The Formula for Creativity — yes, there is one!

It is a quite common misconception that a breakthrough idea comes as an isolated, serendipitous moment of enlightment. In reality, however, creative people foster a constant stream of ideas, many of which are erroneous, flawed or just non-relevant. Historians studying the patterns of innovation found that creators of breakthrough idea were more productive than their peers in terms of output. These studies have shown that overall productivity correlates with radical breakthroughs in science and technology. Albert Einstein, for instance, has undoubtedly produced the most significant insights in physics. Yet he also published hundreds of totally insignificant papers and also many that were turned out to be totally wrong. So, in other words, does sheer quantity ultimately leads to quality?

While there is a convincing case for this argument, the reality is a bit more complex. If you just try to write a scientific article per day, chances are that none will emerge as a scientific breakthrough. You will end up circling around the same topics and ideas over and over again and you will produce mediocrity, if at all. In order to understand the creation of new ideas in your brain we need to go a bit deeper into cognitive psychology. Nobel-prize winner and psychologist Daniel Kahneman described the working of our brain with the analogy of two systems operating in parallel. One is the rational, conscious thinking process done by the frontal context. He named this process ‘slow thinking’ since it is a rather laborious process of sequential thoughts which we consciously steer. The other system, the ‘fast thinking’ is the unconscious and associate thinking done by the remaining brain regions. Due to its parallel and automatic operation it is more powerful and has a much larger capacity then system one. Maybe you remember your first attempts to drive a car, it was stressful and exhaustive, while after a few months of practice you don’t even notice that you are actually driving a car. The reason for this change is that as you consciously learn a new task, just as driving, it is at first operated by the ‘slow thinking’ process, while after a while in can be done by the subconscious by the ‘fast thinking’ process of your brain. So where do ideas emerge? Since the ‘fast thinking’ process is more powerful in connecting hunches by a magnitude it is much more likely that the idea is generated by this subconscious, automatic process. This systems works best when the frontal cortex is reducing its activity during a routine task such as cleaning dishes, taking a shower, but also at night during the Rapid Eye Movement (REM) Phase. That’s the reasons so many people remember the ‘serendipitous’ moment as an sudden enlighten under the shower or during a dream. There is nothing mystical about this. In fact it’s just the result of your brains activity of constantly combining bits of information in your neural network. You can compare the brain to a network that gets a certain input, connects the dots, and then produces certain outputs. If you take this model you can actually come up with a formula for creativity which is quite simple.

In sum, there are only three main factors, which determine the overall output of ideas:

Quantity of Information Exposure

The number of information bits the brain is exposed to

Diversity of Information Rate

The degree of diversity of the information that the brain is exposed to

Information Connectivity Rate

The rate of hunches the brain generates out of the information bits

It is important to note, that the first two factors can be consciously affected by your personal decisions. You may decide to devote more time to your research subject or to spend more time in interesting and inspiring environments. Yet, increasing the connectivity rate of hunches is a task, which is generally handled by your subconscious self. So actually letting your mind wander while enjoying a relaxing shower might be exactly what is needed to achieve that “eureka” moment.

In Sum, the academic field is far from agreement on the points above. Yet, neuropsychology and related new research fields might soon provide a new perspective on the old question on what spurs creativity.

If you want to know more, I would recommend this further reading:

• John Kounios und Mark Beeman (2015) The Eureka Factor: Creative Insights and the Brain
• Daniel Kahneman (2011) Thinking, Fast and Slow
• Steven Johnson (2010) Where good Ideas come from