WEBVTT - The War on Creativity 0:00:03.120 --> 0:00:06.040 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:06.040 --> 0:00:14.160 Works dot com. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. 0:00:14.200 --> 0:00:17.480 My name is Robert Lamb and my name is Julie Douglas. Julie, 0:00:17.520 --> 0:00:21.680 we find ourselves in January, so they the Christmas has 0:00:21.720 --> 0:00:23.880 once again died down. We don't have to worry with 0:00:23.960 --> 0:00:25.320 that for another year. And we also don't have to 0:00:25.360 --> 0:00:27.920 worry about the War on Christmas for another year. Right, 0:00:28.320 --> 0:00:30.640 that's right? And what do you do in the absence 0:00:31.000 --> 0:00:34.800 of the War on Christmas in these January duel drums? Yeah, well, 0:00:34.840 --> 0:00:37.040 this is actually the perfect time to concentrate on another 0:00:37.120 --> 0:00:42.879 ongoing war, and that's the war on creativity. And it's 0:00:42.880 --> 0:00:44.320 really it's a good time to talk about it because 0:00:44.360 --> 0:00:46.479 January is always it's a time of new beginnings. It's 0:00:46.479 --> 0:00:49.800 a time of you know, of new corporate goals and 0:00:49.840 --> 0:00:53.000 new personal goals, and a lot of times that incorporates 0:00:53.040 --> 0:00:56.320 a certain amount of creative thinking. I want to think 0:00:56.400 --> 0:00:58.520 more creatively, I want to be more creatively. I want 0:00:58.520 --> 0:01:02.360 my company to figure out new and inventive ways to 0:01:02.480 --> 0:01:05.520 go about our process. That's right. In fact, one of 0:01:05.520 --> 0:01:08.160 the things we can pick from in our development goals 0:01:08.560 --> 0:01:11.200 will fall under a theme of I think it was 0:01:11.240 --> 0:01:14.560 like customer service innovation. All sorts of different categories, but 0:01:14.600 --> 0:01:17.360 innovation that's one of them. Creativity essentially, And this is 0:01:17.400 --> 0:01:23.319 a huge cottage industry in the marketplace, right, incorporations. Everybody 0:01:23.360 --> 0:01:26.640 wants and out of the box thinker, someone who can 0:01:26.800 --> 0:01:30.600 really come up with juicy new novel ideas. Yeah, and 0:01:30.640 --> 0:01:32.720 one year we even had like the whole company was 0:01:32.760 --> 0:01:35.839 like Creative Innovation Year, and we had like a fun 0:01:35.920 --> 0:01:38.000 room in the in the office with like being back 0:01:38.080 --> 0:01:40.479 chairs and all that stuff that nobody used. Yeah, well 0:01:40.480 --> 0:01:44.000 because badly we're busy being creative at our desk. Um. 0:01:44.080 --> 0:01:46.600 But it is one of those things that everyone thinks 0:01:46.760 --> 0:01:49.800 they want anyway. I mean, everybody likes the idea of 0:01:49.840 --> 0:01:53.280 being more creative, and everyone sees the fruits of it 0:01:53.920 --> 0:01:57.640 with if you really cherry pick your examples, well that's 0:01:57.680 --> 0:02:03.560 the problem. Everybody loves the after effects of creativity versus 0:02:03.680 --> 0:02:07.400 the oddball ideas, the things that people put out there, 0:02:07.520 --> 0:02:10.040 or even the sort of projects that people are working 0:02:10.080 --> 0:02:14.800 on that seem you know, too strange or uncomfortable in 0:02:14.919 --> 0:02:17.160 order to be accepted. Yeah, now we can. We can 0:02:17.240 --> 0:02:20.720 name numerous individuals who are great examples of Oh they were. 0:02:20.800 --> 0:02:22.680 They were ahead of their time. They were free thinkers, 0:02:22.800 --> 0:02:24.919 and look how it paid off. The two that you 0:02:24.960 --> 0:02:27.960 were mentioning were who Van Go and Jobs. You know, 0:02:28.080 --> 0:02:30.720 at the time maybe a little too obsessive. Some people 0:02:30.800 --> 0:02:32.800 might have thought, oh this is crazy, these ideas are 0:02:32.800 --> 0:02:36.000 coming out of left field. Um. You know, these are 0:02:36.120 --> 0:02:39.679 larger than life characters and they don't really drive with 0:02:40.080 --> 0:02:44.160 everything else that's going on. But but of course now 0:02:44.200 --> 0:02:46.720 and certainly after both their their deaths, they are held 0:02:46.800 --> 0:02:49.560 up as as figures. I mean, Van Go is a is, 0:02:49.560 --> 0:02:52.200 a is a legend of of the art world. Uh, 0:02:52.200 --> 0:02:56.400 Steve jobs is is just cemented as an icon of 0:02:56.440 --> 0:03:00.200 technological innovation. He is. But then you have some people who, 0:03:00.200 --> 0:03:02.800 again they might be the oddball out. Um, I'm thinking 0:03:02.840 --> 0:03:06.080 about Troy Hart to Bias. He is a Canadian scrap 0:03:06.200 --> 0:03:09.960 metal dealer in nature enthusiasts who, after being attacked by 0:03:09.960 --> 0:03:13.679 a bear, became obsessed with constructing a series of increasingly 0:03:13.800 --> 0:03:19.600 elaborate bear proof suits designed to withstand any onslaught essentially 0:03:19.639 --> 0:03:22.760 power armor like this crazy sci fi power armor, in 0:03:22.880 --> 0:03:26.000 order for him to do battle with bears or hold 0:03:26.040 --> 0:03:28.400 his own in the Company of Bears, and he said, 0:03:28.480 --> 0:03:31.000 you know, he thinks that there are applications beyond just 0:03:31.120 --> 0:03:35.080 trying to avoid being mauled by a grizzly. That he 0:03:35.160 --> 0:03:38.840 thinks that government agencies could actually use this in war 0:03:39.080 --> 0:03:41.960 warfare and whatnot. And he's been turned down again and again. 0:03:42.400 --> 0:03:45.480 One there's the idea, because he just doesn't have the credentials. 0:03:45.680 --> 0:03:47.600 And too it's because it's like this one guy who 0:03:47.680 --> 0:03:50.119 became obsessed with a bear suit, right right, Yeah, there's 0:03:50.280 --> 0:03:54.920 a documentary about him, Project Grizzly Who film produced by 0:03:54.960 --> 0:03:57.840 the National Film Board of Canada. I have not actually 0:03:57.840 --> 0:04:00.920 seen it. I really want to. I've seen the trailers 0:04:00.960 --> 0:04:03.520 for it, and it looks like an amazing journey into 0:04:03.520 --> 0:04:05.600 this individual's mind. If you want to check out the 0:04:05.600 --> 0:04:07.560 stuff he's into now, you can go to his website. 0:04:08.080 --> 0:04:11.800 That's www dot Inventor Troy, that's I n V E 0:04:12.040 --> 0:04:14.960 N T O R t r o y dot com 0:04:15.000 --> 0:04:18.080 and you can see that he is still really into 0:04:18.480 --> 0:04:22.000 crazy sci fi looking combat armor. Yeah, and what does 0:04:22.040 --> 0:04:25.560 this take. It takes innovation, it takes takes risks financially 0:04:25.560 --> 0:04:28.720 his own really um, but we end up laughing at 0:04:28.760 --> 0:04:30.799 it in the case of Troy, we end up saying 0:04:31.080 --> 0:04:34.000 that guy's a goofball, he's out of touch. He has 0:04:34.040 --> 0:04:36.760 these crazy inventive ideas, but none of them are landing anywhere. 0:04:37.640 --> 0:04:39.920 This is not the kind of person where most big 0:04:39.960 --> 0:04:42.840 corporations would say that's the brain we want setting in 0:04:42.920 --> 0:04:46.120 on our brain storming meetings. That's right, because you know, 0:04:46.160 --> 0:04:48.960 fifty years from now he might be celebrated. They might 0:04:49.040 --> 0:04:52.159 say he really like he had some very crazy ideas. 0:04:52.200 --> 0:04:55.080 And if you look back at Da Vinci and the 0:04:55.120 --> 0:04:58.400 fact that he made this, what was a wooden automaton 0:04:59.160 --> 0:05:01.640 that sat at his dining table, it's just one of 0:05:01.720 --> 0:05:05.160 his many thought experiments. You know that people sat at 0:05:05.200 --> 0:05:09.320 that dining table with him were like a little office rocker. Yeah, 0:05:09.360 --> 0:05:12.000 but this is necessary. This, this kind of creativity, in 0:05:12.080 --> 0:05:14.640 this idea that you can throw yourself into the void 0:05:14.960 --> 0:05:17.479 and be comfortable with that. Just give this a little 0:05:17.520 --> 0:05:22.080 more background. Here's here just a few noted individuals celebrated 0:05:22.120 --> 0:05:26.160 geniuses who died penniless, who only after their death that 0:05:26.279 --> 0:05:29.040 really people come back and say that person was a genius. 