort of get the feeling that this article was indirectly referring to his involvement in the very creative, but highly politicized "Policy Analysis Market" which was a DARPA sponsored prediction market that might have included trading on topics such "a missile attack by North Korea" or "the overthrow of the king of Jordan."

Given how that went down, this article makes much more sense.

Details at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Policy_Analysis_Market

Re: The Myth Of Creativity

#12

Post by chegra84 »

defdac wrote: post #10

Successful innovators usally knows that genius is 1% inspiration or creativity and 99% transpiration - hard work to implement the idea or several ideas until the successful idea and it's implementation is found.

"successful innovators" lol. I have this idea that it takes more than one person to be successful. I think you rarely find the guy with the revolutionary idea and the guy that is the determine hard worker to be the same person. The ideas person is normally a dreamer and likes to change ideas quickly while the determine hard worker is diligent and hates change.

According to Meredith Belbin - "NOBODY'S PERFECT - BUT A TEAM CAN BE" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meredith_Belbin

Although on the surface one person gets all the glory, it takes alot of persons to be successful.

Re: The Myth Of Creativity

#13

Post by RyanMcGreal »

>Instead, the innovations that matter most are the millions of small changes we constantly make to our billions of daily procedures and arrangements.

This is true, but it's important to understand that whole categories of employment actually discourage and even forbid employees from adapting their own workflows to be more productive. Instead their workflows are imposed, often haphazardly or arbitrarily, from above - and often from people who have never actually performed the work they're managing. Workers who are denied any ownership of their own work are all but guaranteed to be cynical and unproductive.

Re: The Myth Of Creativity

#14

Post by RyanMcGreal »

chegra84 wrote: post #12
defdac wrote: post #10

Successful innovators usally knows that genius is 1% inspiration or creativity and 99% transpiration - hard work to implement the idea or several ideas until the successful idea and it's implementation is found.

"successful innovators" lol. I have this idea that it takes more than one person to be successful. I think you rarely find the guy with the revolutionary idea and the guy that is the determine hard worker to be the same person. The ideas person is normally a dreamer and likes to change ideas quickly while the determine hard worker is diligent and hates change. According to Meredith Belbin - "NOBODY'S PERFECT - BUT A…

>I think you rarely find the guy with the revolutionary idea and the guy that is the determine hard worker to be the same person.

I disagree. The only way to arrive at a workable revolutionary idea is to iterate aggressively until you hit on a model that works.

Re: The Myth Of Creativity

#15

Post by chegra84 »

RyanMcGreal wrote: post #14
chegra84 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"successful innovators" lol. I have this idea that it takes more than one person to be successful. I think you rarely find the guy with the revolutionary idea and the guy that is the determine hard worker to be the same person. The ideas person is normally a dreamer and likes to change ideas quickly while the determine hard worker is diligent and hates change. According to Meredith Belbin - "NOBODY'S PERFECT - BUT A…

>I think you rarely find the guy with the revolutionary idea and the guy that is the determine hard worker to be the same person. I disagree. The only way to arrive at a workable revolutionary idea is to iterate aggressively until you hit on a model that works.

Absolutes... words like only...Successfully Entrepreneurs. Be reasonable and say for some workable revolutionary idea. You'll are creating a dogma about entrepreneurship.

It only takes one counter example to brake your false notion of entrepreneurship.

Facebook - when it came out was a hit.

Google Search - they were good from the start, the interface rarely changed

eBay - Unexcepted hit. [The majority of their iteration was done after they were successful] -There is something called luck. For people that arent superstars maybe you are right. All am asking is to be reasonable and say some, not all.

Re: The Myth Of Creativity

#16

Post by RyanMcGreal »

chegra84 wrote: post #15
RyanMcGreal wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I think you rarely find the guy with the revolutionary idea and the guy that is the determine hard worker to be the same person. I disagree. The only way to arrive at a workable revolutionary idea is to iterate aggressively until you hit on a model that works.

Absolutes... words like only...Successfully Entrepreneurs. Be reasonable and say for some workable revolutionary idea. You'll are creating a dogma about entrepreneurship. It only takes one counter example to brake your false notion of entrepreneurship. Facebook - when it came out was a hit. Google Search - they were good from the start, the interface rarely changed eBay - Unexcepted hit. [The majority of their iterat…

You can't warn credibly against absolutes right after writing a generalization like this:

> I think you rarely find the guy with the revolutionary idea and the guy that is the determine hard worker to be the same person. The ideas person is normally a dreamer and likes to change ideas quickly while the determine hard worker is diligent and hates change.

These are caricatures that reinforce the false dichotomy between creativity and hard work.

Re: The Myth Of Creativity

#17

Post by T_S_ »

Words always get mangled in meaning when the enter the business vocabulary. "Leadership" is a good example. We don't really need that many Winston Churchills, and probably couldn't survive having them. Nevertheless we admire the quality of leadership want to emulate it. From what I have distilled over years in the corporate world, its practical meaning there has become "Having the guts to suck it up and get with the program."

So it goes with the word creative. No longer will we judge an artist to be creative by considering only the impression their work makes on the mind, without reference to the price of their work. Instead it will refer to the ability to generate unexpected profits with a limited set of resources by "delighting" the customer.

Exit leadership, enter creativity.

Re: The Myth Of Creativity

#18

Post by bitwize »

The only time I was ever told to "think outside the box" it was because, in my arrogance and hubris, I stubbornly refused to believe or accept something that was completely untenable.

Re: The Myth Of Creativity

#19

Post by chegra84 »

RyanMcGreal wrote: post #16
chegra84 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Absolutes... words like only...Successfully Entrepreneurs. Be reasonable and say for some workable revolutionary idea. You'll are creating a dogma about entrepreneurship. It only takes one counter example to brake your false notion of entrepreneurship. Facebook - when it came out was a hit. Google Search - they were good from the start, the interface rarely changed eBay - Unexcepted hit. [The majority of their iterat…

You can't warn credibly against absolutes right after writing a generalization like this: > I think you rarely find the guy with the revolutionary idea and the guy that is the determine hard worker to be the same person. The ideas person is normally a dreamer and likes to change ideas quickly while the determine hard worker is diligent and hates change. These are caricatures that reinforce the false dichotomy between…

Rarely is not an absolute.Rarely leaves room for outliers, And before rarely, i added i think, making it clear i have no evidence to back this up.

Only - is an absolute. You made no effort to indicate it was an opinion but you present it as an absolute truth.

Re: The Myth Of Creativity

#20

Post by chegra84 »

RyanMcGreal wrote: post #16
chegra84 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Absolutes... words like only...Successfully Entrepreneurs. Be reasonable and say for some workable revolutionary idea. You'll are creating a dogma about entrepreneurship. It only takes one counter example to brake your false notion of entrepreneurship. Facebook - when it came out was a hit. Google Search - they were good from the start, the interface rarely changed eBay - Unexcepted hit. [The majority of their iterat…

You can't warn credibly against absolutes right after writing a generalization like this: > I think you rarely find the guy with the revolutionary idea and the guy that is the determine hard worker to be the same person. The ideas person is normally a dreamer and likes to change ideas quickly while the determine hard worker is diligent and hates change. These are caricatures that reinforce the false dichotomy between…

The main point of my rely was to go down with certain cliche phrase like 1% and 99%.

And with the notion one person builds a company.

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