Creativity and the Future Part 1 - Alone

1. Creativity and theFuturePart 1 - Alone Presented by David Keenan 2 June 2012

2. Introduction Imagine: How Creativity Works is divided into two sections Alone – individuals (Part 1) Together – groups (Part 2)

3. Agenda – Part 1 • Introduction • Definition • Two types • The Process • The Mechanics • The Factors • Summary – part 1

4. Jonah Lehrer • Contributing Editor at Wired • Author of Imagine, How We Decide and Proust Was a Neuroscientist • Graduated from Columbia University • Studied at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar • Written for The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, Nature, Outside and many other publications • Columnist for The Wall Street Journal • Frequent contributor to WNYC's Radiolab. http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/author/jonah_lehrer/

5. The Book Published March 19, 2012 By Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Video 3:41 and Video 1:21 http://www.amazon.com/Imagine-Creativity-Works-Jonah-Lehrer/dp/0547386079

6. Definitions • Inspiration – literally “breathed upon” • best ideas come from beyond, outsourced • Innovation – from Latin innovatus – “into the new” • Creativity – a catch all term for variety of distinct thought processes • Anthropologist, explorer • Breakthrough, epiphany • Fine tuning, editing, perfecting

8. Swiffer Story • 1980’s Proctor and Gamble • R&D problem – better floor cleaners • Next step - damaged floors, hurt skin • 1995, Continuum, outsiders, studied floor cleaning ritual in homes (as if from Mars) • Watching mop cleaned in tub triggered idea • More time spent cleaning mops than floor • New focus – replace the mop

9. Swiffer, continued • Unable to solve, returned for more observation • Saw sweeping coffee grounds followed by wet wipe • Suddenly clear, a disposable towel on a stick • P&G not thrilled by prototype or concept • Continuum pleaded for a year for focus group • Highest score of any P&G focus group • Two years later (1997) P&G filed for patent • Spring 1999 launched – instant success, $500 mil sales by end of year

10. http://continuuminnovation.com/

11. Two Different Types Friedrich Nietzsche – The Birth of Tragedy 1872 • Dionysian • from wine, intoxication, trusting spontaneous epiphanies • Divergent thinking • Right hemisphere of brain • Expand internal search • Essential for remote associative problems • Assisted by • Warm showers, blue rooms, paradigm shifts, radical restructuring • Apollonian • Attention, focus, analysis • Convergent thinking • Essential for refining poem, editing, solving algebra problems • Chisel away at errors, slow grind toward better • Assisted by • Perseverance, coffee, limited distractions

12. The Process …creativity is a verb, a very time-consuming verb. It’s about taking an idea in your head, and transforming that idea into something real. And that’s always going to be a long and difficult process. If you’re doing it right, it’s going to feel like work.” Milton Glaser

13. The Process • Frustration with a problem or situation, maybe some melancholy, angst • Anthropologist, explorer – looking with new eyes • Letting go – open to new ideas, go with flow • Breakthrough – now there’s an idea • Refinement – slowly grinding out errors • Chutzpah – the certain belief in the goodness

14. The Mechanics • Idle muscle is idle - Idle brain is busy • Marcus Raichle, Washington Univ. neurologist and radiologist • ‘Default network’, most engaged when we perform a task requiring little conscious attention, daydreaming – brain is extremely busy • Electrical conversation between front and back parts of the brain, despite being parts of different neural pathways, begin to work closely together

15. Prefrontal Cortex Prefrontal cortex (PFC) is most evolved area of primate brain, subserving our highest order cognitive abilities Fundamental ability of PFC is to represent information that is no longer in the environment, and to use this “representational knowledge” to guide behavior, thought and affect. This representational knowledge is used to overcome distraction or prepotent responses, and to maintain goals in the face of interference. http://info.med.yale.edu/neurobio/arnsten/Research.html

16. Prefrontal Cortex

17. Prefrontal Cortex Area behind the forehead – in charge of attention, also a theater of ideas, a mental space to store pleasurable and interesting thoughts – Working Memory Size of working memory accounts for 60% of variation in IQ score Amphetamines allows more information to be sent to PFC focus