0:05:29.160 --> 0:05:32.320 We should worship their example. We're talking about Nicola Tesla, 0:05:32.560 --> 0:05:38.520 Vincent van Gogh, Edgar Allan, Poe, Socrates, Oscar Wilde, Herman Melville, 0:05:39.120 --> 0:05:43.039 Stephen Foster, Johannes Guttenberg, and those are some pretty big 0:05:43.120 --> 0:05:46.760 names and the sciences and the arts and in philosophy, 0:05:46.800 --> 0:05:49.520 but world changers, world changers. But it was it was 0:05:49.560 --> 0:05:53.560 only an after effect. And certainly, I'm sure they know 0:05:53.600 --> 0:05:56.800 any number of these individuals had numerous contemporaries who did 0:05:56.800 --> 0:05:59.039 not have that kind of impact, and it certainly would 0:05:59.440 --> 0:06:04.040 be given more of the Project Grizzly view by corporations 0:06:04.120 --> 0:06:06.440 or or or even people within their own field. The 0:06:06.480 --> 0:06:08.520 reason for this is that we tend to as humans, 0:06:08.600 --> 0:06:11.800 gravitate towards the middle terrain. And we'll talk more about that. 0:06:12.240 --> 0:06:14.920 But creativity is big problem and why there's a war 0:06:15.040 --> 0:06:18.760 on it is that it contains a risk factor. This 0:06:18.800 --> 0:06:20.919 is really underlying the problem of why a lot of 0:06:20.960 --> 0:06:24.159 people can't get behind it or commit to it. Yeah, 0:06:24.279 --> 0:06:28.440 creative types are risk takers. They tend to buck accepted 0:06:28.480 --> 0:06:30.640 and proven trends. They try new things, and they often 0:06:30.680 --> 0:06:34.120 ignore warnings uh from the more cautious among us, even 0:06:34.160 --> 0:06:37.760 after repeated failures. Uh. So you know, it's like the 0:06:37.760 --> 0:06:40.520 grizzly Man. People have been telling him for ages, Hey, 0:06:40.720 --> 0:06:42.600 let's stop making Maybe you should stop making arm and 0:06:42.640 --> 0:06:45.279 maybe this isn't working out, maybe you should try something 0:06:45.279 --> 0:06:47.240 a little more proven. He's not gonna do it. This 0:06:47.320 --> 0:06:49.600 is his thing, this is his dream, and he's following that, 0:06:49.640 --> 0:06:51.560 and he's gonna follow that into the grave, be it 0:06:52.080 --> 0:06:54.400 at the hands of a grizzly bear or a grizzly 0:06:54.400 --> 0:06:56.960 bear in armor. So so there's a there's a riskiness 0:06:57.160 --> 0:07:00.360 in in hitching a ride on these particular stars, right, 0:07:00.920 --> 0:07:03.599 because if you give someone a choice between a large, 0:07:03.720 --> 0:07:07.160 uncertain reward and a certain smaller award, they're always gonna 0:07:07.200 --> 0:07:09.720 go with something that's more of a sure thing. Yeah, 0:07:09.960 --> 0:07:13.080 unless unless the situation is dire, then they're going to 0:07:13.200 --> 0:07:16.680 roll the dice. But Barry M. Star he actually wrote 0:07:16.800 --> 0:07:19.280 in uh. He wrote a great essay in the book 0:07:19.560 --> 0:07:23.080 called Creative Action and Organizations Ire Tower Visions in Real 0:07:23.240 --> 0:07:27.480 World Voices. He wrote that no one really wants creativity, 0:07:27.600 --> 0:07:30.720 especially corporations, because just what you describe, we're talking about 0:07:30.760 --> 0:07:35.520 someone who is deviating from the norm. They're vulnerable, they're obsessive, 0:07:35.520 --> 0:07:38.760 they're sharing information, they're bucking the system. And he says 0:07:38.800 --> 0:07:41.400 the average person may become intrigued when the glorious of 0:07:41.600 --> 0:07:45.080 successful creativity are hailed by the media, but when presented 0:07:45.400 --> 0:07:48.440 with the bald truth that most scientists never come up 0:07:48.440 --> 0:07:51.680 with any earth shaking findings, most new businesses and in failure, 0:07:51.720 --> 0:07:55.200 and most whistleblowers get demoted or fired. It's not surprising 0:07:55.240 --> 0:07:59.200 that most people usually up for a safer, more normal 0:07:59.240 --> 0:08:02.080 life than that followed by the creative. And if you 0:08:02.120 --> 0:08:04.080 think about it, you know, you hear the corporations say 0:08:04.120 --> 0:08:09.040 we want creativity, we want innovation. Well, that doesn't really 0:08:09.080 --> 0:08:11.840 fit in the model of a lot of corporations because 0:08:12.000 --> 