The creativity equation

What if creativity isn't really a thing? What if it's just a term we use to describe "non-standard" thinking? So people who fall outside the central bell curve distribution of typical thinking are considered creative?

There's every chance that, when engaged in "creative" acts, these people are being as logical as the most linear "non-creative" thinkers—it's just that they operate on a different style of logic. Maybe to them, someone saying something as basic and rational as 2+2=4 seems creative, whereas producing a piece of music, or writing, or a painting is the equivalent of making a spreadsheet.


I suspect many so-called "creatives" don't consider themselves creative by their own standard—they are simply doing what makes sense to them.


—


The reason writing pays well but drawing (a similarly creative discipline) doesn't is that there is greater demand for writing. And, crucially, a bigger gap between the number of people who value it and the number of people who enjoy doing it. Whereas, by comparison, a relatively small number of people see drawing as valuable, yet most perceive it as something fun to do.


The formula for getting paid for creative work is thus:


The bigger the gap between the number of people who see it as valuable and those who regard it as fun to do = the more lucrative the vocation.

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