18. Prefrontal Cortex

19. The Mechanics • Daydreaming is the fountain spurting from the depths, scenes, names, memories, tasks, ideas, offering opportunities to see opportunities for new blends, combinations, uses • Art Fry and the Post-It note 1974 • Jonathan Schooler, UCSB, psychologist found • Don’t notice self daydreaming – not helpful • Lost in the Sauce – alcohol induces intense mind wandering, “zoning out” – fine to clear the desk, but not to remember • Notice self daydreaming – very helpful – must stay aware enough to recognize a creative thought

20. The Mechanics • Dopamine reward pathway • Evolutionary innovation connects pleasure center to the prefrontal cortex • Allows us to zoom in on a problem • Amphetamines are chemical shortcut, stimulating the otherwise rare dopamine • Resulting in flood of intensely interesting ideas http://www.nature.com/tpj/journal/v1/n2/fig_tab/6500020f1.html#figure-title

21. Mechanics Seeing versus drawing • Drawing – focusing effort to image an idea and the mind becomes deeply attentive to details • Drawing is really a kind of thinking • “We’re always looking, but we never really see.” • Milton Glaser

22. Mechanics Two neural pathways for making reading Ventral route • Direct, efficient, majority of our literacy • See letter groups, convert to word, directly grasp semantic meaning • Triggered by “routinized, familiar passages” Dorsal route • Turns on for obscure words, awkward clause, poor handwriting • Used when learning how to read • Like drawing, more focus, attention

23. The Factors • Ravi Mehta, Rui Zhu – Univ. British Columbia • 600 subjects solve cognitive tests displayed against red, blue or neutral background • Red – best where accuracy and attention to detail were required (convergent focus) maybe associate with danger – be alert, aware • Blue – worse for short term memory, far better for imagination, generated twice as many creative outputs as red condition (divergent focus) maybe associate with openness, freedom, sky, ocean

24. The Factors • Dopamine – happiness • Makes the most tedious details too interesting to ignore – permits close focus on details like proof reading • Amphetamines stimulate dopamine, with dangerous tradeoffs – aids extended periods of concentration • Caffeine – very mild version, maybe one reason for Industrial Revolution – as tea and coffee replaced beer as breakfast bev.

25. Factors • Second City • warm-ups to turn off DLPFC because the ability not to care what people think is critical • then perform in a certain skillful way • “Yes, and …” • unconscious, fully available but still a little conscious • Improv only happens after expertise is achieved in vocabulary of notes and skills / mechanics to perform

26. Factors • We constrain our own creativity • So worried about playing wrong note, saying the wrong thing, that we end up with nothing at all • Critical to be able to quiet the DLPFC without completely losing all inhibitions

27. Mechanics • Frontotemporal dementia irreversible disease starts with death of PFC neurons and rapid loss of PFC function – initially an insatiable need to create, followed by memory loss, paralysis, death • Dreaming every night the PFC shuts down and the censor DLPFC goes quiet and neurons all across the brain start shooting squirts of acetylcholine – semi random, unpredictable

28. Factors • Ulrich Wagner, Jan Born study • Subjects to solve tedious problem • Only 20% found elegant short cut even with hours • But after REM sleep, 60% found the short cut • Sara Mednick, UCSD neuroscientist • Subjects work on remote associative problems • Then nap • Subjects who dreamt during nap solve 40% more than before their nap • Once the uptight cortex turns off, we are exposed to surprising connections and ideas • So keep a notebook, recorder at bedside

29. C.R.A.P. • Compound Remote Associative Problems • Think of a single word that can form a compound word or phrase with each one • age, mile, sand stone • broken, clear, eye glass • french, car, shoe horn

30. The Letting Go • YoYo Ma • Becoming carried away • Relax, ready to go with the flow • Too perfect can be boring • Too worried, nervous turns audience tense • Turn off the part of the mind that judges everything • Accept the possibility of mistakes • Able to play impossible chords • Pro musicians should aspire to the state of a beginner – play to make self happy

31. Mechanics • Charles Limb, Johns Hopkins U – neuroscientist • Study improv via fMRI • Found • Medial prefrontal cortex – activity surge – the center of self expression • Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) – activity declined – center of impulse control, neural handcuffs to keep from humiliating ourselves • Still slipping the handcuffs is not enough, need something interesting to say – flood of ideas is constrained by rules of the form – jazz, comedy, painting, etc.