0:08:15.920 uncertainty is that the basis here of creativity. And that's 0:08:15.960 --> 0:08:18.760 kind of a dirty word, you know, incorporations. You wanna 0:08:19.120 --> 0:08:21.520 you wanna have every nook and cranny of a corporation 0:08:22.000 --> 0:08:26.120 sanitized of uncertainty, because that is when the presence of 0:08:26.160 --> 0:08:30.440 it could usher in unforeseen costs and turn up revelations 0:08:30.480 --> 0:08:34.120 that might not square with that corporation's culture. Yeah, we've 0:08:34.160 --> 0:08:37.480 we've talked before about about movies and about trying new 0:08:37.559 --> 0:08:40.000 things in Hollywood, and then's you know, the old adds 0:08:40.000 --> 0:08:41.880 that Hollywood rather roll out the same thing every year 0:08:41.880 --> 0:08:44.560 than try something new and but but then you have 0:08:44.559 --> 0:08:47.640 to remind yourself that the production of any big budget film, 0:08:47.679 --> 0:08:49.680 I mean, that's that's a that's a corporation, that's a 0:08:49.880 --> 0:08:52.120 that's an event that involved lots of money, lots of 0:08:52.120 --> 0:08:54.920 people's jobs. Uh some dudes. Yacht may even be on 0:08:54.960 --> 0:08:58.040 the on the line, and all companies of that size. 0:08:58.080 --> 0:09:00.560 It's essentially the same with an oil company. Whereas an 0:09:00.559 --> 0:09:02.679 oil company gonna drill, are they gonna drill where they 0:09:02.679 --> 0:09:04.400 know the oil is? Are they gonna drill where there 0:09:04.480 --> 0:09:06.920 might be oil? And again, we it's just like with 0:09:07.000 --> 0:09:10.640 the noted individuals, the creative outliers that we we look 0:09:10.679 --> 0:09:12.400 back to him, they go, oh, that person was a genius. 0:09:12.400 --> 0:09:14.440 That was a genius. That guy was ahead of his time, 0:09:14.480 --> 0:09:16.640 that woman was ahead of her time. It's it's similar 0:09:16.640 --> 0:09:18.280 with movies. You look at some of the films that 0:09:18.280 --> 0:09:20.360 went on to be cult classics who went on to 0:09:20.360 --> 0:09:24.640 be highly influential on other um filmmakers, and they were 0:09:24.679 --> 0:09:28.080 flops at the time. Big Lebowski, Big Trouble, A Little China, 0:09:28.120 --> 0:09:31.960 Two of my favorite films Clue, Office Space, Fight Club, 0:09:32.120 --> 0:09:34.880 Citizen Kane. Those are all films that when they came out. 0:09:35.559 --> 0:09:36.880 People really didn't know what to make of and they 0:09:36.880 --> 0:09:38.600 didn't make that big of an effect, and they certainly 0:09:38.640 --> 0:09:42.439 didn't make enough money to justify their their existence. It's 0:09:42.480 --> 0:09:46.040 only afterwards that people gravitated towards them and they made 0:09:46.040 --> 0:09:47.880 money and they made a name for themselves. Yeah, that's 0:09:47.880 --> 0:09:50.240 because they were outside of the realm of what you know, 0:09:50.320 --> 0:09:54.560 the usual sort of Hollywood products. Stamp out, uh was 0:09:54.600 --> 0:09:56.840 a part of right, it was outside of that structure. 0:09:57.120 --> 0:09:59.840 And so where that structure is certainty. Right, and again 0:10:00.080 --> 0:10:04.040 talking about uncertainty and risk as being the enemy of creativity, 0:10:04.320 --> 0:10:07.560 now that's not necessarily a bad thing because you think 0:10:07.559 --> 0:10:10.319 about it this way. Are are Magdala's the part of 0:10:10.320 --> 0:10:12.840 the brain that processes fear. They are ramped up in 0:10:12.920 --> 0:10:16.160 situations of uncertainty. All right, this is sort of hardwired 0:10:16.160 --> 0:10:19.560 inness to say, oh, we're not really sure, we're risk adverse. 0:10:19.640 --> 0:10:22.240 We all want to survive. Now, this seems a little 0:10:22.280 --> 0:10:25.880 silly on a Hollywood platform where they're just producing movies, 0:10:26.000 --> 0:10:29.440 but still those people are tied to money, and money 0:10:29.480 --> 0:10:33.440 is seen as survival in our society. Right. So Jack Nitchi, 0:10:33.520 --> 0:10:36.800 a u W. Madison Professor of psychiatry found the uncertainty 0:10:36.880 --> 0:10:41.240 intensifies a person's perception of a bad experience, at least 0:10:41.240 --> 0:10:45.640 in the case of disturbing photos. Um Nitchi showed participants 0:10:45.960 --> 0:10:49.400 and found that the emotional centers and the brain responded 0:10:49.480 --> 0:10:53.280 much more strongly to the material if the person didn't 0:10:53.320 --> 0:10:56.000 know what was coming. So again, we're talking about disturbing photos. 