The Creative Process

• Conscious vs. Unconscious wanders• Voluntary vs. Involuntary thinking• Deliberate vs. Serendipitous chains

of ideas

• In 1926, Graham Wallas, defined this process in four stages:

Preparation –Incubation – Illumination -Verification

Preparation

• Investigating the problem from “all directions”

• Fully conscious stage

• Brainstorm, research, planning• Relevant state of mind

http://bit.ly/1b5fR85

II. Incubation

• Unconscious stage

• “Combinatory play” (Einstein) – Two or more ideas combined effectively– Result in creative thinking

• “Negative Fact”– During incubation, no conscious deliberation of a

problem

• “Positive Fact”– Series of unconscious, involuntary mental events

III. Illumination

• “Sudden Illumination” (Henri Poincaré)– Flash of insight that cannot be controlled

by conscious self

• Stephen Jay Gould agreed: “trains of associations”– Connections between the seemingly

unconnected are the true secret of genius

IV. Verification

• Conscious and deliberate effort• Testing the validity of the idea• Reducing the idea to an exact form

Creative Process

• Interplay between the stages• None of the stages exist on their own

• Mechanism of creativity is a complex machine of innumerable, perpetually moving and connecting parts

• This article was inspired by Maria Popova, brainmother of Brain Pickings.

• Viva the Knowledge Revolution!

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