"Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabridge Uinvervtisy, it deosnt mttaer in waht oredr the litteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a ttoal mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is besauae ocne we laren how to raed we bgien to aargnre the lteerts in our mnid to see waht we epxcet tp see. The huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. We do tihs ucnsolniuscoy. (....)
"When information enters the mind, it self-organizes into patterns and ruts much like the hot water on butter. New information automatically flows into the preformed grooves. After a while, the channels become so deep it takes only a bit of information to activate an entire channel. This is the pattern recognition and pattern completion process of the brain. Even if much of the information is out of the channel, the pattern will be activated. The mind automatically corrects and completes the information to select and activate a pattern.This is why you can read the jumbled letters above as words.
This is also why when we sit down and try to will new ideas or solutions; we tend to keep coming up with the same-old, same-old ideas. Information is flowing down the same ruts and grooves making the same-old connections producing the same old ideas over and over again. Even tiny bits of information are enough to activate the same patterns over and over again. (...)
How then can we change our thinking patterns? Think again about the dish of butter with all the preformed channels. Creativity occurs when we tilt the dish in a different direction and force the water (information) to create new channels and make new connections with other channels. These new connections give you different ways to focus your attention and different ways to interpret whatever you are focusing on. Nature gets variation with genetic mutations. Creative thinkers get variation by conceptually combining dissimilar subjects which changes our thinking patterns and provides us with a variety of alternatives and conjectures. (...)"
Via Amira, Samuel H. Kenyon, Wildcat2030
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...I´ve thought about how creative thinkers have been discriminated throughout modern civilization...
...as novelty naturally falls outside the norm, and modern civilization has been inherently, systematically norm-biased, I have this feeling that non-successful creatives have been subjected to significant social and systematic discrimination...
...top down bureaucratic organization shaped the social norm to disclude creativity, novelty thinking, and social evolution, the majority of those innately prone to innovation could count on little help and reward from the norm-biased surroundings... their life was a life of struggle...
...It´s unnatural for a creative neurotype to conform to the norm, the evolutionary origin and purpose of creativity is cultural evolution. Creativity evolves the norm, it cannot fit into it, and within the creative thinkers, the creative drive is stronger then the drive to conform...
...during my brief medical practice amongst those at the bottom of civilization, the homeless, I saw so much misunderstood potential, so much creativity and ingenuity and empathy, and so little recognition from their "society". Systematically discouraged and misunderstood, forced into poverty and stigma-generated alienation...
...in every one of them, I saw myself...
These social patterns are typical for many shortcomings of top-down bureaucracy, but I have a feeling that creative thinkers in particular have suffered from the hegemonic-ish norm. I haven´t found much literature about it, and I believe it´s important for society to acknowledge this, just as important as the pride movement to end and avow the discrimination of homosexuality. Important at least, as a reminder of the darker angels of our past.
...what do you think?