0:10:56.040 --> 0:10:58.839 This is an extreme scenario, but I think that it 0:10:58.920 --> 0:11:03.960 makes the case that in some ways we are overreacting 0:11:04.040 --> 0:11:08.599 to uncertainty because we're hardwired to do that. Yeah, Because ultimately, 0:11:08.720 --> 0:11:10.880 if you take things down to a primal you know, 0:11:11.280 --> 0:11:14.960 life amid the saber tooth tigers example, you want certainty 0:11:14.960 --> 0:11:16.760 in your life as much as you can possibly hoard 0:11:16.840 --> 0:11:19.679 as much as you can possibly grab onto. You want 0:11:19.720 --> 0:11:22.679 the certainty of food, and you want to avoid the 0:11:22.720 --> 0:11:26.240 uncertainty of of a starvation or death at the hands 0:11:26.280 --> 0:11:30.920 of some apex predator out there. And even uh, you know, 0:11:31.000 --> 0:11:32.880 even in some of the small choices in life. As 0:11:32.960 --> 0:11:35.079 much as we we try to think that we're creative 0:11:35.080 --> 0:11:37.440 and we think, oh, you know, I love a highly 0:11:37.440 --> 0:11:39.680 creative work. I love the uncertainty of a of a 0:11:39.720 --> 0:11:42.520 really good book or a really good movie. How how 0:11:42.600 --> 0:11:44.760 much uncertainty are we really comfortable with? Like if I 0:11:44.800 --> 0:11:46.200 were to hand you a book right now and say 0:11:46.520 --> 0:11:49.000 you should read this, I'm not gonna tell you what 0:11:49.040 --> 0:11:52.160 it's called or what it's about, but devote you know 0:11:52.360 --> 0:11:54.480 X and u X hours of your life to reading 0:11:54.480 --> 0:11:56.880 it and just see what happens. You would be hesitant 0:11:56.920 --> 0:11:59.040 to to take that challenge, I would imagine, and so 0:11:59.080 --> 0:12:02.840 would I. I would know about the risk and reward ratio. 0:12:03.080 --> 0:12:05.400 I would say to myself, not really certain here what 0:12:05.480 --> 0:12:07.280 the outcome is going to be there for I will 0:12:07.320 --> 0:12:10.160 default to the norm, which is to push it aside. Yeah, 0:12:10.240 --> 0:12:12.160 I mean one of the big things that we turned 0:12:12.160 --> 0:12:14.080 to the internet for so much is to the vet 0:12:14.480 --> 0:12:16.880 stuff that's coming to us. So even if it is 0:12:17.240 --> 0:12:19.360 a new film that might be dealing with the new idea, 0:12:19.640 --> 0:12:21.800 we want to know who's behind it, who wrote it, 0:12:21.880 --> 0:12:24.640 who's directing it, who start in it, what's their track 0:12:24.720 --> 0:12:28.079 record with success in the past, what do noted critics 0:12:28.080 --> 0:12:29.719 think of it, what do our friends think of it? 0:12:30.080 --> 0:12:32.439 So we in a way, we we still want to 0:12:32.480 --> 0:12:36.280 remove as much uncertainty from our consumption of creative products 0:12:36.320 --> 0:12:37.840 as possible. You know, I was just thinking about the 0:12:37.840 --> 0:12:40.040 normal ty biased episode that we did about how people 0:12:40.080 --> 0:12:45.080 will underreact in a traumatic situation because they want there 0:12:45.160 --> 0:12:48.360 to be that certainty, that the reality that they know. 0:12:48.480 --> 0:12:50.560 Because at the end of the day, the sort of 0:12:50.679 --> 0:12:54.480 patterned reality that we encounter over and over again, this 0:12:54.559 --> 0:12:58.720 idea of normalcy takes a less of a cognitive load 0:12:58.840 --> 0:13:03.480 on us then novel thoughts and uncertainty. So from a 0:13:03.520 --> 0:13:06.079 survival perspective, you want to go with the thing that's 0:13:06.080 --> 0:13:10.000 sort of known, albeit a little bit wrote and possibly boring. 