How are new ideas born?

“Almost every one of us is familiar with the state of painful reflections on the task at hand. It seems that the solution is somewhere very close, it passes along the edge of consciousness, but slips away at the last moment. How we miss the insight that came to Archimedes at the moment when he cried out his famous “Eureka!” (“Found!”). According to legend, he discovered the basic law of hydrostatics by immersing himself in a bath. And the creative search of Isaac Newton, as they say, was crowned by an apple that fell on the scientist’s head. But will we achieve the same result if we lie down in the bath or get an apple on the head? Who are the chosen ones who are given great ideas into their hands?

Who does chance help?

The authors of great ideas themselves do not make the path to success very clear. Rather add secrets. For example, Albert Einstein said: “A discovery in science is by no means made in a logical way; it is clothed in a logical form only later, in the course of presentation. A discovery, even the smallest one, is always an insight. The result comes from outside and so unexpectedly, as if someone had prompted it.

But science does not like mysticism, trying to find concrete facts and clear patterns in the creative process. A curious scheme of the creative process was proposed by social psychologist Graham Wallas (Graham Wallas) together with mathematician and psychologist Jacques Hadamard (Jacques Salomon Hadamard). They studied the stories of many scientists about their work and identified four stages in the birth of an idea. First: the decision to focus on the task, to formulate it as accurately as possible. The second stage: the goal is defined, and you can “let go” your mind, switching to something else and letting the unconscious work actively. When a solution is found, insight arises – insight, discovery – the third, shortest and brightest stage. And finally, the fourth stage: the found idea is tested – is it really new? True or False? Is it of value?

Modern neuroscientists recognize this scheme, leaving no room for romanticism. But what about insight that does not require effort from the creator?

“This is an outdated stereotype! says Lionel Naccache, a neuroscientist at the Brain Institute in Paris. – Reason and purposeful effort play a crucial role in the creative process. But we are aware of only a small part of the information that our brain actually processes.” This is an important note. Its meaning is that we may not understand how intensely our brain is looking for a solution to a particular problem. The speed of unconscious operations is much higher than that which our slow logic can develop with conscious information processing. Therefore, it is not surprising that when a bright idea arises, it may seem to us that it came from outside, and not born from our mind.

So, if we want to find a solution to a difficult question, then we should set the task as precisely as possible – and then let the unconscious work, which is able to search for a solution very quickly, intensively and in different directions. The unconscious can correct and even reformulate the problem, that is, “create a completely new solution that is not provided for by the original formulation,” says Lionel Naccache.

The history of science knows many examples of seemingly accidental discoveries, when a scientist is looking for one thing and finds another. For example, this is how penicillin was discovered: biologist Alexander Fleming returned from vacation and found that mold had settled in the vessels where he had left staphylococcal cultures. Instead of throwing away evidence of failed experiments, Fleming began to study them carefully. And I found that around the mold there is a clean space in which bacteria do not develop. Thus, the world’s first antibiotic was born. Why was Fleming lucky? The answer is in the words of another eminent biologist, Louis Pasteur, who himself came up with the idea of ​​vaccination “inadvertently”: “Chance only helps the prepared mind.”

Creativity cocktail recipe

“Big ideas are almost never the result of sudden inspiration,” says American researcher Steven Johnson. They must mature. For a long time they dwell in the background, in an unmanifested state, before they become distinct.

Does this mean that hard work, concentration on the task at hand will certainly lead us to the desired solution? Alas, this is a necessary but by no means sufficient condition.

Then a high level of intelligence will help us? And this is not entirely true. An IQ level above a certain value ceases to correlate with life achievement, as studies by psychologist Lewis Terman have shown.

Maybe it’s a matter of special creative abilities? Again no. You can perform exorbitantly well on special tests for creativity, but never come up with a single bright idea in your entire life. The cocktail called “creativity” requires many more ingredients.

“Creative people have an amazing ability to adapt to almost any situation and use whatever resources are at hand to achieve their goals,” writes psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, who has devoted 30 years to studying this topic. He considers the complex organization of personality to be the key difference between creators. “They coexist with the features of thinking and behavior, which in most people are separated from each other. They have many internal contradictions, they seem to contain many personalities.

Creative individuals are able to be introverts in some situations, and extroverts in others, they have features of lazy people and workaholics, dreamers and realists, rebels and conservatives. But Csikszentmihalyi considers one of the most important qualities inherent in all of them to be the ability to enjoy creativity for the sake of creativity itself.

He highlights the factors that harm creativity. It is exhaustion from overwork and fatigue from problems; weakness of character, laziness and lack of discipline; a tendency to scatter and inability to focus on the main thing and, finally, the vagueness of goals and a lack of motivation to achieve them.

Creativity as a synonym for happiness

Yet what intrigues us most is the moment of insight itself. What paths lead to it? “For the birth of an idea, an open, fresh look is needed,” says existential psychotherapist Svetlana Krivtsova. “We put aside all preconceptions, everything we knew before, and allow the phenomenon we are looking at to reveal itself to us in its essence. This is an emotionally intuitive process. Insight is based on emotional involvement, excitement and interest. The creative person is extremely receptive, deeply impressed by things that ordinary people may not pay attention to.

The creators themselves also talk about the non-rationality of insight. Many poets claim that in moments of inspiration it is as if they are writing under someone’s dictation. And writers admit that their characters are self-willed, getting out of the author’s control. Let us recall at least Pushkin’s phrase: “Imagine what my Tatyana did – she took it and got married!”.

“There is nothing mystical here,” Svetlana Krivtsova is sure. – It simply means that the author has reached a level where what has been revealed to him appears as an objective reality. Nothing can be changed in it, it remains only to reflect what has been revealed as best and as fully as possible. And at the same time, at this moment, a person, more than ever, feels himself and experiences a feeling of incredible creative freedom.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi distinguishes between two types of creativity. Creativity with a small letter – creativity “for oneself”, changing only the life of the person himself and his immediate environment. And creativity with a capital letter, changing the life of the whole society. But whether we make a discovery for the whole world or invent something just for ourselves, the quality of life in any case changes. “If the idea is realized, it inspires us. We feel the fullness of life, harmony with ourselves and with the world,” says Svetlana Krivtsova. “And this is the main criterion for a happy life.”

* A. Einstein “World and Physics” (Tydex Ko, 2003).

** M. Csikszentmihalyi «Creativity: The Work and Lives of 91 Eminent People» (HarperCollins, 1996).

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