Silicon Intelligence, Organic Wisdom In Pictures

Posted by Mark Ridinger on December 19, 2016
Posted in: Wisdom. Tagged: , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

Creative concept of the human brain, vector illustrationDeposit Photos: Used with permission

 

[This is a companion piece to Silicon Intelligence, Organic Wisdom.]

Rapid technological innovation is increasingly causing much anxiety about the changing fabric of job creation. What is clear, is that a new paradigm of both job training and work andragogy along with a new approach to educational pedagogy is needed –and urgently.

As highlighted by our recent piece featured in the Huffington Post and LinkedIn, it is time to separate out artificial intelligence from organic wisdom, and spend more time and resources on the latter.

Wisdom v. “Big Data”

Author/thinker Nassim Taleb points out in his book Antifragile, that the “tragedy of Big Data” is the generation of an exponential rise in spurious correlations—noise in essence:

 

 

 

taleb-bd

 

A Wisdom Paradigm construct, which we have argued is the necessary [and overdue] evolution of the Information Age [i.e. the “Knowledge Worker” needs to become the “Wisdom Worker”, and the Information Age needs to give way to the Age of Sapience], avoids this trap:

 

bd-v-wisdom

Because this construct or “wisdom quotient” [WQ] relies on much more than one dimension of knowledge [also employs creativity, emotional intelligence and experience], the likelihood of making good decisions is greatly increased:

good-decisions-wq

For those thinking STEM is the answer, think again.

As reported in the Atlantic:

“STEM doesn’t necessarily help create the “New Work” workers that are so highly valued in the evolving global economy. In a report on “New Work,” the Pew Charitable Trust wrote, “The creative jobs that drive innovation are now the highest ‘value added’ jobs in the world—the real creators of wealth.” The Pew report acknowledges that creativity doesn’t just come from artists. In fact, there are approximately 170 occupational classifications that make up “New Work,” which can be grouped into five major categories based on the types of knowledge, skills, and aptitudes needed. They are Creative, Education, Social, Technical, and Strategic. Based on these classifications, STEM appears to account for only one fifth of the training we’ll need to compete in the coming decades.” [emphasis mine]

The same idea shown graphically, comes from David Deming of Harvard:

deming_jobs

What’s often not commented on however, is that what the two largest increasing subsets have in common is high social skills, not math skills:

employ-change

Machines and the Routine

Another way of slicing the employment skill quandary is looking at whether a task is routine or not [regardless of its “knowledge worker” dynamic], as highlighted by this work from the St. Louis Federal Reserve:

 

cog-v-noncog

A Wisdom Construct, that advances the understanding of practical wisdom, or phronesis, relies on developing the panoply of human skills across the spectrums of intelligence, creativity and compassion/empathy. To illustrate this, a three dimensional graphic is needed, not merely a two-dimensional scatter plot. We posit that jobs moving towards the space-time sector that encompasses these dynamics are the future growth spots in the economy, and largely free from AI disruption:

ww-3d

 

And What About Education?

The static, inorganic current educational paradigm must evolve. Even STEM is fighting the last war. What is needed is a quantum leap forward, understanding that human intellectual pursuits can be thought of as a continuum of sorts, between theoretical constructs leading to explicit design and trial and error [or tinkering]. The ancient Greeks also dealt with this duality with the terms episteme and techne.

Similarly, human work can be thought of as a spectrum from building things with one’s hands [or the extension of such using tools and the like and one based on both deliberate thought and mindful reflection, and subconscious processes. [artisans and thinkers].

Graphically putting these concepts together might look like this:

 

episteme-techne-2

Again, we need a three dimensional image, with the z-axis here being the continuum between venues and methods of learning. Lately there is talk about “micro-colleges”, and although the name isn’t perhaps the best, it at least starts the discussion.

 

[More needs to be said about the value of apprenticeship, as a happy medium between institutional dogma and self-directed study.]

Silicon Intelligence, Organic Wisdom: The Future of Work and Education.

Posted by Mark Ridinger on October 12, 2016
Posted in: Uncategorized. 1 Comment
Child Education

Deposit Photos: Used with permission.

