Monday, March 01, 2010

Creativity is proportional to the courage to break from the status quo.

A few days ago, I tweeted: Creativity is not proportional to intelligence per se. Creativity is proportional to the courage to break from the status quo. @ http://twitter.com/kenmogi.

You know it took me such a long time to come to this particular realization.

The inspiration came to me when I was pondering the life of Albert Einstein. There is no doubt that Albert Einstein was a terribly intelligent man. How else could one bring about an evolution such as the theory of relativity into the world? I actually decided to become a scientist because I was infected by the marvel of the "Einsteinian" intellect.

However, it cannot be said that the achievement of Albert Einstein is due to his intellect alone. He was a remarkably courageous man. At a time when the education at German speaking schools was conducted in an authoritarian manner, Albert Einstein rebelled against the system. He traveled around Europe alone, after dropping out of the Gymnasium.

When choosing the subject of study, he went off the beaten track and pursued his inspiration in the teens concerning what would happen if you followed light with the speed of light. Because he did not go along the status quo, or the powers that be, he could not get a job at the university, but worked at the patent office instead.

All these rough drives of life did not make Albert Einstein wince. He continued with his brave journey of investigation, and succeeded in creating a brand new way to look at the space-time.

When you ponder the life of Albert Einstein, you realize that creativity is proportional to the courage to break from the status quo.



The Albert Einstein T-shirt that I sometimes wear to get around in Tokyo.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I view creativity (or the ability to innovate) as the ultimate intellect (or wisdom), the ability to logically think through things which do not exist yet. For Einstein et al, I don't think their adventures required any "courage" on their part, because they are most likely to have already structured a completely different world with new elements in their minds as if the new world were already existent, per se. Meanwhile, there are those like me who would mindlessly plunge into any ocean just because it merely "feels" like the right thing to do. While I do believe I have the "courage" (perhaps mainly due to my physiological discomfort in appreciating "security"), I sincerely wish I had more of such intellect (or wisdom) with me.
SK

砂山鉄夫(Tetsu Sunayama) said...

What a moving essay!
Einstein was great!

Hmm, I should have worked at the patent office...

Yuzu said...

Dear:Mr.Mogi
I feel surprise and easy, Albert Einstein is a terribly intelligent man, but he is normal. He Knows what is happiness for him. However he is huge intelligent.

> you realize that creativity is proportional to the courage to break from the status quo.
I will.

Petrusa de Koker said...

I have to admit that I too, am an Einstein admirer. ...and I also sincerely wish that I had more intellect/wisdom with me.
Thanks for a great blog entry + comments.