I recently came across an essay by Isaac Asimov on creativity. The essay is here http://www.technologyreview.com/view/531911/isaac-asimov-mulls-how-do-people-get-new-ideas/ and it is really worth a reading. It must be noticed the following. The essay was written in a very specific context where a group of people would have to think "out of the box" to come up with new ideas for a ballistic missile defense system. This essay was Isaac's contribution to this group, and presents the specification of the characteristics that the people working in that group should have, and how they should organize and work together, always aiming a boost on creativity. But even though the essay was written for a very specific context, more than fifty (50) years ago, it is true that in 2014 it is still fully applicable to create the conditions for creativity flourishing in a given environment.
If I had to summarize Isaac's essay I would say the following:
- We need people of considerable self-assurance, unconventional in his habits, with good background in the field of interest and with the ability to make cross-connections;
- As far as creativity is concerned, isolation is required;
- Cerebration sessions should not be held to think up new ideas but to educate the participants in facts and fact-combinations, in theories and vagrant thoughts;
- The cerebration meetings should be held in an environment of ease, relaxation and a general sense of permissiveness - there should be a feeling of informality, joviality, the use of first names, joking and relaxed kidding:
- All people at a session must be willing to sound foolish and listen to others sound foolish;
- It should be avoided people with a much greater reputation than the other, or more articulate, or with a distinctly more commanding personality;
- The total number of people in a group should not be very high - no more than five (5) would be wanted;
- A meeting in someone's home or over a dinner table at some restaurant is perhaps more useful that one in a conference room.
- The salary of the people whose job is "having great ideas" should not be dependent on the arise of those great ideas, because that fact inhibits great ideas;
- The cerebration sessions should be guided by someone with a role equivalent to a psychoanalyst, asking the shrewd questions, making the necessary comments, bringing people back to the point.
It must be stressed out that this was the only contribution of Isaac Asimov to this group since "he did not want to have access to any secret classified information; it would limit his freedom of expression." - what a Man this Isaac Asimov was!
Reading Isaac's essay reminded me of something that happened in the Space community in Portugal some years ago. There was this man that wanted to use Space, and the available infrastructure in Space (satellites, space stations, other), to study soap, aiming to improve its building process. I do not know if his idea was good or not, and if it was feasible or not, and for this case that is not relevant. I just know that it was an awkward, different, "out of the box" idea. This man presented his idea to people working in the space industry, people working in private and public organizations, and even to governmental, policy-making, institutions, but all of them involved, in one way or another, with the Space business. He thought that People involved in Space business would be open-minded, but they were not. From that day on, more than ten (10) years ago, this man is known by "the soap guy", still today, and all his possibilities of working in the Space business were ruined. This man lost his credibility. Isaac's say in his essay that: "It seems necessary to me, then, that all people at a session be willing to sound foolish and listen to others sound foolish". Well, in this case the man with the idea did not mind to sound foolish, but, unfortunately to him, the other people were not available to listen to others sound foolish, and then the worst in human nature came up, and the man was removed from his credibility and was made the "Space clown" in Portugal. I like to think that this man is like Galileo which defended heliocentrism and paid a very high cost for doing so. And like in that case, who remained in the dark ages were the ones that condemned him.
In any case, thank you very much Isaac Asimov for continuing inspiring us, and thank you also Arthur Obermayer for publishing this essay.
