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Defining “creativity”

When thinking of creativity, one thinks of art, paintings, sculptures and so. Creativity can be artistic or general. Its scope is not limited to, but includes arts, business, tech, management and almost every subject.

Now, how would one define creativity?

Creative broadly covers two aspects - new and useful. It is one's ability to find new solutions to existing problems.

Creativity is the ability to create something new out of one's own imagination based on one's own experiences, needs, biases and abilities. It can be tangible or intangible. The product of creativity is termed "innovation.” A commonly used term to define

Now, creativity encompasses the following terms:

  • Imaginative: The work of stimulating new ideas, sensations and objects without any external stimulation.
  • Curiosity: Creativity leads to curiosity. The definition of creative thinking includes Asking questions, which always leads to finding out new answers.’
  • Reflective: The ability to think about past experiences and failures, to rethink them and develop them, and to improve them also helps develop creativity.
  • Courageous: Being creative means to be courageous, as it often requires walking on the ‘road not taken.’ It is the ability to move forward despite the risks that define creative strategy.
  • Logic: This is also defined as creativity in education Many might think that creativity and logic are quite opposite, although that is not quite the case. The goal of creativity is to come up with new solutions to real problems. This requires thinking out of the box although providing real world solutions.

Common traits of creative people

  • Risk takers
  • Embrace failures
  • Self-confidence
  • Problem solving ability
  • Logical
  • Playful

People are not simply born with creativity; while there are genetics that may aid in it, most people develop it through education, experience and practice. Activities such as brainstorming, experimenting with new ideas, etc. lead to development of creativity.

The definition of creativity and innovation changes varies on a person, task,environment, etc. Be it making a design, a new computer code, a new architecture, a new product or coming up with a new-easier route to work, it is considered to be creative.