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In this video, we're going to talk about different kinds of creativity
and some of the blocks for creativity as well.
There's a number of issues, creativity,  innovation, which are obviously intimately linked;
so, you could think these videos are as much  about innovation as creativity.
Also, if you've ever done any programming, debugging,
which are seen as being these almost magical things. You're just assumed you can either

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do these things or you can't.
However, if you can understand how these processes work,
then we're in a position to have various aids and tools.
And by 'tools' I don't mean particularly software tools,
more techniques that you can apply that can help you
to actually be more creative and more innovative.
The other side of this is if there are tools and techniques that help, we can actually
analyze them, pull them apart a bit
and perhaps have a better understanding of the processes, which then can lead to better techniques.

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There are many kinds of creativity; we're  going to think about two kinds of creativity here
very briefly. One is this sort of *artistic creativity*; that's when you're writing a poem or
designing perhaps a new logo for a website that you're going to have.
And that's more about aesthetics and things like that. The other kind is *technical creativity*.
And so, for instance, perhaps you're designing your logo for a new e-learning website.

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But then you want notifications to send to people, but you don't want to send too many
because that'll annoy them; you don't want to send things that they're not interested in.
So, how do you design this so that you can notify and keep people engaged
and yet not annoy them in the process? So, that requires a different kind of creativity
– a *technical creativity*, one that's more about sort of solving that problem rather than necessarily
making something beautiful. And it's that technical creativity we're going to focus on.

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The two are different, but they are interlinked.
And so, some of the techniques we'll talk about will also help if you are looking at more artistic creativity.
And I'm sure there are lots of artistic techniques that can help you with your technical creativity as well.
Another breakdown – and this is due to Margaret Boden, who's one of the sort of theorists
on creativity – is between what's called *H-Creativity* and *P-Creativity*.
So, H-Creativity is *historic creativity* and P-Creativity is *personal creativity*.

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So, P-Creativity is about something that's new for you. So, if you think about a child when it
first learns to put two words together, that's a creative step for the child,
but probably a gazillion other children have made the same step, so it's not for humanity as a whole.
Whereas, H-Creativity is new for the world; it's your Nobel Prize, or at least the thing that you say 'Wow!'
– you know – whether it's Wordsworth or  whoever it is is doing.
Again, we're going to focus on P-Creativity; we're not necessarily going to make ourselves out

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as Einsteins and Nobel Prize-winners here. But when you've got a particular problem,
you need a creative solution for that. Now, it might be thousands of other people
have found the same solution to the same problem, but what matters for you is that in that situation
you find the solution.
Now, again, the two are not un-interlinked. You know – if you understand a field well
and then you make something that's creative for you, it's quite likely creative for the field

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– whether it's Nobel Prize-winning or just innovative and people say, 'Wow, that's great!'
So, I said the two aren't interlinked, but our focus is going to be on
having that step which for you is something brand-new.
Okay – creative ideas themselves: what do we mean by 'being creative'?
Usually people have two things that both need to hold for something to be a truly creative idea.
It's got to be *novel*. It's got to be something that, whether it's novel for you in terms of this

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P-Creativity or novel for the world, but it has a level of novelty; it's not something you already know,
that you're just pulling out of your kitbag and using.
But it's also got to be *useful* – it's got to do its job.
So, if you think about the examples we had earlier for the logo,
if you're doing a logo and it's a logo for a new company,
it's got to be different from everybody else's logo. You can't just say, 'Oh, I've got a logo I've used
before – you can have it.' I mean, you might *modify* one you used before, but you can't just
use the one you've used for.  It's got to be new for them.

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But it's also got to do its job; it's got to appeal to people; it's got to give the right kinds of messages.
Similarly with notifications, you might need a new – well, again, actually with that you might
be able to pull something out of your kitbag, but if it's a problem, if you're stuck,
then you need something new to deal with that.
But it's also got to solve the problem; it's also got to not annoy people.
It's also got to engage people and make sure they don't forget about you.
So, you've got to *both solve a problem and be novel*.

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And it's hard. Sometimes it's easy to be one; sometimes it's easier to do the other.
So, let's look at two sorts of ways of being creative and possibly two sorts of people.
But you might recognize a bit of both of these in yourself.
So, the first sort of creativity you might be  is *ant creativity*,
taking creative steps, but small creative steps, lots of them,
and if you add them together, if you remember the lemon squeezer,

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the way that the person had  had – Philippe Starck had had lots of small,
very rapidly, but lots of small ideas that all  eventually came to that thing that seemed like
'Wow! How on Earth did you get there?' but actually lots of steps on the way.
So, sometimes actually what appear to be fantastic ideas and are fantastic ideas
have come through mechanisms like this.
It tends to be *incremental* and *evolutionary*.
An *ant-type creativity is often more convergent*,

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looking towards a solution, trying to take  things – perhaps a more engineering approach:
*slow and safe, but might not get you that radically new idea*.
Another kind of creativity is *flea-like creativity* – great leaps in the dark
– you know – are often almost unguided, just lots of 'Wow!'
Yeah – some strange thought: *revolutionary, divergent, but often wrong*.

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And that's a crucial thing. Not everything you do, not every idea is a good idea.
If you think about that flea, the flea is sitting on the carpet,
a cat comes along – vague warmth – the flea jumps.
But does it land on the cat or does it miss the cat? Well, there are lots of fleas; it doesn't matter
if a few die along the way.
Years ago when I was a child, we had a cat.
And occasionally it had fleas, and I had cups of tea and I'd sometimes put them on the carpet.

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And I would be sitting there, and then I'd look in my cup of tea and...
dead fleas – a bit of warmth, jump... dead flea.
Hopefully, you like to be a bit more successful in this...
to make those big jumps, to make them in a more guided way.
So, that's different kinds of creativity.
But this can be hard – you know. So, creativity...
we want to try and do something good, but sometimes we make a mess of it.
Hopefully, we *realize* we're doing  that before we actually deliver it.

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So, as a formula for creativity, how can you be creative?
You need *diversity*. You need to have those bright sparks of insight.
You also need *structure*. You need to understand them so that
when you create your new ideas, they are actually ones that are not just *novel*
but also *useful* – and you need *both*.
And if you put those two together, that's when you get innovation.