Week 4 Reading Reflection ch.5

1. Biggest Surprise in the Reading:
I thought the following statement in the reading was very interesting: "Most people assume that some people are born creative and others are not, or that only the gifted or highly intelligent person is capable of generating creative ideas and insights."  The reading proceeds to explain how this thought process is flawed and incorrect.  I have to admit, I too tend to think that creativity is a born-into character trait. I feel like a person either has a creative mind or he doesn't.  The same goes for someone with an analytical, numbers-oriented mind.  I feel like people are either born analytical, or born to grasp more anecdotal materials.  I believe anything can be learned to an extent, but strengths and weaknesses certain stem from born-into personalities and innate qualities.

2. Confusing Aspects:
The steps in the "creative process" are a bit confusing to me, only because I tend to think that creativity lies within, and using it doesn't naturally undergo a four-step procedure.  The reading mentions phase 1: background or knowledge accumulation; phase 2: the incubation process; phase 3: the idea experience; phase 4: evaluation and implementation.  I do agree that in "creating" a new product, information-gathering is very necessary to endure that your imagined product is both in demand and feasible to produce.  The incubation phase seems a bit strange to me, but I do agree that by "getting away from a problem and letting the subconscious mind work on it" helps in solving problems and coming up with solutions.  I can see how it would also help spark creativity.  How can you be creative when you fix your mind on one set thing and disallow yourself the opportunity to branch out of that bubble?  The idea experience seems to relay contrasting information.  One recommendation in finding that "eureka" moment  is to "fantasize about your project" while another is to "put the problem on the back burner."  The final step, implementation, doesn't seem like a creative process to me but rather an educational and planning process.

3. Two questions to the author:
What do you think is the main reason adults use only 2-10% of their creative potential?
How have your 6 problem solving exercises helped you personally to become more creative?

4. Disagreements:
The author stated, "a creative person tends to view things and people in terms of how they can satisfy his or her needs and help complete a project."  I think, however, that a person who thinks with this mentality is innovative, but not necessarily creative.  Innovation is the implementation of something new, so an innovative individual would think of products that could fit his needs and would implement them.  This person would think to himself, "does this market need this? Okay. Let's give it to them."  However,  creativity is the ability to imagine something original.  It is often not the goal of creative people to get a product to market, or make "this product" to fit "this need."  Rather, the goal is to explore endless possibilities and free the mind.