How Curiosity Cultivates Creativity
A lesson from the life of Leonardo da Vinci about how observing the world around you can lead to creative breakthroughs.
BY FAISAL HOQUE | January 21, 2014
If an idea is the seed of strategy, experience is the seed of an idea.
But can there be qualitative differences in experience? Yes, research has shown that the reason time seems to speed up as you get older is that the world is not as novel as it was when you were young. The more familiar you are with a situation–or you perceive that you are with a situation–the more quickly you will experience it.
This is an argument for varied experience–a predictor of creativity–but it is also an argument for mindfulness.
It is a matter of attending to your experience, or staying curious about the world. The less we’re wrapped up in our thinking, the more we notice about the world. As Einstein famously said that he had no special talent beyond being passionately curious, which means there is no other avenue to cultivating creative work aside from impassioned curiosity. Thankfully, we have models for this way of living, with Leonardo da Vinci as one of the foremost.
Read the full article @FastCompany.
