Humainologie creative dialogue Critical and Creative Thinking this coming Wednesday May 26

“O wad some Power the giftie gie us / To see oursels as ithers see us!”

- Scottish poet Robbie Burns, “To a Louse, On Seeing One on a Lady’s Bonnet, at Church”https://bit.ly/3f4YTgr

“Sometimes it is the people no one can imagine anything of who do the things no one can imagine.” - Alan Turing

Our topic for this coming Wednesday May 26 is Critical and Creative Thinking. Zenia, Trina, and Christina will facilitate.

Critical and creative thinking can be applied to enormous advantage in many areas of human experience, from the everyday to the epoch-making. Start with yourself. The poet Robbie Burns suggested that we would gain a great advantage by learning to see ourselves as others see us. What is an area of your own life in which that particular critical-thinking skill might help you? Alan Turing noticed that people like us can sometimes accomplish things no one else had even thought of. At our creative dialogue on Wednesday, we’ll begin testing Turing’s hypothesis.

Here are a couple of questions to use as warm-up exercise:

· What are one or two verygeneral concepts that can help with critical and creative thinking? You can share a concept that you have found useful, or look for an idea from almost anywhere, such as one of the recent book synopses I have circulated. (I’ve appended one such synopsis below, of the book on creativity by John Cleese.)

· If we focus on the specific domain of our “self” and our relationship with other people, what ideas might help us become more critical and creative in our thinking specifically in that domain? Again, you could draw from personal experience or from any of our book synopses or from any other source – even brainstorming with a friend between now and Wednesday – to come up with one or more ideas to contribute. (Our synopses have included one on a book about 7 principles for making marriage work and another on a book about the needs of the dying, but there are many to choose from.)

And here is the Zoom link provided by Shinobu:

Topic: Humainologie creative dialogue Time: May 26, 2021 06:30 PM Mountain Time (US and Canada) Every week on Wed, until Jun 30, 2021, 9 occurrence(s) Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86972034113?pwd=M2g3MzEvMWs5dXhHcFVCbVNkVG1idz09 Meeting ID: 869 7203 4113 Passcode: 12345

I will join the Zoom dialogue from Oliver, British Columbia, where I will be visiting May 23-30 with Mahendra and his family at our new property, which we have named the Global Citizen’s Cottage. It’s about an 8-hour drive from Calgary.

Please send any questions or suggestions about critical and creative thinking to Zenia.

Just imagine! Connect the dots. Make a game of it.

Arthur

Book: Creativity: A Short and Cheerful Guide (John Cleese, 2020)

The brevity of this book and its easygoing style and humor make it a quick and easy read. The author emphasizes: “There’s a myth that creativity is something you have to be born with. This isn’t the case. Anyone can be creative.”

Creativity means new ways of thinking about things, says Cleese. (You are being creative if you find a new way of making each day more interesting, of thinking about your city, of using a broken brick and some autumn leaves, of putting your kitchen in order, or of writing an inspiring autobiography - perhaps writing the first draft proactively or making it bring to life the extraordinary in the ordinary). When he gets down to some detailed suggestions, Cleese turns his focus to writing creatively, but with the intent of being helpful with anything you might want to do more creatively, whether it’s writing or art or whatever.

Creativity can be taught, Cleese tells us, “Or perhaps I should say, more accurately, you can teach people how to create circumstances in which they will become creative.”

At Cambridge, Cleese had joined the “Footlights,” a club in which the members had to write something of their own to be accepted. Also, each month there was an event where every member had to get up and do something. It was all about creativity. Cleese quickly discovered something important about writing, namely that if he was working on a piece at night and got stuck, the solution to the dilemma would often come to him the following morning, as if it were a reward that had come to him during the night for the effort he had put in before going to bed. This and other experiences taught him that – waking or sleeping – “my unconscious was working on stuff all the time, without my being consciously aware of it.”

He introduces a concept for which he gives credit to Guy Claxton, that for creativity to flourish, both a “Hare Brain” and a “Tortoise Mind” are needed. The Hare Brain is efficient, structured, critical; and aims to reach a specified goal within a certain time. But it’s the Tortoise Mind that (by meandering and dreaming and taking its own sweet time) comes up with the wealth of ideas for the Hare Brain to review and use for a final brilliant production. In a study comparing very creative architects with other architects who were much less creative, another author, Donald McKinnon, found that the creative architects “knew how to play” and “always deferred making decisions for as long as they were allowed.” Creative architects (and by extension creative people) “are able to tolerate that vague sense of discomfort that we all feel, when some important decision is left open, because they know that an answer will eventually present itself.” The reasons for waiting are because 1) new information may become available; and 2) new ideas may occur to you.

