Last updated: 4/22/02
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Agenda 6 for Creativity Class Meeting on April 18

Here is the table from class, Item VIII.B.
  Type of government Rationale for power Basis of wealth Basis for marriage Scope of literacy
Agricultural society King (also, smaller units) Divine right Land (fixed resource) Arranged - social or economic basis For the elite only
Industrial society Democracy Consent of the governed (election) Ownership of the means of production Romantic love Far wider - goal is universal literacy
  1. Announcements:
    1. Do an online signin tonight
    2. Weekly course reports: one per week, rain or shine (but see assignments, below). If you make a comment that might possibly get a reply, I would appreciate your including your email address. Thanks.
      1. What happened with that one telephone weekly report?
  2. What do we know about creativity?
    1. Special characteristics suited for a particular situation?
    2. Creative people have their moment, but then the field moves on
    3. Creativity is not:
      1. Doing something well. A performer or interpreter is generally not counted as creative. Musician, conductor, actor/actress, movie producer (movie directors are often counted as the creative people).
      2. Being a genius - IQ does matter up to about 120 (high normal) but not above that (genius is usually felt to be around 150 and higher)
      3. A starving artist working alone in a garret. Creative people move towards the center of their domain. This is the only way to find out what the problems in the domain are, and to get good.
    4. What is not in the textbooks?
      1. Become active
      2. How it all fits together - the view from inside
    5. What has not been in the course?
      1. Evocative or motivational literature (Sark)
      2. Creativity training literature
      3. Creativity is fun (but there is a lot of that in the conference). Tension between being serious and having fun.
      4. Variety, idiosyncratic aspect.
        1. CD
        2. Frank Zappa quote
        3. Claes Oldenberg
  3. Personal creativity; how to be c
    1. Find what you love and be active; love is a verb.
    2. Find your own way. But many are willing to help. Help others (the Diaghilev model)

      1. Paul Theroux in "My Other Life", audio edition, "A reader might admire a writer, but only another writer saw the magic."

      2. Picasso quoted in Creativity Pg 175

    3. Write down those ideas - PDAs
    4. Creativity, Chapter 14
    5. Using the ISP Senior Essay.
  4. The field
    1. Alignment - it's not just corporate
    2. At least roughly, in fields that are aligned (e.g. Physics), Big C creativity peaks at an earlier age than in fields that are not aligned.
    3. Will Big C creativity be possible in the future?
  5. Update #2 on Freud: the Supreme Court decision on virtual child pornography.
  6. Update on Gandhi. A Force More Powerful; Czech, Polish and Bosnian revolutions
  7. Comment on Einstein and scientific revolutions. Does this happen in non-scientific fields?
  8. Culture. Another mysterious word.
    1. Asynchrony - Gardner's word. Thomas Jefferson ("We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal...") and yet...
    2. Domains within a culture are tied together - example: agricultural and industrial society

      1. Type of government

      2. Rationale for power

      3. Basis of wealth

      4. Basis for marriage

      5. Scope of literacy

    3. Is there a story to human history? Making a new culture.

  9. Questions / comments
    1. Discussion of reading in Creating Minds
  10. Assignments
    1. Reading
    2. Conference postings - thirteenth week of posting, should have 30 or 31.
    3. Weekly course report
    4. Finishing up - schedule