This blog post doesn't do Creativity much justice, especially this nice little summary quote at the end:
The best models come from biology, physics, mathematics, microeconomics and psychology. Just think about what every freshman knows, and thats what you need to know.
Creativity is a function on a lot of different things at once, and is different for a lot of people. For one, it's a function on curiosity. Highly curious people tend to have the inherent drive to learn new things, new domains. This is in marked contrast to those that learn by being forced to through school or extrinsic pressures. The intrinsic learners are looking for understanding and knowledge, while the extrinsically motivated folks are striving for grades, money, societal acceptance or something else entirely. This is a very important distinction.
Next, creativity is a function on playfulness. John Cleese gets it absolutely right in this 30 minute talk [1]. You've got to dance around the problem, don't worry about wrong or impossible solutions, since the best solutions are usually arrived after jumping through intermediate impossibles - things and ideas that aren't realizable but make disparate connections in your brain and thinking patterns that lead to ideas that are novel and that can be realized. This is also very important. A childlike playfulness with concepts, ideas, words and humor are necessary for driving creativity.
This playfulness directly correlates to a lateral thinking style. "Lateral thinking is solving problems through an indirect and creative approach, using reasoning that is not immediately obvious and involving ideas that may not be obtainable by using only traditional step-by-step logic [2]." You've got to break the habits of being a rigid logician; it comes back to connecting disparate thoughts, ideas and knowledge domains in your head. This is imperative too.
The last point I want to make is that creativity is a process. Cleese talks about it in the video mentioned above as well, but this is very important. You can't worry about the details of implementation or the stress of time if you want creativity to flourish. Your mind needs to be unbounded and free to roam, free to explore the cosmos without being brought back down to Earth, if you will. Cleese calls this "open mode." When you have your great idea, you should switch to "closed mode" - a mode where you actually implement or create your idea, because it's fully in your head. It may take a conscious effort for a while to train yourself to get into open mode and stay there, but that's great mental training.
It's also wonderful to remember that creativity applies to everything, from acting to aerospace engineers saving the crew of Apollo 13, so the domain knowledge the author listed in the quote is good, but for sure not the extent necessary for unbridled creativity. It's also not the only factor.
Your points about creativity aren't incompatible with the blog's points. In fact, I'd say your points elaborate the framework defined by the author. The blog defined creativity as applying mental models and combining one's past experiences randomly to discover new connections. Your points about playfulness and curiosity fall right into this framework. One who is more inquisitive will have more experiences, and spent more time analyzing these experiences. Playfulness comes with being more prone to making random connections between disparate experiences and trying to find some underlying patterns. I think this does a good job at getting to the the essence of creativity.
The point about intrinsic vs extrinsic is important.
I certainly know people who have always been motivated throughout schooling and academia to achieve high test scores.
What you can sometimes observe with these people is that once they get outside of that framework they find motivation difficult.
They will learn quickly if they see the possibility of a high test score , a promotion or a leader board rank of some kind but find it difficult to understand the point of doing something just to see if they can or where the reward for success is uncertain.
One interesting question that i haven't seen mentioned too much regarding creativity, is:How can we use computers to increase our creativity ?
Because definetly they can help with creativity. Just looking at a discussion threads around a subjects can expose one to various mental models. And searching google for interesting stuff(not directly related) is also very helpfull.
I wonder though, are there other useful techniques ?
The best models come from biology, physics, mathematics, microeconomics and psychology. Just think about what every freshman knows, and thats what you need to know.
Creativity is a function on a lot of different things at once, and is different for a lot of people. For one, it's a function on curiosity. Highly curious people tend to have the inherent drive to learn new things, new domains. This is in marked contrast to those that learn by being forced to through school or extrinsic pressures. The intrinsic learners are looking for understanding and knowledge, while the extrinsically motivated folks are striving for grades, money, societal acceptance or something else entirely. This is a very important distinction.
Next, creativity is a function on playfulness. John Cleese gets it absolutely right in this 30 minute talk [1]. You've got to dance around the problem, don't worry about wrong or impossible solutions, since the best solutions are usually arrived after jumping through intermediate impossibles - things and ideas that aren't realizable but make disparate connections in your brain and thinking patterns that lead to ideas that are novel and that can be realized. This is also very important. A childlike playfulness with concepts, ideas, words and humor are necessary for driving creativity.
This playfulness directly correlates to a lateral thinking style. "Lateral thinking is solving problems through an indirect and creative approach, using reasoning that is not immediately obvious and involving ideas that may not be obtainable by using only traditional step-by-step logic [2]." You've got to break the habits of being a rigid logician; it comes back to connecting disparate thoughts, ideas and knowledge domains in your head. This is imperative too.
The last point I want to make is that creativity is a process. Cleese talks about it in the video mentioned above as well, but this is very important. You can't worry about the details of implementation or the stress of time if you want creativity to flourish. Your mind needs to be unbounded and free to roam, free to explore the cosmos without being brought back down to Earth, if you will. Cleese calls this "open mode." When you have your great idea, you should switch to "closed mode" - a mode where you actually implement or create your idea, because it's fully in your head. It may take a conscious effort for a while to train yourself to get into open mode and stay there, but that's great mental training.
It's also wonderful to remember that creativity applies to everything, from acting to aerospace engineers saving the crew of Apollo 13, so the domain knowledge the author listed in the quote is good, but for sure not the extent necessary for unbridled creativity. It's also not the only factor.
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[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VShmtsLhkQg
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lateral_thinking