Why Creativity: We have transformed not only ourselves but the world as well. How?

By inventing language , means of communication , family , community , enterprise , state , religion , science and technology , entertainment , arts and literature , and weapons Caught short by our inadequacies and stretched by our terrific and terrible yen for improvements and breakthroughs, we have discovered the magic called CREATIVITY We need creativity for practical reasons. We have created a competitive, dynamic world, in which the well being and growth of nations, organizations and even individuals increasingly depends on how creative and innovative they are! Some nations highly developed, many not so By pouring money or investing a lot of money development is not possible So creativity and innovation are indispensable (Israel agriculture) All over hyper competition Solution through: lower entry barriers, IT and Telecom revolution Knowledge society emerging Also short life knowledge gets obsolete fairly quickly (hot mail vs. Gmail) So quick adaptation to new knowledge bases and innovating niches within them

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What is creativity? (Dictionary: involving the use of the imagination or original ideas in order to create something) (Innovation: introduce new methods, ideas, or products) 2 Creativity is not just transformation and survival. It is exhilaration that stretches us physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually We light up when we invent a gadget, or create a metaphor, or stumble upon a new formula or recipe or avenue of growth

Something unique eg a fiction writer writing many books vs. Arundati Roy producing one award winning novel which is unique More creativity not only unique but appropriate to the context Mere novelty of a product does not, however, justify it is being called creative --the product must be adaptive to reality. In other words, it must serve to solve a problem, fit the needs of a given situation, and accomplish some recognizable goal (Mobile phone how it evolved to become useful for affordable mass communication) Such a view of creativity raises awkward questions: Who decides whether something is novel or not? Who decides whether it is appropriate or not?

Four Levels of creativity: 1 Base one that is merely an elaboration of an idea 2 Then higher an effort that results in an improvement

--- 3 3 Higher still a superior quality synthesis of previously unrelated ides or perspectives or themes ( e mail ) 4 Highest a genuine transformation that is revolutionary in its impact ( internet )

Definition of Creativity: *** The ability or quality displayed when solving hitherto unsolved problems , when developing novel solutions to problems others have solved differently , or when developing original and novel ( at least to the originator ) products *** Creativity is a dynamic tension between several opposing forces --Freedom vs. Discipline Speculation vs. Safekeeping Divergence vs. convergence Relaxation vs. alertness Feeling vs. thinking Learning vs. problem solving Ideating vs. evaluating Experiencing vs. abstract thinking

*** A creative contribution is something that is: 1 relatively original 2 high in quality vis--vis some purpose