Creativity is a process, not an event
Simple techniques to trigger your creativity
🏷️ Categories: Creativity.
In 1896, Henri Poincaré, one of the most brilliant mathematicians in history, was faced with a problem that seemed impossible despite weeks of hard work.
He tested all his ideas, studied a wealth of information and pondered endlessly. However, the breakthrough was not forthcoming. Exhausted, he decided to take a break and join a geological expedition. It was during this break, while boarding a bus, that he had a revelation: all the pieces of the problem fell into place in his mind and he found the solution he had been looking for (Topolinski & Reber, 2010).
This was neither luck nor the intervention of a muse.
Poincaré knew that great ones are the result of a conscious creative process.
“To invent is to choose, and the inventor is able to see the useful combinations, like an examiner who had only to question candidates who had already passed the initial test.” Poincaré, The Foundations of Science.
Knowing this is crucial because creativity is one of the most useful qualities we can develop. There is no area in life that does not benefit from innovative solutions and original ideas.
The good news is that this creative process is not reserved for enlightened geniuses; we can learn this process and use it to generate our brilliant ideas.
Here's how to do it.
Creativity is a process, not an event.
Creativity is the result that arises from the process of combining existing knowledge in a novel way. You can do this combination consciously.
1. Gather information
You are what you eat.
You need a varied and quality information diet to produce valuable ideas. Learn as much as you can about the subject you want to get ideas on, but don't stop being interested in many other subjects. If creativity arises from novel combinations, don't combine the pieces that everyone else is playing with.
Look outside.
2. Cultivate the information
Do not fall into the fallacy of the collector and work the information.
This is the fallacy of thinking that taking a lot of notes on a subject is enough to understand it. The reality is that it is useless if you do not do the subsequent work of understanding the information in its essence to the point of seeing differences, similarities and relationships with the rest of your vision.
That's the difference between accumulating data and understanding the world.
“There are things you know nothing about because you copied the text and gave yourself up to the illusion of believing you had already read the text.” Umberto Eco, Cómo se hace una tesis.
Accumulating data and not cultivating it is like having a hectare of land without sowing it.
That is the reality.
3. Let the idea rest
While you are not forcing yourself to have ideas, paradoxically, ideas will come.
The philosopher Walter Benjamin said that boredom is the external manifestation of the unconscious event. That is, when we get bored and seem to be doing nothing (as seen from the outside), we are actually letting our minds fly to find all kinds of valuable ideas. That's why your information diet matters, because you will probably ramble around previously consumed ideas, but looking at them from another point of view or recombining them.
Since you will rarely produce a brilliant idea in a single day, you will have to come back to it and let it rest again every so often.
Take a walk, play sports or whatever it is that motivates you and takes you out of the creative project.
4. Put your idea to the test
When you have a convincing idea, share it with the world and put it to the test.
Don't be afraid of rejection, you must accept it because it will be the most normal thing at the beginning.
Ortega y Gasset said in his book “La deshumanización del arte” that creative activity is an act of courage because every artist aspires to create something original and distinguish himself from the rest. That is why it is common for distinctive and original works and artistic currents to be rejected at the beginning but admired generations later.
It is the price of authenticity that Kierkeggard confessed in his diary.
Use all that feedback of opinions and problems you detect to improve your idea. Creative people are constantly iterating, even when the idea seems to have worked. That's a crucial aspect that we often ignore. It's very easy to fall in love with your idea, but great ideas always evolve.
Don't stop at the first try, even if the idea worked.
The creative process in practice
Henri Poincaré's experience is a typical case of the creative process.
Gathering information: Poincaré immersed himself in the problem. For weeks, he worked non-stop and consulted all kinds of information that could be useful to him.
Cultivating the information: He devoted himself, as he would say, to choosing “useful combinations”. That's when he discarded fruitless theories about the problem.
Putting the idea to rest: Not finding the solution, he put the problem aside and in the “mental rest” of a trivial moment, getting on a bus, the solution emerged after all the work done in steps 1 and 2.
Putting the idea to the test: With the solution in mind, Poincaré returned to the problem and checked his finding to see if it was correct or needed revision.
“To invent is to choose, and the inventor is able to see the useful combinations.”
Creativity is rarely about being the first person to come up with an idea.
Creativity is almost always about combining old ideas in new ways.
✍️ It's your turn: Have you ever thought of creativity as a methodical process and not as an extraordinary event beyond your control? Ideas don't generate themselves, but you can attract them.
💭 Quote of the day: “We test by logic, but we discover by intuition” Henri Poincaré.
See you soon with more ideas! 👋
References 📚
Eco, U. (2014). Cómo se hace una tesis. Editorial GEDISA.
Gasset, J. o. Y. (1928). La deshumanización del arte.
Poincaré, H. (2022). The Foundations of Science: Science and Hypothesis, The Value of Science, Science and Method. URL
Topolinski, S., & Reber, R. (2010). Gaining Insight Into the “Aha” Experience. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 19(6), 402–405. URL