Individual Creativity

Finally then what makes an individual creative, hopefully by now you will be aware that creativity does not reside within an individual, it is not necessarily a trait some people have and others don’t but a complex interaction of environment and individual. There are however certain characteristics creative people share.

• Creative people have internalised the system, they can reproduce the domain within their minds, and understand the fundamental knowledge which makes the domain unique.
• Creative people understand the field, they know what critics like, what knowledge is considered relevant and useful within the domain.
In his book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell estimates the time it takes creative people to absorb their domain as about 10 years.
• Enjoyment in the domain, creative people love being in the domain and are intrinsically motivated to work within that domain.

Alongside these personal characteristics, creative people have other advantages, for example:

• A genetic predisposition to a particular domain, those with perfect pitch will be better musicians, those with excellent eyesight good artists etc
• An early interest in the domain can be useful, the mathematician who loves numbers, the scientist who is absorbed in the physical world.
• Curiosity and love of the domain, hopefully needs no more explanation
• Access to a domain, which is mostly down to luck, being born in an affluent family, growing up with a computer in the home etc
• Access to a field, there are probably many great ideas, art, sculpture which were never heard or commissioned because the individuals were reclusive or did not have access to the decision makers in their domain.