In the last chapter of his book ‘Creativity’ Mihaly Csikzentmihalyi lists a few tips for enhancing personal creativity.
The first tip is curiosity.
Mr. Csikzentmihalyi suggests improving your curiosity by:
Trying to be surprised by something everyday.
Trying to surprise at least one person every day.
Writing down each day what surprised you and how you surprised others
And finally, when something strikes a spark of interest, follow it.
So, I wanted to share with you his tips for improving creativity and then add my own take on it too.
So here are a few examples of how I believe curiosity has helped creativity.
NASA had a problem and if it wasn’t for someone’s interest in nature they might never have solved it.
They now apply the same concept that geckos use on their own robots to ensure they stick to surfaces in anti-gravity situations.
‘The Matrix’ is first of all an amazing film! But also a fantastic amalgamation of varying interests.
I’m talking martial arts, I’m talking philosophy, I’m talking black leather fashion, I’m talking Lewis Carroll tales and of course filmmaking.
My final example is of a career.
Christopher Nolan has systematically been exploring each one of his curiosities via filmmaking.
Interests such as dreams (Inception), the second world war (Dunkirk), time travel (Tenet), space travel (Interstellar) and the Manhattan project (Oppenheimer).
Thomas Duggan 