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A Short Guide to Creativity

-- By JonathanBrice - 20 May 2012

“Creativity is the phenomenon whereby a person creates something new (a product, solution, artwork, literary work, joke, etc.) that has some kind of value.” Wikipedia

Introduction

The Roman philosopher Lucius Seneca once wrote, “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” In reality, nearly every goal is something that happens when preparation meets opportunity. For example, whether it’s obtaining a law degree, getting a particular job, or doing well in a particular class, you have to prepare at least to some extent, and you have to be given the opportunity to achieve that particular goal. In that same vein, creativity also requires preparation and opportunity, but mixed in with a little bit of bravery. This required bit of bravery is what often makes creativity hard to achieve.

Preparation

No one is ever born creative, just like no one is ever born knowing a particular subject; creativity takes preparation. In a sense, creative is being able to go to your mental toolbox and use the creativity tools at your disposal to solve a particular problem. Therefore, someone who is extremely creative in one specific subject of a particular field could be ordinary in another specific subject in that same field. For example, if you take the most creative RICO attorney, present them with a Felony-Murder issue that requires a creative solution, and provide them with a Felony-Murder rule refresher course, it is very unlikely that they will be able to solve the Felony-Murder issue with the same creative genius that they employ in solving RICO issues. Quite simply, their RICO tools probably won’t work as well on Felony-Murder issue.

So how can we add to our toolshed? There are at least two ways, (1) Diversify and (2) Read.

(1) Diversify

By opening up yourself to a diverse group of individuals, who have life experiences different from your own, you’ll be able to add to your creativity tool shed by learning different ways to approach an issue.

Nearly everyone thinks differently, and the more different people are in terms of background, the more divergent their approaches to particular issues will be. By interacting with people that think differently from you, you will see and learn how they think, and how their backgrounds have shaped the way the approach whatever field you’re working in. In all, the more tools (views) you accumulate, the more perspectives you’ll learn, and the better your arsenal will be. In the future, when you get an issue form that particular field, or even another, you can go back to your toolshed and use, tweak or combine the tools that you’ve accumulated from other people.

(2) Read

A second way to improve your toolshed is to read everything, even thing that have since been abandoned or disproved. Most importantly, in reading everything, read for understanding, and not particularly knowledge. If something is already well known, rehashing it is not being creative, its just having a good memory. Just like the most creative athletes often have the most varied arsenal of moves, even the ones that have fallen out of favor, the most creative thinkers must also have the most varied knowledge base. Akin to interacting with a diverse group of individuals, this will serve to broaden your knowledge base, teaching you more ways to skin a cat.

Opportunity

No matter how well you know a particular subject area, if you are never given a chance to be creative, you will not be able to be creative. Quite simply, if you’re not given the car, you can’t drive it. Nevertheless, when the opportunity does arise, you have to be able to recognize it. While situations vary far too much for one to conclusively say how to recognize an opportunity, one can at least say that in order to recognize an opportunity, one has to be looking for one.

Bravery

Apart from preparing and finding an opportunity, one has to be brave enough to take the opportunity when it comes. For example, lets take Mark Zuckerburg and facebook. Facebook wasn’t thought of spontaneously by Mark. First, Mark prepared by knowing the material cold, and then, when the opportunity came in the form of the Winkle twins, he was brave enough to seize it and run with it. In that situation, he could have easily just done his job...but he didn't, he seize the opportunity to be creative, and he created facebook.

Conclusion

As I think back over 1L, I realize that all of our classes were attempting to teach us to be creative attorneys in a particular field, while Eben’s class was simply adding to our creativity toolsheds more generally. In terms of the core classes, first, they tried to prepare us by placing us in a room with a diverse group of individuals, giving us a plethora of material to read and discuss. Secondly, they provided us with an opportunity in the form of an exam. Lastly, we simply had to be brave and not just rehash the rules from book….we had to be brave enough to gun for the A…to make them know that X wrote an exam.

Eben, I would like to continue working with you on both this and the first paper.

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