0:13:11.280 --> 0:13:13.640 You know, one of the tragedies is that some of 0:13:13.640 --> 0:13:16.960 the most memorable experiences of our lives, assuming they're not 0:13:17.200 --> 0:13:20.720 negative and kill us or our injurius or traumatize us, 0:13:20.760 --> 0:13:23.640 are often situations that involve a lot of uncertainty. End 0:13:23.679 --> 0:13:26.800 up going on this adventure, right, And the rare opportunities 0:13:26.840 --> 0:13:29.880 that we do read something or view a film or 0:13:29.880 --> 0:13:33.640 consume some piece of of media without any preconceived notions, 0:13:33.720 --> 0:13:37.920 with with next to zero um in terms of anticipation, like, 0:13:37.960 --> 0:13:40.120 some of those can be the most rewarding experiences because 0:13:40.120 --> 0:13:43.360 you're just flying completely blind into the unknown. But if 0:13:43.400 --> 0:13:46.679 given the choice, it's our our natural evolved instinct to 0:13:46.760 --> 0:13:49.599 avoid those kinds of encounters. That's why every once in 0:13:49.600 --> 0:13:52.200 a while you should submit to the crazy makers in 0:13:52.200 --> 0:13:54.040 your life. You know, the people who tried to push 0:13:54.040 --> 0:13:56.120 you into new experiences. Come out to this club, come 0:13:56.200 --> 0:13:59.280 see this play. Yeah, just do it because you could 0:13:59.280 --> 0:14:01.880 get the reward there. All right, let's take a quick break, 0:14:01.920 --> 0:14:03.280 and when we get back, I'm gonna talk a little 0:14:03.280 --> 0:14:06.920 bit more about this biased against creativity and some studies 0:14:06.960 --> 0:14:20.880 that confirm that it exists. Alright, we're back. We're talking 0:14:20.920 --> 0:14:24.760 about creativity and how no matter how much we cling 0:14:24.800 --> 0:14:28.440 to it personally, no matter how much corporations and employers 0:14:28.480 --> 0:14:31.480 will will celebrate creativity in the workplace or make a 0:14:31.480 --> 0:14:34.880 show of it, ultimately we're all a little suspicious of 0:14:34.920 --> 0:14:37.320 the topic to begin with. Yes, there is a paper 0:14:37.360 --> 0:14:40.840 called the Bias against Creativity, Why people desire but reject 0:14:40.840 --> 0:14:44.360 creative ideas and these This paper is by researchers from Cornell, 0:14:44.520 --> 0:14:48.880 University of Pennsylvania and the University of North Carolina, and 0:14:48.960 --> 0:14:52.800 they say, essentially, creative ideas make people uncomfortable. Now, this 0:14:52.880 --> 0:14:56.080 paper is based on two studies from the University of Pennsylvania, 0:14:56.120 --> 0:15:00.000 which involves more than two participants. Yeah, and two experiments. 0:15:00.040 --> 0:15:03.280 They manipulated uncertainty during different models, and the results of 0:15:03.320 --> 0:15:07.400 both experiments demonstrated the existence of negative bias against creativity 0:15:07.840 --> 0:15:11.360 when participants experienced uncertainty. And furthermore, they found that the 0:15:11.400 --> 0:15:15.400 bias against creativity interfered with participants ability to recognize the 0:15:15.440 --> 0:15:18.640 creative idea to begin with. So the results the results 0:15:18.680 --> 0:15:23.200 reveal a concealed barrier that creative actors may face, they say, 0:15:23.280 --> 0:15:27.000 as as they attempt to gain acceptance for their incredible, crazy, 0:15:27.000 --> 0:15:30.760 awesome ideas. Right, because what you're talking about is the 0:15:30.840 --> 0:15:34.480 demand for more of that cognitive load on the brain. 0:15:34.800 --> 0:15:37.400 And then you have the uncertainty factor, and then this 0:15:37.440 --> 0:15:40.720 is so interesting to me that it could actually interfere 0:15:41.200 --> 0:15:45.720 with the person's ability to perceive that as a creative idea. Yeah, 0:15:45.840 --> 0:15:47.800 as it almost as if you know, I can't see 0:15:47.960 --> 0:15:51.520 I've got, you know, hysterical blindness to this idea because 0:15:51.520 --> 0:15:55.680 I'm so overloaded. Yeah, And again, coming back to the 0:15:55.760 --> 0:15:59.120 films and fiction, you so often see like a highly 0:15:59.120 --> 0:16:02.720 creative film that is following an accepted plot path, you know, 0:16:02.880 --> 0:16:05.320 like like none of the plot points or the character 0:16:05.600 --> 0:16:08.000 notes are really going to