Thinking Creatively

Ever since I was a boy, I have always had a desire to be creative. At one time in 1997 when I was nine, I asked my parents to get me a carton so that I could make a piano out of it. My parents did give me a carton but I eventually gave up with my project of making a piano from the carton; the project was beyond my scope of understanding.

Then in 2001 when I was thirteen, I became interested in making a clock. I successfully cut a piece of white paper into a circular shape, and then beautifully scribbled all numbers of a clock around it. But when it came to having sticks move around the circular paper, that again proved to be beyond my reach of understanding.

And then in 2004 while I was at home here in Kiserian on a school holiday, I again developed an urge to do something creative that would astound people. This time, I tried to use an old sufuria as a satellite dish in an attempt to make our television set display clearer images. The attempt didn't work.

Later on in 2006 when I was in my late teens, I decided to read Todd Siler's Think Like a Genius in an attempt to learn how creativity works. Let me share with you, my beloved reader, two lessons that I gleaned from the book. If I become boring, stop me.

The first lesson is that even though there seems to be nothing new under the Sun, there are countless things that have not been invented, discovered, explored or expressed in depth. That fact reminds me of a time in 2003 or 2004 when, as my kid brother Symo and I were having a discussion, Symo claimed that everything that can be invented has been invented. I refuted that claim which led us into an argument.

"Okay," Symo finally said in Kikuyu, "Then tell me what has not been invented."

"Of course if I mention something," I protested, "it means it has been invented. It's that which hasn't been invented that I can't mention because I don't know it."

I am not sure if Symo understood my point. Recently, it has dawned on me that he is not the only one who has thought that everything that can be invented has been invented. Way back in 1899, Charles H. Duell - a United States commissioner of patents - also thought so. Mark you, that was before aircrafts, computers and smartphones were invented.

The other lesson I gleaned from Todd Siler's enlightening book is that creativity is multifaceted. Some of us think that being creative is all about inventing a machine or discovering a cure for a major disease. But nothing could be further from the truth. Penning an inspiring poem is also creativity. So is designing a visually appealing blog or just coming up with a simpler way of doing something. So some of us are constantly creative without knowing it.

Now that I have shared with you the two lessons I learnt about creativity from Todd Siler's Think Like a Genius, let me also mention what Todd Siler said hinders creativity. The first hindrance to creativity has got to do with the way we acquire knowledge. Most of us indoctrinate ourselves with facts (that is, drilling them into our minds without question) and we call that learning. But true learning, the kind that inspires creativity, should be intellectually and emotionally arousing.

The second hindrance to creativity is carrying in our hearts such negative emotions as hatred, jealousy and cynicism. Some people take a perverse pleasure in hating someone over and over in their minds but the truth is, hatred only corrodes our happiness and impairs our ability to think creatively. So if we aspire to be regularly creative, we must first free ourselves from all bitterness, rage and anger as St. Paul exhorts us in one of his epistles in the Bible. Adieu!