Creativity: Cleese v Myself

This week in class I was asked to watch John Cleese's speech on creativity and reflect on what he felt creativity was and also give my own little input on my view of creativity. Being a rather decently length-ed video/speech (around 30 minutes), I got to listen to Cleese give his ideas on what creativity is and how someone can be creative. I will admit that I did agree with some of what Cleese said but he did not sell me on everything.

John Cleese's view of creativity, is that everyone is in their own little shell and that they have to get out and become free in order to be creative. John Cleese also said that creativity is “not a talent, it’s a way of operating” Cleese also says that “creativity is not an ability you have or don’t have. Creativity is not related to IQ.”He feels that it doesn't matter how smart you are compared to somebody else, he feels we are all equally the same when it comes to creativity and that it is solely up to us to figure out how creative we truly are. He had two examples of creativity operating like machinery: closed and open.  To Cleese, creativity is not accessible in the closed mode. Closed mode is used when people are at work and when creativity is not needed. His view of open is when people are creative and having an “open” mode to what he/she is thinking about. Mr. Cleese also told us 5 conditions that will more likely get us into the open mode. Space, time, time, confidence and humor are Mr. Cleese’s 5 conditions for getting us into the open mode. He feels that if you are thinking of a creative idea then you need to use these 5 conditions to assure that you have a well thought of idea.

I will admit, I agree when Cleese says that creativity is like operating a machine, but I do not agree with him when he says that creativity is "not a talent." Even though I feel it is a way of operating, I do feel that it is a talent in some way. Some people may just be more creative than others and this is because they may have a more vivid imagination. The more vivid your imagination is, the more creative you will be, and I feel that Mr. Cleese fails to realize this. Mr. Cleese's 5 conditions of creativity actually made a lot of sense to me and I felt that was actually rather clever of him. Each "condition" that he talks about is something that I have found myself to use when I try and think of something creative. The time it takes to think of something creative is very time consuming, and we then take even more time to think if our idea makes sense and if we even feel if it is good enough or not. My biggest complaint with Mr. Cleese's speech is that creativity is not a talent which I feel is incorrect. Throughout time people have been known to be more creative than others and have thought of things that not many others would have had the thought of.

Well that concludes this weeks blog for First Year Seminar. I hope you all got a little input on my view of creativity a little more and what I felt about Mr. Cleese's view of creativity. I would love to hear about how you feel about my blog and how you feel about Mr. Cleese's views.