In my reading of psychological literature, there are numerous hypotheses and theories of creativity that conflict with what I have observed in creative colleagues and what I have read in biographies of creative scientists and composers of music. However, the following theory of creativity, put forth by Prof. Sternberg at Yale University, makes sense to me. Sternberg says that all of the following are essential: a lack of any one item in the list precludes creativity. I think he is correct, except for the last item: it is not necessary to have a favorable environment, although such an environment certainly makes life easier for creative people.

Intelligence

• synthetic intelligence. The ability to combine existing information in a new way.
• analytic intelligence. The ability to distinguish between new ideas that have potential, and new ideas that are not worth further work.
  This ability is essential to an effective allocation of resources, by evaluating the quality of new ideas.
• practical intelligence. The ability to sell one’s ideas to funding agencies, managers, editors, reviewers, etc.
  Without “practical intelligence” the creative person will not be allocated resources to develop their ideas, and the creative person may achieve recognition only posthumously.

Knowledge gives the ability to recognize what is genuinely new. The history of science shows that many good ideas are discovered independently by more than one person. Scientists and engineers must be familiar with the technical literature, in order to avoid “reinventing the wheel”. On the other hand, too much knowledge might block creativity, by immediately providing reasons why a new idea is not worth pursuing and by encouraging a person to be rigid in their thinking. Knowledge is also important to provide skills necessary to design experiments, to design new products, to analyze the results of experiments, do computations, etc.

Motivation

• intrinsic or personal. Creative people genuinely enjoy their work and set their own goals.
• extrinsic. There are a number of extrinsic motivators: money, promotions, prizes, praise, fame, etc. Extrinsic motivators mostly focus on an end result, not the process of discovery or creativity. In highly creative people, extrinsic motivators appear to be less important than intrinsic motivators.

   

  Environmental Context

  Many environments (particularly managers and bureaucracy) discourage creativity. A creative individual who could flourish in one environment can become a routine, ordinary worker in another environment. The optimum environment for creative people is where they can be paid to do their creative work, so creativity is a full-time job, not a spare-time hobby.

  Permit me to explain my disagreement with Prof. Sternberg on the last item: a favorable environment.

  Many types of creative work (e.g., research in theoretical physics, writing books, composing music, etc.) require minimal physical resources, so such creative activities can be accomplished in one’s personal time at nights, weekends, and holidays. If one is employed in an environment that discourages creativity, one can still be creative on one’s personal time. In this sense, a favorable environment is not necessary for creativity.

  On the other hand, other types of creative work (e.g., experiments in physics, chemistry, engineering, etc.) can require expensive laboratory apparatus. A scientist without access to such laboratory facilities is prohibited from doing creative work in experimental science.

   

  Thinking Styles

  Creative people question conventional wisdom, instead of passively accepting that wisdom. Creative people question common assumptions and rules, instead of mindlessly follow them. This style brings creative people into conflict with society around them,
  so it is also essential to have a personality that tolerates this conflict, as explained in the next item in this list.

   

   

   

   

  Personality

  Creative people take the risk to defy conventional wisdom and to be a nonconformist. Creative people have the courage to persist, even when the people around them provide objections, criticism, ridicule, and other obstacles. Most people are too timid to be really creative.