Creativity Flow and Psychology of Discovery and Invention

1. CreativityFlow and Psychology of Discovery and Invention Author: Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Presented by: Nikhil Singh

2. Setting the Stage • What’s the good of studying creativity? • The results of creativity enrich the culture and indirectly improve the quality of our lives • To understand better a way of being that is more satisfying than most lives typically are presented by :Nikhil Singh

3. Setting the Stage • How the study was conducted • Between 1990 and 1995, the author and his students, interviewed a group of 91 exceptional individuals • Selection criteria: made a difference to a major domain, still actively involved, at least 60 yrs old presented by :Nikhil Singh

4. Where is Creativity • Three different phenomena • Person who appear to be unusually bright • People who experience the world in novel and original ways • Individuals who changed our culture in some important respect • Persons belonging to the third group are included in the study presented by :Nikhil Singh

5. Creativity is the property of system • The Author identifies three main parts: • Domain :: Mathematics is a domain • Field :: Individuals who act as gatekeepers to the domain • Person :: The individual who brings the change • Creativity is an act, an idea, or product that changes an existing domain, or that transforms an existing domain into a new one, and creative person is whose thoughts or actions bring these changes presented by :Nikhil Singh

6. Creativity in the Renaissance The octagonal ribbed dome of the Florence cathedral --Brunelleschi presented by :Nikhil Singh

7. Creativity in the Renaissance • doors of the baptistery of Florence Cathedral (gates of paradise) • --Ghiberti presented by :Nikhil Singh

8. Where is Creativity • Great works of Florentine art would never have been made just because the domain of classical art was rediscovered or the rulers of the city decided to make it beautiful • Without previous models and support of the city, they could not have done what they did • With the favorable conjunction of the field and domain, if these two artists had not been born, some others would have stepped in their place and and built the doors and dome. presented by :Nikhil Singh

9. The Creative Personality • Attention and Creativity • Specialized individuals can learn about their domains in greater depth • Attention is a limited resource • Increasing amount of information constantly being added to the domains • Creativity generally involves crossing the boundaries of domains, conscious effort needed to find an alternative • Maybe the new components of system will be Domain, Field and Team presented by :Nikhil Singh

10. The Creative Personality • An early interest in domain • A person needs access to domain • Access to field is equally important • One word to express what makes these creative individuals different from others is “complexity” presented by :Nikhil Singh

11. Ten Dimensions of Complexity • Have great deal of physical energy, but they are also often quite and at rest • Use two opposite ways of thinking: convergent and divergent • Related combination of playfulness and discipline • They are imaginative, but the novelty they see is rooted in reality • Harbor opposite tendencies on the continuum between extroversion and introversion presented by :Nikhil Singh

12. Ten Dimensions of Complexity • Remarkably humble and proud at the same time • Creative individuals to a certain extent escape rigid gender role stereotyping • Both traditional as well as rebellious • They can be very passionate about their work, or they can be extremely objective • Their openness and sensitivity exposes them to both pain and enjoyment presented by :Nikhil Singh

13. Ten Dimensions of Complexity • Lesson learned • The novelty that survives to change the domain is usually the work of someone who can operate at both ends of these polarities presented by :Nikhil Singh

14. The Process of Creativity • Traditional approach • Period of preparation • Period of incubation • The ‘Aha’ moment • Evaluation • Elaboration • The five stages in reality are not exclusive but typically overlap and recur several times before the process is completed • To be creative you must be involved in doing what you love to do presented by :Nikhil Singh

15. The Flow of Creativity • Motivated by the enjoyment that comes from confronting challenges • Enjoyment comes by • Having clear goals every step of the way • Immediate feedback of one’s action • Give feedback to yourself if not available • Having a balance between challenges and skills • Ability to judge problems presented by :Nikhil Singh

16. Flow of Creativity • Enjoyment comes by • The Merging of Action and Awareness • Concentration focused on what they do • Avoiding Distractions • Spouse, library • Forgetting self time and surrounding • The activity becoming autotelic • Doing them for the experience they provide presented by :Nikhil Singh

17. Creative Surroundings • Importance of being in the right place • Access to domain • Certain environments have a greater density of interactions and provide more excitement and greater effervescence of ideas • Environment can be created because of sudden availability of money, or presence of luminaries • Downside :: too much pressure • Bottom line :: right environment that suits individual is necessary presented by :Nikhil Singh

18. Creative Surroundings • “What helps to preserve and develop individuality, and hence enhance creativity, is an environment that we have built to reflect ourselves, where it is easy to forget the outside world and concentrate completely on the task at hand” • “Personalizing patterns of action help to free the mind from expectations that make demands on attention and allow intense concentration on the matters that count” presented by :Nikhil Singh

19. The Lives and Domains • The Early Years :: to help shape the future of younger people we know • “Recognize the interest when it shows itself, nurture it, and provide the opportunities for it to grow into creative life” • Three domains discussed in detail to give a better understanding of what is involved in producing a cultural change presented by :Nikhil Singh

20. The Making of the Culture • “what is needed is a self-conscious effort to establish priorities and use something like an “evolutionary impact analysis” as one of the basis of social endorsement of new ideas” • Rewards both intrinsic and extrinsic help the flowering of creativity • The Accessibility and Organization of the information helps in promoting Creativity presented by :Nikhil Singh

21. Enhancing Personal Creativity • The first step towards a more creative life is the cultivation of curiosity and interest • Specific advice • Try to be surprised by something everyday • Try to surprise at least one person everyday • Write down each day what surprised you and how you surprised others • When something strikes a spark of interest, follow it presented by :Nikhil Singh

22. Cultivating Flow in Everyday Life • Wake up in the morning with a specific goal to look forward to • If you do anything well, it becomes enjoyable • To keep enjoying something, you need to increase its complexity presented by :Nikhil Singh

23. Cultivating Habits • It is important not to relinquish control over creative energy so that it dissipates without direction • Take charge of your schedule • Make time for reflection and relaxation • Shape your space • Find out what you love and hate about life • Start doing more of what you love and less of what you hate presented by :Nikhil Singh

24. Internal Traits • Develop what you lack • Breaking habits is like breaking bones • Shift from openness to closure • This duel vision doubles the riches of the world we experience and makes it possible to react creatively to it • Aim for Complexity • By fully expressing the tendencies of which we are capable, we become the part of the energy that creates the future presented by :Nikhil Singh

25. Enhancing Personal Creativity • Divergent thinking helps • Important to try as many domains as possible • Find a domain that fits your interests “Luck has a huge hand in deciding whose c is capitalized, but if you don’t learn to be creative in your personal life, the chances of contributing to the culture drop even closer to zero” presented by :Nikhil Singh

26. Thank you presented by :Nikhil Singh