 

Or, Towards a Wisdom Quotient and Novel Educational-Vocational Paradigm

Automation Performance Anxiety

Increasingly, there is a bifurcation of prognostications of what may come with the development of so-called strong Artificial Intelligence–AI. Proponents say it will afford an opportunity for humankind to be free of the yoke of repetition and monotony. But pessimistic skeptics say not so fast—AI will displace jobs—even good high paying ones, and for the first time in history, technology will not be a force for creative destruction, but merely a master of sorts [and hopefully a benevolent one].

“Automation anxiety” is on the rise, the flames of which are fanned seemingly daily by tech moguls and scientist alike. But what answers do they put forward?

Let me put forward a response that I believe both camps can embrace: regardless of which scenario plays out—and I think it is highly likely one will—humanity is not doing what we need to do to be ready for whichever comes. The good news is, the response is the same to whichever we are faced with– existential threat or utopian opportunity.

(My Momma didn’t raise a…) Carbon-based Algo–bot

I had an unfortunate run to the emergency room on a recent Saturday afternoon, and I had a very disturbing realization that is germane to this discussion. Let me explain.

Despite showing up at one of the best hospitals in the Washington DC area, and being seen by two attending emergency department physicians during my stay (because it involved a change of shifts), not one of them thought it necessary to examine me. Yes, I realize it was an emergency room and so we’re not talking about an extensive physical exam but certainly a targeted one based on my symptoms.

Without going into all the details, I can relay that not one of the physicians thought it would be a good idea to do a targeted examination to narrow the differential diagnosis. With practice, a good clinician can incorporate discussing symptoms with a patient while simultaneously collecting more data through an exam. It’s not a time issue in other words. Not to mention the laying on of hands is a critical and important part of the practice of medicine and this sort of interaction can lead to actual improvement and feelings of well being in patients. In other words, part of being a physician goes beyond merely collecting data but involves human connection. It’s part of the art of medicine.

The disturbing realization which occurred to me a day later was that these physicians were acting as nothing more then walking carbon based protocol engines—“bots” if you will. They listened to some complaints that drove an algorithmic determination of laboratory and imaging exams to order. The results, spit out by the lab equipment and by a radiologist basically dictated their diagnosis –which in my case was not one at all, and I was sent home with a “beats me” and instruction to follow up as an outpatient. [A few days later–and with the help of a former physician colleague of mine– the correct diagnosis was later determined].

I’m not indicting the medical profession at large by this anecdote, but instead using this as an example: If we allow ourselves to abdicate the full spectrum of our abilities across all dimensions of human capabilities, and choose to compete against machines on their turf of data analysis and algorithms, it’s game over.

Embracing a Wisdom Construct

So what is this one, correct right path forward to handle the emergence of either a malevolent AI or, merely an uncaring and agnostic one? After all, and somewhat humorously, the reigning [human] Jeopardy! champs recently declared themselves to be the “first knowledge-industry workers put out of work by the new generation of ‘thinking’ machines”.

For me, the clear answer is to realize that the pursuit of knowledge is no longer good enough, and we must shift to wisdom. In a similar way that the DIKW Pyramid [data, information, knowledge, wisdom] advanced the notion of a relativistic, hierarchal value schema, so to can we think of socioeconomic shifts that have occurred taking humankind from a hunter-gatherer to an agrarian species, and then to industrial and knowledge based society. Shouldn’t the next step be an age of sapience?

I’ve written about the impending loss of the preeminence of the knowledge worker and the necessary replacement by the wisdom worker—one who relies on all aspects of human exceptionalism—not merely manipulation of data and logical reasoning. The ancient Greeks were big fans of wisdom [philosophy meaning the love of wisdom]. So much so that Aristotle is credited as defining a version of wisdom called phronesis, that may be translated as practical wisdom. I think this is what we need when we advance a new paradigm of wisdom work. Indeed, it can be posited that this might be defined as the intersection of intellect, creativity and empathy:

Wisdom Quotient (practical) = IQ ∩ CQ ∩ EQ

Such a Wisdom Construct could be taught and enhanced, in part by a concerted effort to develop those dimensions, and then made improvable and operational: It should be possible for individuals, groups and indeed society as a whole to become wiser– not as some metaphysical luxury, but as the result of an existential dilemma facing humanity.

