On Thursday, February 05, 1998 11:28 AM, dinapoli
[SMTP:dinapoli@nh.ultranet.com] wrote:
> For me, developing a process that synergizes Creativity and social
> network formation is the real challenge. I wonder if others find
> these connections interesting? ........ another order of
> question is 'do you
> think it is worth trying to 'train' for Creativity?'
I have a fairly definate view on what creativity is - it is about
satisfying constraints. In the beginning is THE PROBLEM. Then you have
alot of constraints on how you can solve that problem. Some people will
only be able to satisfy a few of the associated constraints. Creative
people (or teams) will find a way to solve many of the constraints all at
once in their solution/design. For me your question reduces to the
question of how other people factor into the constraint satisfaction
process. If the participants offer different knowledge and perspectives
then it would seem that they might examine more of the search space
associated with the problem, making it more likely that a creative
solution will be arrived at (one that solves a large number of the
associated constraints).
Another way that other people factor into creativity is by helping us
overcome premature solutions. In the constraint satisfaction literature
this would be called the local optima problem. To get out of a local
optima you often have to be shaked out of it - an external force applied
(e.g., annealing). The other person might view some of the constraints as
more important than the ones you view as important. If this is the case,
the other person will probably not be satisfied with the solution that you
offer, nor will you be satisfied with the solution that they offer. To
reach a compromise you will have to both shake yourselves out of your
respective local optima to achieve something closer to a global optima.
In my opinion, looking at creativity as a process of solving constraints
serves to make sense of alot of the literature on creativity. You could
probably also formalize alot of it if that was your thing.
Paul Meagher
--Paul Meagher <meagher@cs.usask.ca>
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