Summary Of The Book “Creativity” By Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi: A Multidimensional Nature Of A Person’s Creativity

Creativity is something that has been around for as long as mankind can remember. Everything around us is a result of someone’s creativity, be it major discoveries, inventions or beautiful art forms from different aspects of life. When a particular thing is labeled as ‘creative’, a lot of factors come into play, other than the individual behind the idea or discovery. Thus, creativity is observed to be more difficult of a process than any other one we’ve come across.

The first chapter of the book “Creativity” by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, talks about how an individual’s surrounding environment affects the individual’s thinking process and plays a huge role in the creative thinking process. Real creativity comes with handwork and dedication from the individual’s side, more than anything. The individual needs to be genuinely interested in this process to come up with something that is considered creative. After all these observations, we ask ourselves the question of “Why is creativity so important to us?” Well, its rather simple; First off, creativity is all around us, anything we can think of in today’s world has a creative mind behind it, be it regarding science, arts or design. Second, when we as humans are involved in the process of creativity, we feel that we tend to make each moment count, in hope that we could make a huge difference to a field. The process motivates us to come up with new ideas and new things.

Third, the concept of creativity offers or adds an outcome to the world that could potentially play a huge role in changing the future. But this doesn’t mean that we engage in the process just because it could potentially have a huge impact on the future. Here the author has given the example of an astronomer who was able to discover that stars belonging to a galaxy didn’t move in the same direction. It was either clockwise or anticlockwise. She says that this discovery was possible only because she was genuinely interested in the patterns of the galaxies and not because she wanted to prove a theory. This says that a creative person enjoys the process of creativity even though he/ she might not get success in return.

It is said that a creative idea is a result of 3 main things, namely, (1) a culture that consists of a set of defined rules to contribute to, (2) a person that introduces a novel idea to that culture/ symbolic domain, (3) a set of experts that validate and recognise the creative process and innovation, which is necessary for any great product or invention. These experts are well informed about the particular domain they work under. Creative inventions and discoveries would have been impossible to conceive if the individual had no proper knowledge of the concepts and information that led to this discovery. Prior knowledge of the domain one is working under is a must before the creative idea/invention is made. Yet, knowing this information isn’t enough. One needs to learn the art of linking up these concepts to one another, perhaps across domains, to move forward with the creative process. Thus, we can say that ‘Creativity’ is the process by which a symbolic domain in a culture is changed by and individual or a group of individuals. Since they need to give their undivided attention to the entire creative process, creative individuals often come off as selfish and mean to other people who don’t engage in these activities. They are self-motivated and are constantly thinking of what they could do to get better ideas. But in reality, creative thinkers can be the most open minded and approachable people one can ever come across. This is often referred to as the “Creativity Paradox”. Where on one hand we might find creative individuals unapproachable, it is very important to observe them go about doing their work. It enriches the culture and tends to improve the quality of our lives, along with giving us information about the domain these people work under. But people are under the impression that the study of creativity is unnecessary and there are more issues that need to be addressed. What often happens is that children in schools don’t enjoy their academics very much, which in some way tends to avoid the birth of creativity in those children.

The second chapter of this book speaks of how one cannot proclaim or label and idea or a discovery as ‘Creative’ one without any social evaluation. Creativity is such a process that needs to interact with an audience in a sociocultural environment. In the second chapter of this book, the author talks about how, when one comes up with a creative ‘idea’ or ‘invention’, he/ she thinks they’ve come up with something new and great. But the argument is, Who is it upto to decide, whether this idea or invention is really creative or not? Is it the individual himself? Or is it upto the people or rather audience to whom the idea is addressed to who might or might not prove it wrong? One thing is clear, if the decision lied in the hands of the individual who came up with the idea itself, all of us would have thought that we were creators. Thus, we can say that the environment or rather, system around us decides the extent of an individual’s creativity. Fair enough, because in the end its the system or the individual’s surroundings that inspire/ motivate him to come up with a creative process. Here, the author also talks about 3 ‘phenomenons’ or rather people that can be termed as creative;

1. People that appear unusually bright/ brilliant people that are highly intelligent and are in a sense, meant to engage in the creative process,
2. People that experience the world in original or ‘novel’/new ways, with their insightful judgments and work in the field they are well informed about, i.e., personally creative people,
3. People that have changed our culture and world through their creativity, i.e., people like Newton, Picasso, Edison, etc.

