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"Creativity is just connecting things," said Steve Jobs.
For the last few weeks, I’ve been sharing ideas to help you get back your creative mojo. Whether at work, in your business, or back at home, we could all use a little more creativity. Creativity is not just important for full-time creatives, it’s important for everyone!
Here’s what we’ve covered so far:
This week, we discuss one of the keys to creativity.
#4 - Combinatorial Creativity
Author Maria Popova writes, “In order for us to truly create and contribute to the world, we have to be able to connect countless dots, to cross-pollinate ideas from a wealth of disciplines, to combine and recombine these pieces and build new castles.”
It suggests that creativity doesn't emerge in isolation but rather by combining existing ideas, knowledge, and experiences in new ways, “especially ones that appear radically different at first,” says Richard Foster, a lecturer in the Yale School of Management.
In my own life, my best ideas often come when I’m reading and thinking in a cross-disciplinary way on topics I know nothing about, combining knowledge and skills that are seemingly unrelated. Ideas also surface when I give my mind space to rest in ways that seemingly have no connection to a particular idea—things like walking, playing guitar, or working out. This is why we have Eureka moments in the shower!
Albert Einstein, the famous theoretical physicist, “attributed some of his greatest physics breakthroughs to his violin breaks, which he believed connected different parts of his brain in new ways.”
A Case Study - The Rolling Stones
You’ve probably heard the phrase “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery,” but imitation is also about idea generation.
Charles Darwin once observed, “All ideas are secondhand.”
Many writers will tell you that they first tried to mimic someone else's writing style, even hand-writing passages from some of the greats, eventually leading to their own style. It’s also why every musician, filmmaker, and sports icon can easily tell you who their greatest influences are.
Before iterating to develop their iconic style, The Rolling Stones started as a blues cover band. Artists like Muddy Waters—father of Chicago blues—were The Stones’ primary inspiration, and their name was taken from Water’s track “Rollin’ Stone.” This immersion in American Blues eventually led them to an original sound that marked a generation.
Even now, sixty years after their first album, it’s easy to identify a Rolling Stones song when it comes on the radio.
Start Creating…
This week, start to get acquainted with this practice of combinatorial creativity. Here are three ideas:
- Pick up a book or read an in-depth article outside of your normal reading preferences or knowledge base to see what it sparks. Try implementing one idea from it or writing down one key insight.
- When you’re stuck, try something seemingly unrelated to the task at hand to give your mind space to rest. It could be art, music, or something else. Then see what comes out of it!
- Learn someone else's idea or imitate something they’ve produced. Try to do it exactly as they would before iterating on it.
Remember, creativity often starts with imitation, by cross-pollinating ideas from many disciplines, or by recombining ideas to make something new.
Have you found this to be true? Shoot me an email and let me know how this has looked in your life.
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Sources
“Creativity,” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
“What Is Creativity?” Yale Insights
Popova, Maria, “Networked Knowledge and Combinatorial Creativity.”
Guidera, Will, Unreasonable Hospitality, p. 223, The Rolling Stones
Mike Mineo, “How the Blues Influenced the Rolling Stones?”
