Ignorance, Opinions, and Knowledge

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Pattern-chaser
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Re: Ignorance, Opinions, and Knowledge

Post by Pattern-chaser »

Steve3007 wrote: April 16th, 2021, 9:11 am
Pattern-chaser wrote:Isn't this where we employ concepts like creativity and imagination? It's the ability that allows artists of all sorts (poets, designers, painters, etc) to create what they do.
Yes. I was just speculating vaguely as to the origins of the kinds of creativity that lead to "Eureka moments" on the sorts of subjects that Einstein was interested in.
If you read up on creativity, it seems we recognise two types. I think they're called "convergent" and "divergent". One is the one that Tracy Emin has, and the other is the one that many autists (myself included) have. The latter enabled my career as a software designer. But I utterly lack the former, sadly. 😉
Interesting. I don't think I've really looked into that difference before.

I find creativity interesting for its own sake. And I've found it devilishly difficult to find stuff on the net. There is oodles of stuff about creativity at work, but it seems there is no interest in creativity outside of work. Don't people create for its own sake any more? I have the impression that people used to do this, but the habit seems to have dissipated. Do I have the right impression, do you think?
Pattern-chaser

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Steve3007
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Re: Ignorance, Opinions, and Knowledge

Post by Steve3007 »

Pattern-chaser wrote:Don't people create for its own sake any more?
I think a lot of the things happening during the covid lockdowns have illustrated the people can be pretty creative (outside of work). For my part, I have a long term project of creating a ridiculously complicated mosaic tiled garden table. Started it last summer. Hoping to finish this summer.
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Pattern-chaser
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Favorite Philosopher: Cratylus
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Re: Ignorance, Opinions, and Knowledge

Post by Pattern-chaser »

Steve3007 wrote: April 16th, 2021, 11:06 am
Pattern-chaser wrote:Don't people create for its own sake any more?
I think a lot of the things happening during the covid lockdowns have illustrated the people can be pretty creative (outside of work). For my part, I have a long term project of creating a ridiculously complicated mosaic tiled garden table. Started it last summer. Hoping to finish this summer.
Yes, but there's so much that we can do. Write a book, paint a picture, tile a mosaic table, write poetry (maybe in a foreign language?), write/compose a song, invent a new bottle top (?), learn druidism, invent an AD&D dungeon, and play it, melt old glass and make your own window pane, ... all kinds of amazing stuff.

While some projects such as these surely take place, little or nothing is written about this kind of creativity. Is it that there is nothing to say on the subject? "There is only do, or not do"? Or are there things we can write about it? Can creativity be learned, or do you just have it (or not)? If it can't be learned, can it be honed, if you already have it?

And how do we come up with these amazing connections, the sort that lead (for example) to W. B. Yeats' poetic metaphors, or the scripts for Babylon5?

I just find the whole topic fascinating, but can't find any resources on the net to further this interest. Maybe I should just create something - just do it - if it is within my power.... Maybe reading about it, and what others think of it, is not the right approach. This doesn't dull my interest, of course, but it does hold back my understanding, to some extent. There should be a book.... [No, I could only write it if I had a worthwhile understanding of what it should be about. 😉]
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