What Is Creativity? (1 of 5)

Introduction

Creativity involves breaking out of established patterns in order to look at things in a different way.

- Edward de Bono

The term “creativity” has worn many guises over the past few decades, so many it’s nearly pointless to trot the poor thing out without stating what I mean by it. Since I’ve committed myself to writing a sort of serialized essay on a theme each week, it seems only fair to start with the big fish.

I naturally expected to sharpen my understanding of creativity when I began reading and blogging about it. What happened first, however, was that I ran smack into the surprisingly fickle nature of the word itself. Consider this definition from the Oxford American:

The use of the imagination or original ideas, esp. in the production of an artistic work

Perfect - now all I need to do is define imagination, originality and art (I've left off "production" because, by comparison, I'm feeling positively chuffed about explaining that one ). You see my problem here. Still, let’s dive in.

Tomorrow: Imagination