be that surprising, but it's 0:16:08.080 --> 0:16:11.200 the wrapping that they're in. So even something that is 0:16:11.760 --> 0:16:15.760 on the surface highly creative and highly original is is 0:16:15.800 --> 0:16:19.720 structured in a way that it's very accessible and very uh, 0:16:19.880 --> 0:16:23.560 non frightening. Now, in a nutshell, the paper is saying, Okay, 0:16:23.680 --> 0:16:27.520 the corporations need to take note of this, and if 0:16:27.560 --> 0:16:30.760 they truly want innovation and creativity in the workplace, then 0:16:30.800 --> 0:16:34.640 they need to create a more supportive framework for creativity 0:16:34.760 --> 0:16:36.640 rather than just saying, hey, I want a bunch of 0:16:36.680 --> 0:16:39.280 creative ideas. Because again, if you think about how a 0:16:39.320 --> 0:16:42.880 corporation is set up, um, it tends to default to 0:16:43.320 --> 0:16:46.280 these these sort of norms in the language you hear 0:16:46.360 --> 0:16:48.760 corporate speak all the time, and the way that people 0:16:48.880 --> 0:16:53.840 dress right, um, bucking the system and and being you know, 0:16:54.000 --> 0:16:56.520 sort of going off on your own is frowned upon. 0:16:56.960 --> 0:17:00.320 Now unless you're looking at a business like Google, which 0:17:00.480 --> 0:17:03.000 you know they there's a whole mandate for just go 0:17:03.040 --> 0:17:05.880 off and do something that you're interested in, because the 0:17:05.920 --> 0:17:08.960 idea is that later on they can take that person's 0:17:09.080 --> 0:17:12.480 novel thinking or or crazy making in the workplace and 0:17:12.520 --> 0:17:15.119 get something out of it later, even if it doesn't 0:17:15.119 --> 0:17:18.160 fit into what's actually going on at that very moment. Yeah, 0:17:18.200 --> 0:17:20.800 but for most of us, there's there's at least some 0:17:20.840 --> 0:17:24.399 sort of if there's not an actual dress code in place, 0:17:24.480 --> 0:17:27.480 and there's an implied dress code there, you know, unless 0:17:27.480 --> 0:17:30.400 it's you know, freaky Friday or Halloween or whatever kind 0:17:30.440 --> 0:17:33.040 of day you might have. Yeah, it's that you have 0:17:33.080 --> 0:17:36.840 to wear pants rule in our office, which which totally 0:17:36.880 --> 0:17:40.560 messes with my creative vibe. Okay, So we recently moved 0:17:40.720 --> 0:17:43.760 to a new location and we are sharing a space 0:17:44.040 --> 0:17:46.240 with one part of the business that is involved with sales, 0:17:46.240 --> 0:17:49.119 and then the other part of the business is editorial us. Right, 0:17:49.160 --> 0:17:51.560 and we have two different sides of this office space. 0:17:51.960 --> 0:17:54.960 Did you know I recently found out that the sales 0:17:55.040 --> 0:18:00.359 department calls us the dark Side. Well, that's interesting because 0:18:00.400 --> 0:18:03.080 it reminds me very much of that episode we did 0:18:03.119 --> 0:18:05.919 about the tidally locked worlds. Yes, and I mentioned an 0:18:05.960 --> 0:18:10.560 old sci fi novel about a world where half the 0:18:10.560 --> 0:18:12.040 world is in dark and as half the world is 0:18:12.040 --> 0:18:14.960 in light and on the light side they're ruled by science, 0:18:14.960 --> 0:18:17.280 and the dark side they're ruled by magic. So maybe 0:18:17.280 --> 0:18:19.159 we're like that they're the science with the magic. Well, 0:18:19.200 --> 0:18:22.600 I think initially they called us that because we are 0:18:22.640 --> 0:18:26.199 all apparently sensitive to light, and so we don't have 0:18:26.240 --> 0:18:29.359 any overhead lighting on our side. But you know, this 0:18:29.480 --> 0:18:33.439 weird aversion to harsh artificial light. But we also dressed 0:18:33.440 --> 0:18:35.200 maybe a little nutty, because we don't have to go 0:18:35.280 --> 0:18:38.520 out on sales calls. I will venture to say that 0:18:38.560 --> 0:18:41.440 the break room talk is bizarre just because of the 0:18:41.480 --> 0:18:44.919 amount of topics we're covering. So I kind of I 0:18:45.040 --> 0:18:47.040 sort of love that they have decided to call us 0:18:47.080 --> 0:18:50.320 the dark side. I'll accept it, embrace