The author talks about how some people are look creative and smart but don’t have much to contribute, and the people that have changes so much in a particular domain, but are highly grounded only to their domain and prefer not to explore any other domains. It is possible for an individual to make creative contributions without being brilliant or personal creative. It is equally possible for someone to be very creative and not contribute to any major study/change in culture.

The author defines the 3 basic components of creativity:

1. Domain: A specific area of knowledge that consists of a set of symbolic rules and procedures.
2. Field: A group of individuals that validate a creative person’s ideas and let them out to the general public.
3. Creative Person: The individual that delivers or communicates his creative idea that’s based on a particular domain, to the field for it to reach out to the general public. His thoughts or actions change or tend to change the domain or contribute to it.

A three way interaction between these components is vital for the creative process. This we can finally define a ‘creative process’ as an idea or thought from a particular domain that gets accepted by the field that ends up changing the domain. An individual cannot create if he doesn’t have enough knowledge about a particular domain. He might have a good idea related to one, but it’s of no use if he doesn’t have any proof to back the idea up with. At the same time, the idea in itself needs to exist within a particular domain. There needs to be relevant context for an idea to exist. Along with this, the individual needs to make sure that the idea he comes up with, changes the culture and if the culture rejects the idea, then nothing is created as such.

As the author talks about ‘Domains of Knowledge and Action’, he mentions about we as human beings were born weak when compared to other species that exist in our world, but we have the power to understand the surroundings around us and build greater things rather than just reacting to them like other animals do. Humans are the ones that created domains in the first place, after being inspired from the environment around us. We have the ability to observe the environment, and split it into various domains, which makes us very flexible and powerful. We give so much importance to the domains that we’ve created that we depend on them to make and earn a living. We get inspired or motivated to learn about a particular domain and in turn pick up careers within that domain. The process of creativity, however involves 3 qualities of knowledge, namely, structure, centralisation and accessibility. The better these things in an individual, the easier it is for him to discover and find connection which would otherwise be hidden. Another important thing the author speaks about is that it is very important to understand the past of a particular domain to create something new in that domain. We have never seen people just come up with discoveries without knowing much about the background of the domain.

Moving on to ‘Fields of Accomplishments ‘, the author talks about the practitioners or rather experts that have been working under a particular domain for the longest time and are in turn, well informed about a particular domain. The author also talks about how few fields might be well defined, as in the case of science; there are fields that aren’t well defined, for example culinary arts. He speaks about how they are different from each other. Fields, in general, tend to change very slowly. There’s definitely something wrong if we observe constant change in fields from time to time. There’s a limited amount of time one can invest in a particular job or domain. After that, the brain is too saturated to take anything else in. In that sense, a field in a way, filters the culture exposed to the audience of the world. They get to decide what is worth recognition and what’s not. Finally, the author talks about the contribution of the individual person in the creative process. He talks about all the possible common traits these people could have, but then again, there aren’t any. There’s no such kind of stereotype that can tell a person that “This guy is creative.” The beauty of creativity is that, it can come to anyone. Apart from this, there are definitely some things to keep in mind that a creative person must do to get access to a field. Communication is key. When an individual has his idea ready, he needs to go search for the relevant field and communicate this idea to them. It’s important to get relevant contacts for that to happen. There have been cases where people have had the most creative outcomes but didn’t have the right contacts to expose this outcome to the world out there. If one wishes to make a creative contribution to a particular culture, he needs to internalise the entire domain. He must learn the rules and content of the domain along with the preferences of the field.

The third chapter of this book talks about how the ‘Creative personality’ has the ability to adapt to almost any situation and tackle the problems they face accordingly to get to their goals. These people are determined and goal oriented. Inspite of these few common elements, there doesn’t seem to be a particular set of traits that defines a creative personality. One of the important elements is to develop an early interest in a particular domain, maybe as a child, but this inspires the individual to learn more and later, who knows, he might end up giving birth to a creative outcome. It has been observed to be very tough for an individual to engross himself into the creative process if he doesn’t have a great or passionate interest in a particular domain. Along with interest, a person also needs access to a domain. An engaging environment is most importantly needed to give rise to a creative process. Even if a person has been through hell and back, once he gets inspired and is driven by a particular domain, he can achieve great things. Someone who is n to known or appreciated by the relevant people, might not be able to accomplish something creative. This person needs to meet the right people at the right time for his work to be recognised. In that way, luck too plays an important role for this creative personality. The deep personality of creative individuals cannot be explained by just looking at the individual's work. There are a lot of factors that affect the creativity in a person and they deserve equal attention while discussing one's creativity. If there’s a common thing that defined the creative personality in general, its ‘complexity’. A creative mind is more likely to be able to have something like a bipolar personality, where he/ she can access two extremes of emotions at the same time, depending on the situation. A person usually wants to be the opposite of what he is, "good" or "bad". He spends loads of time trying to maintain this balance and does not get satisfied until he reaches that point. It doesn't involve trying to be the mid point or average of these two extremes but rather trying to use both extremes depending on the situation the person's in.

