Creativity: Part One

Creative Societies need Creative People.

If the thinkers and business people like Daniel Pink and Tom Peters have it right then the key attributes for success in the future are the ability to learn and relearn, and the ability to be inventive. Pink even goes so far as to say:

“The last few decades have belonged to a certain kind of person with a certain kind of mind – computer programmers who could crank code, lawyers who could craft contracts, MBAs who could crunch numbers. But the keys to the kingdom are changing hands. The future belongs to a very different kind of person with a very different kind of mind – creators and empathizers, pattern recognizers and meaning makers. These people – artists, inventors, designers, storytellers, caregivers, consolers, big picture thinkers – will now reap society’s richest rewards and share its greatest joys.” – from A Whole New Mind

Creativity, it seems, is not just for artists starving in garrets but for everyone. Being creative, in this theory, is not so much being artists as living like artists – on the edge of what we don’t know and able to think and act with ingenuity and resilience in the face of changing circumstances and new opportunities.