that. Yeah, Yeah, 0:18:50.680 --> 0:18:52.639 all right, that was a bit of a diversion. Let's 0:18:52.680 --> 0:18:56.359 get back to this idea of creativity and particularly among children, 0:18:56.359 --> 0:18:59.240 because we talked about this before. Children are great at 0:18:59.280 --> 0:19:02.840 dealing with un certainty and making all sorts of new 0:19:03.119 --> 0:19:07.280 associations between things. Yeah, and they are often a great 0:19:07.320 --> 0:19:10.040 place to go for your creative thought. I mean, they'll 0:19:10.040 --> 0:19:11.920 come up with this crazy ideas like I've mentioned. I 0:19:11.960 --> 0:19:15.560 mentioned before going to Uncle Grahampa's the uh, the children's 0:19:15.560 --> 0:19:18.200 puppet show UH that they do here in Atlanta, where 0:19:18.200 --> 0:19:21.160 they let the children shout out ideas for the improv 0:19:21.600 --> 0:19:24.760 puppeteers to then use and at one point to a 0:19:24.800 --> 0:19:26.639 puppeteer said hey, all right, we need a name for 0:19:26.680 --> 0:19:29.040 the princess. What would the princess's name be? And one 0:19:29.080 --> 0:19:32.880 little girl shouted out Batman the girl which is which 0:19:32.960 --> 0:19:35.959 was just hilarious at the time and and just not 0:19:36.000 --> 0:19:38.040 the kind of idea you would expect an adult to 0:19:38.040 --> 0:19:40.480 come up with. Or likewise, there's I think it's called 0:19:40.520 --> 0:19:44.800 Axe Cop. There's like a whole like web series turned 0:19:44.840 --> 0:19:48.120 cartoon series where the ideas originated with this little girl 0:19:48.200 --> 0:19:50.280 and then her her father took the ideas and they 0:19:50.280 --> 0:19:52.120 were you know, it was like goofy stuff, like here's 0:19:52.160 --> 0:19:53.520 a cop and he's on the beat, but for some 0:19:53.600 --> 0:19:55.600 reason he runs around with an axe instead of that 0:19:55.680 --> 0:19:58.359 I've done. So on the surface of things, you would think, 0:19:58.359 --> 0:20:00.520 all right, well, children are just a font if creativity. 0:20:00.520 --> 0:20:03.080 They're just these you know, just wonderful, crazy abstract thoughts, 0:20:03.119 --> 0:20:07.480 just just just bubbling out of the ground. But a 0:20:07.520 --> 0:20:11.040 two thousand ten study, uh, gives us a little more 0:20:11.040 --> 0:20:13.439 information to go on and shows that creativity at les 0:20:13.560 --> 0:20:16.480 American children is actually down in recent years. Yeah, we're 0:20:16.480 --> 0:20:18.800 gonna roll out from these stats here. Sorry about giving 0:20:18.800 --> 0:20:21.800 you the sads, but we're talking about three hundred thousand 0:20:21.800 --> 0:20:25.560 creativity tests going back to the nineteen seventies. Young He Kim, 0:20:25.720 --> 0:20:28.720 a creative a creativity researcher at the College of William 0:20:28.760 --> 0:20:33.040 and Mary, found creativity has decreased among American children, and 0:20:33.080 --> 0:20:37.000 since children have become less able to produce unique and 0:20:37.160 --> 0:20:41.680 unusual ideas, they're also less humorous, less imaginative, and less 0:20:41.720 --> 0:20:46.000 able to elaborate on ideas, according to Kim, and the 0:20:46.080 --> 0:20:49.840 researchers point to a tightly bound education environment like those 0:20:49.880 --> 0:20:53.120 such as No Child Left Behind, an Act of Congress 0:20:53.160 --> 0:20:55.159 pass in two thousand and one that requires schools to 0:20:55.200 --> 0:20:58.119 administer annual standardized tests as a way to assess whether 0:20:58.119 --> 0:21:02.800 they are meeting state educ catian standards. Now, this inadvertently 0:21:02.920 --> 0:21:08.120 hamstrings what and how educators teach and in the scenarios, 0:21:08.200 --> 0:21:10.520 typically teachers don't get to learn to spend a lot 0:21:10.560 --> 0:21:16.119 of time exploring unexpected ideas, so kids as a result, 0:21:16.160 --> 0:21:20.439 they begin to fall in line with the material that 0:21:20.480 --> 0:21:23.520 they're teaching in a very stringent way and anticipating what 0:21:23.600 --> 0:21:26.720 the teacher wants to hear, as opposed to really taking 0:21:26.760 --> 0:21:29.960