So now let’s tackle the idea that we are getting “new” ideas. New to us, maybe, but there are no new or original new ideas in truth. What our brains do is connect ideas that have already floated about in the universe for time eternal to give you a new “idea” or approach or a solution that will send you forth on the journey of creative genius right now. Those ideas cluster and connect in your brain because you are uniquely qualified to bring them forth to enchant, serve and otherwise enrich the world. Too much for you to contemplate? You don’t have to. Your decision to act on this gift and carry it to fruition is all you need to do. Its impact on others is something that happens without any effort on your part if you just follow through and do the work.
The dot connection process goes like this (from Jonah Lehrer in Imagine: How Creativity Works: “rewarding information gets processed by the dopamine neurons and then sent onward to the prefrontal cortex. The thought has now entered working memory. If this new information comes to any useful conclusions … the idea survives a persistent link between cells. A new connection that helps solve a problem has been created. But the process isn’t finished. That new thought is then transmitted back to its source – those pleasure-hungry dopamine cells in the midbrain – so the neurons learn from the new idea. “We call that a recursive loop” brain researcher Earl Miller says. “It allows the system to feed on itself so that one idea leads naturally to the next. We can then build on these connections so that they lead to other, richer connections.”
“I love going out of my way, beyond what I know, and finding my way back a few extra miles, by another trail, with a compass that argues with the map…nights alone in motels in remote western towns where I know no one and no one I know knows where I am, nights with strange paintings and floral spreads and cable television that furnish a reprieve from my own biography when in Benjamin’s terms, I have lost myself though I know where I am. Moments when I say to myself as feet or car clear a crest or round a bend, I have never seen this place before. Times when some architectural detail on vista that has escaped me these many years says to me that I never did know where I was, even when I was home.” ― Rebecca Solnit, A Field Guide to Getting Lost
Creativity isn’t linear. It curves and loops around. It wanders about. But all this serves to illuminate and focus your attention. We start to notice patterns, things that were confusing (I’m stumped!) begin to make sense, and we have an “Ah Ha!” moment. A new direction has emerged, and we have opened ourselves to new horizons.
artwork by Leslie Klusmire
1 Jonah Lehrer. Imagine: How Creativity Works. Houghton, Mifflin Harcourt, 2012. pg 67-68 Note: Subsequent to the publishing of this book, Mr. Lehrer was found to have fabricated quotes from Bob Dylan. In my opinion, the information he researched and used in this book still has great value and is replicated in the creativity research of other authors. I do not include any Bob Dylan quotes Lehrer wrote.
#21 Connect the Dots (Creatively!) – Link Old Ideas to Innovate
July 24, 2022
By Leslie