Cooperative vs Non cooperative: depending on situation. Creative people definitely know both extremes and experience both with the same intensity. Some of them are;

1. Creative people have a lot of physical energy, but at the same time, love their time of rest. Creative people are highly energetic and enthusiastic when it comes to the work they do. They have times when they take their rest, but they're always driven by what interests them. Their energy is under their own control. They aren't distracted very easily and the energy doesn't depend on any kind of clock or schedule.
2. Creative people tend to be smart, but also have their times of being naive or rather sensitive to certain situations.
3. A creative person is as serious and determined as possible but at the same time can have a sense of playfulness while they work. It is important to play around with all that's around you in order to create something novel. One can never be happy with the first iteration or output he or she comes up with. Playing around is VERY important for a creative individual in the creative process.
4. Creative individuals love fantasies as much as they love reality. They seem to be equally rooted to both these extremes.
5. They might be extroverts at times and introverts at some points. One needs to keep engaging and communicating with people to broaden their horizons about a particular domain. Communication is an essential way of getting to know more and broadening one's perspective on things. At the same time, it is equally important to shut yourself out from the world and concentrate on your own POV so that you can come up with your own ideas, keeping in mind what you’ve discussed with others. This is in the case of science, or any other field for that matter.
6. Creative individuals are also humble and proud at the same time. No matter how proud they are of their achievements, they know that they might not have achieve a great deal when compared to the rest of the contributions in a particular domain.
7. Creative individuals seems to have both ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ emotions and traits in them, and have a fluid way of reacting to things.
8. Creative individuals are thought to be rebellious and independent.
9. These individuals seem to be highly passionate about their work, but at the same time, are very objective about it as well. The conflict of attachment comes into picture here.
10. Creative individuals tend to be highly open and sensitive which, in a way, opens a path for pain and suffering, which they enjoy. What is important to keep in mind is that these paradoxical traits are often difficult to find in the same individual. The first extreme is as important as the second one. This makes the creative process worth struggling for.

The fourth chapter of the book talks about the phases or steps of the creative process which are:

1. Assimilation: When an individual gets engrossed in a particular topic and starts asking himself questions about it.
2. Incubation: He ideates and churns out ideas on how to tackle this situation by making all kinds of connections.
3. Insight: This is the eureka moment when he finally finds the relevant connection
4. Evaluation: He thinks and evaluates whether the insight he has gained is worth pursuing or not 5.

Elaboration: In depth research and work begins on that particular insight. As simple as that might sound, a person comes up with a lot of problems on his journey. These problems can be categorised as (1) Problems that arise from an individual’s personal experience, (2) Problems that might pop up from certain requirements of the domain, and (3) Problems that arise due to environmental pressures. Each of these problems have a different way of being tackled and its upto the creative personality or individual to decide whether they’re with tackling or not.

In the fifth chapter, the author talks about how these creative individuals find such pleasure in their work and how important it is for a person to feel that so that they can come up with a creative outcome to the best of their ability. One of the reasons the author gave, for this, was that we as humans are lazy in general and tend to save up energy for the things and moments we genuinely enjoy. The author also speaks about flow or certain things to keep in mind that help an individual stay deeply engrossed in whatever they do:

1. A clear sense of purpose as to what drives them and inspires them
2. Immediate feedback from the domain to assure the person that what he’s doing is right or not,
3. Challenges being balanced to skills, i.e. the process of slow learning and eventually going beyond our capabilities.
4. Excluding distractions and giving our 100% to the process
5. Failure needs to be accepted by the individual so that he learns from his mistakes and does even better next time.
6. Self-consciousness disappears as one does what he enjoys and starts believing in himself and in what he produces.
7. The person loses track of time while doing something that he enjoys.
8. This person enjoys what they do regardless of the success he might to might not get from doing so. In this way, the author has clearly specified how one needs to be when he enjoys a particular task.

These chapters, in a way, inspire the reader to go beyond what’s infant of the eye and look at the bigger picture. As for myself, I’ve been, in a way, enlightened with so much information about domains, fields and the extremities of a creative personality which in a way inspires me to know more about these qualities. Creativity, indeed, is a very overwhelming topic of discussion.