There’s a great article From Wall Street Journal that inspired me.
As one who counts himself a creative, and who always thought himself wired for creativity, I loved reading this article.
as Jonah Lehrer writes, in the last decade or so science has finally started asking the questions: what makes someone creative?, and how does Creativity work?
Research led by Mark Beeman and John Kounios has identified where that flash probably came from. In the seconds before the insight appears, a brain area called the superior anterior temporal gyrus (aSTG) exhibits a sharp spike in activity. This region, located on the surface of the right hemisphere, excels at drawing together distantly related information, which is precisely what’s needed when working on a hard creative problem.
Fascinating isn’t it? He’s just getting started!
Interestingly, Mr. Beeman and his colleagues have found that certain factors make people much more likely to have an insight, better able to detect the answers generated by the aSTG. For instance, exposing subjects to a short, humorous video—the scientists use a clip of Robin Williams doing stand-up—boosts the average success rate by about 20%. Alcohol also works. Earlier this year, researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago compared performance on insight puzzles between sober and intoxicated students. …Drunk students solved nearly 30% more of these word problems than their sober peers. The answer involves the surprising advantage of not paying attention. Although we live in an age that worships focus—we are always forcing ourselves to concentrate, chugging caffeine—this approach can inhibit the imagination. We might be focused, but we’re probably focused on the wrong answer.
The article goes on to talk about various kinds of problem solving problems and solutions involving various forms of creativity and in some cases sticktoitousness.
Check out the article and then drop by Innocentive.com and contribute your creativity to those willing to pay for creative solutions to their frustrating problems.
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