32. Mechanics • Clay Marzo, Asperger’s – high functioning autistic • Super surfer • Autism diagnosed by lack of normal creativity • Asperger’s children have ‘encompassing preoccupation with a narrow subject… which dominates their life’ • For success in science and art, at touch of autism may be essential (immersive obsession) • On land he’s anxious, stiff • On water he’s calm, relaxed and brilliant

33. Mechanics • DLPFC is the last area of brain to develop fully – the censor of childlike behaviors • “the 4th grade slump” – as the brain matures we become too self-conscious to improvise, too worried about saying wrong thing, playing wrong note, falling off the surfboard • Tradeoff – as we learn to control impulses we inhibit our ability to improvise • Is learning language easier before 4th grade?

34. Factors • Michael Robinson, psychologist – experiment • Few hundred subjects divided in two groups • After 10 min. subjects were given creative tasks. • Group 1 came up with 2x ideas 1st Group You are 7 years old and school is canceled. You get the day to yourself. What would you do? Where would you go? What would you see? 2nd Group You get the day to yourself. What would you do? Where would you go? What would you see?

35. Mechanics • Allan Snyder, Univ. Sydney, neuroscientist • Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) tool that temporarily silences specific circuit of brain with a blast of magnetic energy • A “creativity amplifying machine”

36. The Outsider • The passionate amateur, trying things because no one told them not to and didn’t know any better • InnoCentive.com – 2001, started by Eli Lilly for problems they could not solve – spun out 2003 more than 250,000 registered and up to 12 million through extended network • Over 40% of difficult problems within 6 months • Solutions come from adjacent fields, crossing disciplines, broader thinking

37. The Outsider • The passionate amateur, trying things because no one told them not to and didn’t know any better • We call them young people. They know less, so they often invent more.

38. The Outsider • Dean Simonton UC Davis psychologist • Most important discoveries seem to happen before 30 • Creativity seems to fall off with time in same field • Less rebellious? • Move on, start over in something different • Keep finding new challenges and think like a young person when you are old and gray

39. The Outsider Outsider creativity • isn’t a phase of life – it is a state of mind • not easy, especially as we get older • need to devote time to confusing problems in strange new fields • need to risk embarrassment, ask silly questions, surround selves with people who don’t know what we’re talking about, leave behind the safety of our expertise

40. Outsider Perspective Building • Leave behind everything – travel • Get away from places you know so well • Strange new places provide opportunities for new perspectives, new connections, new blends of disparate concepts, and gets your mind in learning mode – and out of autopilot • Expand your inputs

41. Another Example • 1950’s Ruth Handler noticed her daughter playing with paper dolls, all children • One or more was assigned an adult role, ‘you be the mom’ and recognized an opportunity for a woman doll • 1956 – first trip to Europe with husband • Saw an answer in a Swiss tobacco shop

42. Travel Souvenir The Bild Lilli doll sold in tobacco shops, a plastic version of a sleazy cartoon character published during the mid 1950s in the Bild Zeitung, a downscale German newspaper.  All the jokes involved Lilli taking money from jowly fat cats for sexual favors

43. Barbie Ruth’s husband at Mattel March 1959 Initial launch flopped Sears balked at curves Today, most successful doll Over 100,000 avid collectors

44. Outsider Perspective Building While the inverted U curve of creativity holds back most people, there are ways to remain creative over time.

45. Wrap Up Part 1 • Knowledge can be a subtle curse • When we learn about the world, we also learn all the reasons why the world cannot be changed. • We get used to our failures and imperfections. • To remain creative over time… • Experiment with ignorance • Stare at things we do not fully understand • We see the most when we are outside looking in

46. Summary – Part 1 - Alone • The book & the author • Definitions • Divergent and convergent • The Process • Features • Brain Mechanics • Several Factors • Several Examples • Join us for Part 2 - Together – Saturday, July 7

47. www.jonahlehrer.com