Iconoclast

Since I have apparently been having difficultly with "thinking creatively" I embarked on a mission to try and make myself a little more creative. The first step was to try and figure out why I might be thinking more traditionally and work on moving away from that.

While I was gone for Thanksgiving, I read a great book by Gregory Burns, who is a neuroscientist at Emory. The books is entitled "Iconoclast: a neuroscientist reveals how to think differently." Since I am a scientist by nature, I inherently understand that there is a biological underpinning that is the foundation for the way we think. Gregory Burns breaks this down very nicely and gives a very complete review of how we make decisions in the context of actual biology based on his work and others.

Since the brain uses so much energy in navigating our day-to-day lives, it has adapted over time to be as efficient as possible. As a result, the brain ends up taking a lot of short cuts. These short cuts are usually based on past experiences and what is familiar. It is this adaptation and our comfort with familiarity that is the basis for destroying our own creativity. Because it takes more energy for the brain to reach a novel conclusion than it does for us to base a conclusion on a familiar experience, creativity often suffers.

While the book is a few hundred pages long, this is the basic concept that you need to take away. Fortunately, once you realize how many of your perceptions are based on stagnant experiences, you can try not to fall into the "uncreative trap." Burns recommends putting yourself in new experiences with new people and seeing new things that you can't explain by past experience. Under these circumstances your brain will not be able to explain its circumstance based on past experience and will have to adapt and develop a novel perception of the situation....do this enough and your brains default mode can become "develop a novel perception for every situation."

I think I am in a unique place to try to develop creatively. As a scientist, I get new data every day. Instead of trying to place my data in the context of what I already know, I can try to look at it context-free and try and develop my own interpretation. Maybe if I do this enough every day, I will finally make some progress.

Regardless of how much this actually helps me, its an idea and worth a try. I'll let you know how it goes!