“The greatest killer of creativity is interruption,” writes Cleese, and the interruption may come from outside, such as someone coming in and talking to you; or it may come from inside – a thought about something you need to do tomorrow, for example. Cleese writes down the intrusive thought about something he needs to remember so that he can turn his attention back to the creative process. Another approach, for example if you are working on a scene for a short story, is to write down your idea for that scene on a sticky note and paste the note to your computer screen. For the interruptions from outside, create a space and time for your creativity that keeps those interruptions out, as in “Do Not Disturb.”

“When you’re being creative there is no such thing as a mistake.” What might at first sound like a bad idea might turn out to be a brilliant breakthrough if you explore it. In writing a screenplay (“A Fish Called Wanda” was written by John Cleese) the secret is rewriting every scene again and again. (This is related to concepts such as developing two or three ways of approaching any situation – and then choosing the one that seems best.) This is “Tortoise Mind” work, followed by “Hare Brain” focus, to achieve the best possible outcome. At first things are foggy, then a clear idea emerges. The first idea your “Hare Brain” decides on may not be great but keep at it and you will keep getting better.

The author then provides “hints and suggestions” for creative writing, which can be applied to many other types of creative activity.

“Write about what you know.” (You probably know quite a bit about the place where you live and at least one or two kinds of work you have done. That’s your starting point.)

In looking for inspiration, take a hint from Shakespeare. “He stole all his plots, and then wrote rather creatively.”

Making an imaginative leap refers both to welcoming ideas that “come out of the blue” and to making many small improvements. (One of my favorite practices, from the surrealists, is to combine two or more things that seem unrelated and see what happens.)

Keep going! This may involve a strategy of alternating the work on your creative project with some other activity such as walking or playing the drums, but the point is to keep your mind fresh, even as you move relentlessly forward. Cleese refers to the Law of Diminishing Returns and mentions that “the very best minds seem to produce work that can divide itself into three stages. First, they produce original work as they learn their craft; second, when they’ve mastered their craft, they begin to express their mature ideas in their best works; third, there’s a tailing-off of their powers, as their insights become more familiar.” He mentions Richard Feynman, a theoretical physicist, as one of those rare people who “manage never to lose their ability to come up with fresh ideas.”

Learn to cope with setbacks, in part by accepting that “some days the stuff flows, and some days it doesn’t.” Cleese learned to think of his “fallow periods” as a necessary part of the creative process, a preparation for the fertile periods.

“Get your panic in early.” Do you have a goal of writing a short story within one month, and absolutely no idea worth using? Perfect. “Just begin to make a few notes, knowing they don’t have to be any good, and you will throw them away soon. …The key thing is to start, even if it feels as though you’re forcing yourself through an emotional roadblock.” Jot down ideas, ask yourself questions such as who your audience will be, or what you are really trying to say. Then go for a walk. Play the drums. Then add to your notes as things come out of the blue. Put some work in at night before you go to sleep. Keep going.

Your thoughts follow your mood, and you’ll do your best writing when the emotional weather is right, and the wind is in your sails. There are dangers of over-confidence, and creativity is not about pontificating. “The trouble is that most people want to be right. The very best people, however, want to know if they’re right. That’s the great thing about working in comedy. If the audience doesn’t laugh, you know you’ve got it wrong.”

Moving from first draft to the finished piece involves testing your idea, killing your darlings, and seeking a second opinion. Bounce that story idea off someone who knows something about writing stories. Do they think it has potential? Be ready to scuttle an idea you had once thought was great but simply does not go anywhere. Of seeking a second opinion, Cleese suggests four questions for an experienced writer to ask of people: 1) Where were you bored? 2) Where could you not understand what was going on? 3) Where did you not find things credible? 4) Was there anything that you found emotionally confusing? Using that feedback, “go away, decide how valid the problems are…and fix them yourself.” The people you’ve asked will probably suggest solutions but ignore that part. “Smile, look interested, thank them and leave, because they have no idea what they’re talking about.”

This book, of course, is far from the last word on how to build your powers of creativity, but it’s a good start. We can take it from there.