(Part 1)
For years scientific groups have debated this crossroads. Like the nature versus nurture dilemma it has kept many trapped in dualistic thinking. But this black and white framing is itself a psychological shortcut meant to simplify and reduce discomfort.
Based on Being values one of the core values is unity a trait seen in highly creative individuals who reflect on dualities and transform them into unified concepts without necessarily merging them.
Creativity as a skill
It is tempting to present creativity as a learnable skill or daily checklist. A skill anyone can gain through courses. If creativity were defined only as an unreachable innate talent the economic and branding ecosystem around innovation would collapse and many do not want that!
Creativity as innate talent
There are counterexamples. People who through practice repetition and persistence have mastered creative related skills. So creativity must be seen first as an untouched land full of resources. If never discovered or used it has little value. Second creative skills that become a style can be learned but should not be confused with innate creativity. This can be called creative craftsmanship of style.
Nature exists but can flourish or wither. Skill and training influence development but not essence.
If we imagine seeds and soil, good seed in good soil grows most. Good seed in poor soil or poor seed in good soil grow moderately. Poor seed in poor soil grows least.
Humans are more complex but the distribution exists.
Real education means giving both high potential and low potential seeds rich soil so each reaches its maximum possible growth. This is balance not exclusion.
(Part 2)
Imagine traveling by carriage through the untouched lands and wildlife of Africa. You do not know which route will take you to the giraffe area. Suddenly you see a local person who helps you understand the ecosystem map and find the place you wanted to reach. You spend half a day taking photographs and return to the group’s tents. The next day at sunrise you prepare again to go there and move forward with worry. After moving you notice that the carriage’s wheel tracks have remained on the muddy ground. Now with happiness you follow the same path and on those same wheel tracks you reach the habitat of giraffes rhinos gazelles and desert cats. You take photographs and continue your research again and easily return to the tents. You travel this route so many times that the wheel tracks become deeper and deeper.
Wheel tracks of the carriage ≈ neural or synaptic pathways
Wet soil due to rain ≈ infancy childhood youth or individuals with high openness
Drier soil ≈ lower cognitive flexibility
Depth of wheel tracks ≈ amount of practice repetition and understanding challenges
For carriages that want to take other routes it becomes difficult because their wheels repeatedly fall into the deep tracks and changing direction becomes harder than moving through untouched land.
Therefore interference between new carriage tracks and the previous path ≈ proactive interference in memory and learning
This challenge also appears in behavioral addictions such as food media and others.
Going to new places and creating new pathways increases combined creative ideas and innovation. Deepening the wheel tracks makes creative ideas more practical and better. To make forming new neural pathways easier you must water the soil of your path so it stays moist and shapeable meaning learn new activities and new skills and keep your mind away from clichés and biases through reasoning exploration and analysis.
(Part 3)
Imagine a giant spider living inside a room. Over time it fills the entire room with its web. Every point in the room is connected to every other point and the strands themselves are interconnected. Now the spider attaches a small bell to every single thread in the room to protect its web.
You return home after a long trip and walk toward your room. You open the door and face a room completely filled with a massive spider web. You reach your finger toward a corner of the web near the door frame and pluck one strand. Suddenly the entire room begins to ring even the farthest bells. The spider returns and out of fear you freeze one of the three basic defensive responses. Eventually after many explanations the spider accepts you and you become friends.
Creativity in elite individuals with multiple intelligences from the perspective of brain networks is similar to this room filled with a giant spider web. That room is the brain of highly creative elite individuals. Wherever you touch even the farthest points with the smallest movement all the bells in the room begin to ring. For highly creative individuals life feels like this everything is connected and a new idea can emerge from anything. A single focused view or concentrating on one point or one task is more difficult for them than for others. Seeing anything can remind them of something else because their brain networks have developed this way.
With this example understanding their thinking style should not be difficult. Their special synapses create sudden new sparks that astonish people.
These individuals are statistically very rare but when leading teams or collaborating or consulting with organizations they can open new doors with their multidimensional and novel perspective. Unfortunately this type of ability is not recognized in traditional educational systems and those systems are not built to understand or teach such individuals.
Managing such a mind is difficult and requires support and guidance so it can grow and flourish in its areas of strength and reach the highest point in Maslow’s hierarchy.
