Belief Makers

A person who has not made his greatest contribution to science before the age of thirty will never do so.

Albert Einstein

Over the past couple of weeks, I've been trying to figure out why people seem to go stupid as they get older. Sure, we become more knowledgeable and adept at dealing with everyday situations. Some of us garner and dole out wisdom and insight.

Yet, it seems that most of become less creative. More and more of what we do is simply what we did the day before. A solution that worked once is applied over and again. Our new work becomes derivative of our previous work and then simply straight forward replaying of what's in the archives. We live lives of greatest hits and reunion tours.

Why is that?

Holding on Too Tight
In the movie Top Gun, an aircraft carrier's best pilot, Cougar, walks into his commanding officer's quarters after nearly killing himself and his navigator when he panicked losing all perspective including the differentiation of up and down.

CO: Cougar you should be in sickbay. What's on your mind?
Cougar: My wife and kids sir.
CO: We've seen this before...
Cougar: No sir, I'm holding on too tight, I've lost the edge.

Perhaps the reason we lose our creativity is because we start hanging on to what we have, we go into preservation mode. Being creative is much more than thought process. In fact, thinking is much more than a function of the brain. What I've been learning lately is that thinking creatively is a byproduct of brains that developed to control and coordinate complex muscle movement and balance. Our brains didn't evolve to support thinking, thinking is just a side effect.

Being creative is not so much a thought process as it is a side-effect of how we live each day. If we live in a way that is open to change, that goes wherever life will take us, that consistently brings new challenges and stimuli into our everyday situations, our brains develop (continually) one way. If we live in a way that is focused on consistency and stability, that resists new challenges and stimuli, and that clings steadfastly to the river bank, our brains develop in another way.

The brain that is open, flowing and constantly encountering new challenges remains (and perhaps becomes more) creative.

Dying to Think
And Jesus said...

I can guarantee this truth: A single grain of wheat doesn't produce anything unless it is planted in the ground and dies. If it dies, it will produce a lot of grain.

John 12:24, God's Word Translation

This statement enforces a great truth. The grain of wheat may remain in the granary for a thousand years and be preserved, but it is useless there. It neither reproduces, nor is food. It is when it falls into the ground and undergoes dissolution, that it brings forth fruit. It is fruitful by giving itself up.

Commentary from the People's New Testament

I've always found John 12:24 to be quite powerful. It's a great reminder of how limited we become when go into preservation mode.

Over the years, I known lots of people who, having made more money than they could ever spend, decided that they wanted to be remembered for more than that. After years of inactivity, they would try to engage the creative parts of their brains. Some CEO's would become interested in the actual content of the businesses they ran, not just the numbers. Some technologists would suddenly become interested in invention and creating something to benefit the world, not just being recognized for their position or work they'd conducted thirty years prior. Others would invest themselves in causes offering pro bono leadership and management skills to organizations that couldn't otherwise afford them.

The thing is that I've never seen this done well. The CEO's who hadn't been hands-on operators for years, had the authority to make changes, but the changes were not insightful or useful. The technologists, lacking that creative spark and ingenuity, would resort to "collaborating" with younger colleagues to whose work they could attach their names. The business leaders didn't know how to function without support staff, people to build their spreadsheets or create their presentations or print out their emails.

Years of hording and preserving had left them with little in the way of creativity and adaptability.

Willing to Lose
As I think about it, creativity is probably an artifact of adaption and proportional to adaptability. Essentially, adapting to new environments, challenges and stimuli build the thought muscle required to be creative. However, if we find ourselves in positions of preserving, maintaining stability, playing not to lose, then we spend little time adapting.

As for me, I think that in some ways I'm a lot like Mark K and my dad. One of my biggest motivators is not being bored. However, our approaches to not being bored are quite different. I think my dad's and Mark's solution to boredom is to be entertained by others. Mine is to move on to the next thing once I've got the current thing down.

At first I was thinking that I'm not afraid to lose everything, but I'm not sure that that's it. It's not the absence of fear, it's just that I'm so attracted to new challenges and learning, the thought of losing doesn't really occur to me.

I guess that for some people, that would make me stupid.

So What?
OK, so what? I'm not really sure. I just started writing this morning and here I am.

I guess what I'm saying is that letting go, embracing new challenges and opportunities, jumping into arenas where you have absolutely no clue, and forgetting about preservation are all key to staying and becoming more creative. I'm also coming to the conclusion that a word full of creative thinking people is one in which I prefer to live.

What do you think?

Happy Saturday, Teflon

Labels: all blogs, mark tuomenoksa, philosophy