Creative Breakthroughs

Do they vary in impact?

Yes. They do.

Some creative ideas are radical breakthroughs that change the world. Such as important scientific discoveries like the polio vaccine or technological inventions like the iPhone.

And, some creative ideas are personal breakthroughs, meaning they are new to you.

Margaret Boden, an MIT professor, clarifies creative breakthroughs.

She breaks it down:

1. psychological creativity (P-Creativity)

2. historical creativity (H-Creativity)

Her quote explains it best.

A valuable idea is P-creative if the person in whose mind it arises could not have had it before; it does not matter how many times before other people have already had the same idea.

By contrast, a valuable idea is H-creative if it is P-creative and no one else, in all human history, has ever had it before. (In Dimensions of Creativity, MIT Press, 1994, p. 76)

To illustrate, I’ll use Ben Franklin. Everyone attributes this saying:

“Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.”

to Ben Franklin.

Yet I discovered he didn’t coin the saying he borrowed it from someone else!

So, ‘early to bed, early to rise’ is P-creative for Ben Franklin.

At the same time, we KNOW Ben Franklin had numerous H-creative ideas like the lightning rod and bifocals.

He, like us, made numerous psychological breakthroughs (P-creative) probably before his H-creative breakthroughs and even after them.

Creativity is a mysterious process and all breakthroughs are valuable.

For Nir Eyal, bedtime is the best time for creative ideas.

In a recent article, he supports the bedtime theory of idea generation and points to a 2019 British survey which concluded that 40% of the English population feel most creative before going to sleep at night.

Eyal explained that being in a relaxed state, we are likely to see connections in unexpected ways and insights may arise surprising us.

Eyal wrote about the best places creative ideas arise such as while driving or showering and certainly falling asleep. If you’re interested, check out

Nir Eyal.

Personal creative breakthroughs are the building blocks to historical creative breakthroughs. They are highly valuable.