Time Capsule #54

On the crisis of creativity, French novels, and martial arts.

Jan 2

✏️ The Creativity Crisis

We as a society place much emphasis on intellectual ability. IQ is a great metric to predict job/student performance, however, what it doesn’t measure well is creativity — the ability to generate original ideas, identify and solve problems, and develop new systems. Creative thinking is what drives innovation and development in our world, and therefore fostering creativity should be a priority for our schools, our parents, and our society. But what we are seeing more and more is a population that is in a creativity crisis. A study published in 2011 found that creative thinking is declining in Americans of all ages, especially in kindergarten to 3rd grade. Creativity requires a climate that fosters curiosity, passion, and the freedom to make mistakes. It requires an open-mindedness — a playfulness — that isn’t being promoted in our modern school systems. If we wish to do great things as a species, as we did in the 60s with the Apollo program, we need future generations to disrupt the status quo, question the norms of today, and make mistakes along the way.

Creativity is the fuel of progress, and if we continue on our current trajectory, we may find ourselves with plenty of intellectual ammunition, but with no creative weapons to put them to use. We risk not having the tools we need to deal with future pandemics and other humanitarian crises that require innovation and courage.

Source: Kim KH. The creativity crisis: The decrease in creative thinking scores on the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking. Creativity research journal. 2011 Oct 1;23(4):285-95.

📸 Photo of the Week

The River Severn at Shrewsbury, Shropshire — by Paul Sandby (1770)

📖 Book of the Week — Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

Published in 1856, Madame Bovary is Flaubert’s debut album and his magnum opus. After public prosecutors tried to charge the novel with obscenity the book became widely popular; the story surrounds the main protagonist, Emma Bovary, and her desire to “escape the banalities and emptiness of provincial life”.

Along with Anna Karenina, Madame Bovary is a classic of European adultery novels.

💭 Quote of the Week

James Clear @JamesClear

3 ideas to start your year: 1) You don't rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems. 2) Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become. 3) Decide the type of person you want to be. Prove it to yourself with small wins.

🔭 Sunday Best

The Bible and Western Culture - Kierkegaard's Leap of Faith — a lecture by Dr. Michael Sugrue. Some things in life cannot be reasoned or confirmed, we must simply take the leap.

Abdul Rahman Blanchette teaching Silat — an Indonesian martial art.

You're not meant to use your mind, you're meant to use your heart. You don’t think, because you don’t know what’s going to happen. Allah makes it happen […] when you don’t use your mind, what ever the person does to you, you can just, like a leaf that falls from the tree, let go and it all happens. Naturally by Allah.

Chopin’s Nocturne No. 2, Op. 9 — on the guitar!

💡 Food for Thought

Having work that you get excited about is a life hack.

Ciao,