EXPERIMENTAL CREATIVITY
Experience also brings us a special kind of ingenuity. It’s what David Galenson, a professor of economics at the University of Chicago calls “experimental creativity.”
Historians often don’t peak until their fifties and beyond, as is true of many political leaders. Their accomplishments later in life are often the result of making all sorts of creative adjustments based on trial and error. Paul Cezanne, Virginia Wolfe and Alfred Hitchcock are among its most famous exemplars. We experienced folks are the tortoises.
Galenson has also uncovered another kind of inventiveness, which he calls "conceptual creativity." It’s characterized by a flash of insight and sudden breakthroughs. Poets and physicists often peak in their twenties. So do creatives such as Pablo Picasso, James Joyce and Orson Wells. Our younger counterparts are the hares.
In building a mentoring program as an Encore Fellow for the city of San José, California, I was fortunate to have teamed up with a much younger "sidekick." I brought my years of trial and error and in making adjustments to our work together; my Millennial partner brought flashes of insight and his command of a whole raft of technological tools.
In Galenson's terms, I brought "experimental creativity." He brought with him "conceptual creativity." It was this creative synergy that made our partnership so effective.
Historians often don’t peak until their fifties and beyond, as is true of many political leaders. Their accomplishments later in life are often the result of making all sorts of creative adjustments based on trial and error. Paul Cezanne, Virginia Wolfe and Alfred Hitchcock are among its most famous exemplars. We experienced folks are the tortoises.
Galenson has also uncovered another kind of inventiveness, which he calls "conceptual creativity." It’s characterized by a flash of insight and sudden breakthroughs. Poets and physicists often peak in their twenties. So do creatives such as Pablo Picasso, James Joyce and Orson Wells. Our younger counterparts are the hares.
In building a mentoring program as an Encore Fellow for the city of San José, California, I was fortunate to have teamed up with a much younger "sidekick." I brought my years of trial and error and in making adjustments to our work together; my Millennial partner brought flashes of insight and his command of a whole raft of technological tools.
In Galenson's terms, I brought "experimental creativity." He brought with him "conceptual creativity." It was this creative synergy that made our partnership so effective.