The magic of creative insights
The magic of creative insights
What we can learn from stories of historical discoveries, inventions and survival.
What we can learn from stories of historical discoveries, inventions and survival.
Ah, ha! ideas come as flashes of unexpected insight, as bolts out of the blue. They usually come after the conscious mind has been working hard to find a solution to a difficult problem (e.g.: after an intense brainstorming session has ended). The time during which the conscious mind takes a break is called incubation. This is when the subconscious mind takes over. The story of Archimedes is a classic example:
Archimedes yelled "Eureka!" when he stepped into a bath and noticed that the water level rose—he suddenly understood that the volume of water displaced must be equal to the volume of the part of his body he had submerged. This relation is known as Archimedes' principle. He then realized that the volume of irregular objects could be measured with precision, a previously intractable problem. He is said to have been so eager to share his discovery that he leapt out of his bathtub and ran through the streets of Syracuse naked.
Howe's nightmare below, is another classical example of the subconscious mind taking over after a period of intense focus on creative problem solving.
Elias Howe was born in Spencer, Massachusetts on July 9, 1819. After he lost his factory job in the Panic of 1837, Howe moved from Spencer to Boston, where he found work in a machinist's shop. It was there that Elias Howe began tinkering with the idea of inventing a mechanical sewing machine.
For 8 years, everything he tried failed. One night, he dreamt he had been captured and brought before a merciless king. The king issued a royal ultimatum: if within 24 hours Howe had not produced a machine that would sew, he would die by the spear. Howe failed to meet the deadline and saw the king’s men approaching; he saw the spears slowly rise, then start to descend. Suddenly, Howe forgot his fear as he noticed that the spears all had eye-shaped holes in their tips. Howe awakened, realizing that, for his sewing machine, the eye of the needle should be near the point, not at the top or in the middle. This insight resulted in the lockstitch sewing machine. Elias Howe demonstrated his machine to the public. At 250 stitches a minute, his lockstitch mechanism outstitched the output of five hand sewers with a reputation for speed.
It's common for creative ideas to come when we least expect them to (i.e. while sleeping, first thing in the morning, on a walk, etc). That's why creative thinkers have a handy and convenient way of recording new ideas and thoughts, do you ever use post-it notes for that purpose? Here's the interesting origin or those useful stickie notes:
Sheldon Silver was an engineer who in 1974 made a glue that was extremely weak. Arthur Fry saw him present this product but failed to come up with any practical applications for the compound.
On Sunday mornings Arthur Fry sang in a choir and liked to place little pieces of paper in the hymnal to mark the songs he was supposed to sing. Unfortunately the little pieces of paper often fell out. It seemed like an unfixable problem, one of those ordinary hassles that we’re forced to live with. But suddenly Arthur had an epiphany and realized how he might make use of Sheldon’s extremely weak glue. His epiphany resulted in the Post-it Note.
Breakthrough ideas often come when people are being playful or having fun. Unfortunately many work environments expect people to take their work very seriously and treat play and work as opposites. However, there are many examples of the benefits of humour, socializing at work and playful collaboration. Here is a great one:
A power line company in the Pacific Northwest was faced with a challenge: Every fall and spring the ice storms led to serious ice accumulation on the power transmission lines. After every storm the workers would have to climb up the icy poles and use long poles to shake the power lines. There were a number of injuries. Brainstorming sessions were held to come up with a solution. In one session, the idea of training bears to climb up the poles to shake the ice loose was suggested. This met with laughter. What followed was a comment that that although it would be difficult to train bears, perhaps a pot of honey might be placed on top of the pole to coax the bears up. More laughter. One participant sarcastically added, “Why don’t we use on of the corporate helicopters to place the honey pots on the poles?” Following this period of laughter a secretary spoke up. She had been reminded of the helicopters she saw when she was a nurse’s aide in Vietnam. She wondered out loud whether the down wash from the rotating helicopter blades might be powerful enough to clear the power lines. Silence. Soon after this meeting the company started using helicopters to fly over power lines after ice storms.
A creative insight can even safe your life! Read until the end for a tip with life-saving potential.
In 1949 a lightning fire was spotted in a remote area of pine forest in Montana. A parachute brigade of fifteen firefighters was dispatched to put out the blaze. They were told the fire was small, just a few burning acres in the Mann Gulch. When the firefighters started down the gulch, a breeze was blowing the flames away from them. Suddenly the wind reversed and they saw the fire leap across and spark the grass on their side. An updraft began and fierce winds howled through the canyon as the fire sucked in the surrounding air. In a matter of seconds the fire started to devour the grass, hurtling towards the firefighters. In a moment of despair they dropped their gear and started running for their lives. One of the firefighters, Wag Dodge realized that the blaze couldn’t be outrun; the gulch was too steep, the flames too fast. But he kept running for several minutes. Then he suddenly stopped. The decision wasn’t as suicidal as it appeared: he had a sudden insight that would save his life. He lit a match and ignited the land in front of him, the flames quickly moving up the grassy slope. Then Dodge stepped into the shadow of his fire, so that he was surrounded by a buffer of burnt land. He wet his handkerchief with water from his canteen, clutched the cloth to his mouth, and lie down on the smoldering embers. He closed his eyes and tried to inhale the thin layer of oxygen clinging to the ground. Then he waited for the fire to pass over him. 13 firefighters died that day.
Insights continue to be quite a mystery, but there are a few things that we do know:
Before people have a breakthrough idea there is a moment of impasse, some kind of mental block. Research in neuroscience has found that the brain is working hard to find a solution using habitual thinking patterns. When you stop trying you are more likely to have a sudden realization which makes the answer seem so obvious that you wonder why you didn’t think of that sooner. Once you have an insight you often have an inexplicable moment of clarity and certainty.
What's most important is that the more you apply creative thinking in daily live, the more you are priming your brain to come up with a breakthrough solution when you most need it!