Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention

by Mihály Csíkszentmihályi

even without success, creative persons find joy in a job well done.

attention is a limited resource:

Over an entire lifetime, the amount of attention

left over for learning a symbolic domain—

To achieve creativity in an existing domain, there must be surplus attention available.

centers of creativity tend to be at the intersection of different cultures, where beliefs, lifestyles, and knowledge mingle and allow individuals to see new combinations of ideas

Mi caso viviendo en San Francisco

creativity is more likely in places where new ideas require less effort to be perceived.

Por esto en México es tan difícil que existan procesos creativos que realmente sean disruptivos

creativity generally involves crossing the boundaries of domains, so

Each of us is born with two contradictory sets of instructions:

conservative

risk—

Pessimism is a very easy way out when you’re considering what life really

Just writing tragic novels is rather easy.

creativity does not happen inside people’s heads, but in the interaction between a person’s thoughts and a sociocultural context. It is a systemic rather than an individual phenomenon.

distinguish at least three different phenomena that can legitimately be called by that name.

first usage,

second way

final use

others. It happens very often, for example, that some persons brimming with brilliance, whom everyone thinks of as being exceptionally creative, never leave any accomplishment, any trace of their existence—except, perhaps, in the memories of those who have known them.

two more terms that are sometimes used interchangeably with creativity.

first is talent.

genius.

interrelations of a system made up of three main parts.

first of these is the domain,

second component of creativity is the field,

third component of the creative system is the individual person.

Creativity occurs when a person, using the symbols of a given domain such as music, engineering, business, or mathematics, has a new idea or sees a new pattern, and when this novelty is selected by the appropriate field for inclusion into the relevant domain.

Creativity is any act, idea,

the trait of personal creativity may help generate the novelty that will change a domain, but it is neither a sufficient nor a necessary condition for it.

novelty is more obvious

domains that are often relatively trivial but easy to measure; whereas in domains that are more essential novelty is very difficult to determine.