I spent the morning reading Revenge of the Introvert in Psychology Today. This is an interesting article that talks about how prevalent introversion actually is in humans when given psychology tests, and why accepting one’s intraverted tendencies is okay.
From the creative side of things, the author Laurie Helgoe points out how mentally draining it is for introverts to force themselves to be more outgoing and social, and in fact they are better at problem solving and creativity when they have a chance to sit in a quiet corner (or go running, sit on the bus with their headphones plugged in) and contemplate.
What I found interesting also, from a social science aspect, was when Helgoe pointed out that while American culture strongly encourages extraverted behavior, other cultures like in Finland and East Asia value introversion.
As Helgoe states “…if every other person is an introvert, why doesn’t the cultural tone reflect that?”
Indeed.
But overall the article provides a great message of why introversion is a good thing (really, truly) and how all us introverts can thrive in an extraverted culture.
“Researchers [that] have been analyzing those stray thoughts, they’ve found daydreaming to be remarkably common — and often quite useful. A wandering mind can protect you from immediate perils and keep you on course toward long-term goals. Sometimes daydreaming is counterproductive, but sometimes it fosters creativity and helps you solve problems.”
It’s amazing how often the case is that a little bit of a genetic trait is good, but too much of it can be dangerous or even deadly: just look at sickle cell anemia and malaria resistance: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/sickle-cell-and-malaria.html
Imagination Playground Park, South Street Seaport area of New York City
Several researchers, psychologists, and journalists are exploring the idea of creativity right now. Two in particular stood out to me recently.
One was author Po Bronson and his article for Newsweek about the Creativity Crisis he and co-author Ashley Merryman believe is taking place in the United States with our current education system:
Like intelligence tests, Torrance’s test—a 90-minute series of discrete tasks, administered by a psychologist—has been taken by millions worldwide in 50 languages. Yet there is one crucial difference between IQ and CQ scores. Enriched environments are making kids smarter. With creativity, a reverse trend has just been identified and is being reported for the first time here: American creativity scores are falling.
Kyung Hee Kim at the College of William & Mary discovered this in May, after analyzing almost 300,000 Torrance scores of children and adults. Kim found creativity scores had been steadily rising, just like IQ scores, until 1990. Since then, creativity scores have consistently inched downward. “It’s very clear, and the decrease is very significant,” Kim says. It is the scores of younger children in America—from kindergarten through sixth grade—for whom the decline is “most serious.”
The potential consequences are sweeping. The necessity of human ingenuity is undisputed. A recent IBM poll of 1,500 CEOs identified creativity as the No. 1 “leadership competency” of the future. Yet it’s not just about sustaining our nation’s economic growth. All around us are matters of national and international importance that are crying out for creative solutions, from saving the Gulf of Mexico to bringing peace to Afghanistan to delivering health care. Such solutions emerge from a healthy marketplace of ideas, sustained by a populace constantly contributing original ideas and receptive to the ideas of others.
In response to Bronson’s article, Darell Hammond, CEO of Kaboom, a non-profit working to get more parks installed around the U.S., agreed, and wrote a commentary supporting Bronson’s article in the Huffington Post, as well as offering solutions on what can be done about this drop in creativity:
With objects as simple as boxes, rubber bands, and Styrofoam peanuts, children can create their own narratives and games; build something and tear it down; or simply play to enjoy shapes and textures.
We need to let our kids spend more time roaming freely in forests, backyards, fields, parks, and beaches — all environments rife with opportunities for creative play. And we need to rethink our playgrounds as places that not only let children run around and let off steam, but that also challenge, stimulate, and inspire their imaginations.
The first Imagination Playground Park, which opens this week at Burling Slip in the South Street Seaport area of New York City, is one such example. The park includes a sandpit, cascading water channel, rope climbing structure, and loose parts — such as burlap bags, buckets, shovels, brooms, carts and fabric. It also includes Imagination Playground blocks — blue blocks made from biodegradable foam that come in a variety of shapes and sizes and provide endless possibilities for creative play.
I have seen this done in a couple of places, but always love to see it done, and often in different ways. This was featured in the New York Times a couple of months ago, but like I said I’ve been storing these ideas for a couple of months now.
Mr. Riley, a former commodities trader turned plant expert who went on to become assistant director of the Horticultural Society of New York, was eager to move beyond potted plants in a way that hadn’t yet occurred to many others. It took a number of expeditions, a lot of research and more than a decade and a half, but by 2003 he had figured out how to grow a wall of plants inside his Upper West Side apartment. …
Vertical gardens — which began as an experiment in 1988 by Patrick Blanc, a French botanist intent on creating a garden without dirt — are becoming increasingly popular at home. Avid and aspiring gardeners, frustrated with little outdoor space, are taking another look at their walls and noticing something new: more space. And a number of companies are selling ready-made systems and all-in-one kits for gardeners like Mr. Riley who want to do it themselves.
Matthew McGregor-Mento put 400 plants in his vertical garden in Manhattan.
These were originally developed by artist Patrick Blanc almost 30 years ago. The NYT article features garden walls in New York, for obvious reasons, but they are also sprouting up in Tacoma, WA, London, Singapore, and other cities.
antigravity forest, LondonMaximum Garden House, Singapore. Credit: Jeremy San
Mental Flowers 