But we should also take into account experience, which adds a temporal component to the mix, that is largely independent. Perhaps then a better nomenclature is:

Wisdom Quotient (practical) = [IQ ∩ CQ ∩ EQ] * ∑ (experience)

Beyond Reading, Writing and ‘Rithmetic

Human intellectual pursuits can be thought of as a continuum of sorts, between theoretical constructs leading to explicit design [the Manhattan Project, Moon Shot] and trial and error, ‘1% inspiration– 99% perspiration’, serendipitous results [The light bulb, penicillin]. The ancient Greeks also dealt with this duality with the terms episteme and techne.

In short, between deliberate scholarship and “tinkering”.

Similarly, human work can be thought of as a spectrum from building things with one’s hands [or the extension of such using tools and the like]– shaping ones environment creatively and in a non-algorithmic sense [dare I say ‘organically’?]– and one based on both reason [cogito ergo sum] and mindful, reflection, and subconscious processes [Eureka! moments].

From artisan to thinker, in other words.

Put into a simple acronym [seemingly a must for these sort of things!], we can state this new educational-vocational rubric as STAT—scholarship, tinkering; artisan, thinker.

The fact that the term connotes an urgency makes it all the better.

The current educational wisdom is calling to promote STEM—and as valuable as science and math, and engineering are, it’s primarily limited to one wisdom paradigm dimension. Adding more programmers to the ranks of humanity hardly seems like the answer to such a monumental shift and is short sighted. Won’t AI be able to program itself anyway?

Adding an A for art and getting STEAM is better, but we are still defining education by academic shorthand, and not by the longhand of life. Instead of putting study and professional development into stale, synthetic buckets of course curricula like we have done for years, why not look to:

1). enhance the individual constructs of practical wisdom; and

2). think in terms of organic clusters of human endeavor?

Take a Page from Silicon Valley

There’s no turning back the inevitable march towards strong AI. It probably doesn’t matter why, but suffice it to say that throughout time, if there is something to invent or to create, or some puzzle to solve, human insatiable curiosity will be there to meet that challenge. In other words, to turn things previously indistinguishable from magic into method.

Silicon valley is all in to win the race to create strong AI. Depending on your view the outcome is mixed, but the commitment is fervent.

But where is the same passion to raise the game and inspire the carbon life forms? The lust to reboot and upgrade our “wetware”, if you will. And not with cyborg implants or the like, but with a radical change in education—in our schools, institutions, in our workplaces—and in our daily lives?

What if a fraction of the time, energy and investment capital flowing to silicon intelligence was put into fostering organic wisdom?

Wouldn’t the investment in wiser employees have a demonstrable –and huge—impact on ROI, in the form of more empathic marketing campaigns, more creative solutions, more fulfilling products?

Forget about the “rise of the machines”, we should be worried about the fall of humans.

Let’s not be our own worst enemy.

 

Mark HT Ridinger, MD

 

 

The Wisdom Worker in the New Age of Sapience

Posted by Mark Ridinger on February 19, 2015
Posted in: Musings. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment
Deposit Photos. Used with permission.

Deposit Photos. Used with permission.

(This article also appears on my Huffington Post blog site)

“Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?” T.S. Eliot, 1934

 

The Beginning of the Decline of the “Knowledge Worker”

The term “knowledge worker” was first coined in 1959, and although definitions vary even to this day, it generally has come to mean those who think for a living and employ “knowledge as their capital”. Conventional wisdom has it that the knowledge worker will reign supreme well into the 21st century. The thing is, many aspects of “knowledge work” are being replaced by technology, most notably artificial intelligence. Examples include everything from legal case research, certain aspects of journalism, a host of financial services work, and even increasingly some facets of medical diagnosis.

The Rise of a New Worker

A new class of worker is beginning to emerge and supersede the knowledge worker. This group is distinguished not only by their ability to think with reason, but also with creativity, intuition, and emotional intelligence. In short, they possess an amalgam of the skills and dimensions that define human exceptionalism and wisdom, in a word, as the most esteemed human quality, seems to be the term best suited to encompass this dynamic. By using the term “wisdom worker” as opposed to say creative worker or imaginative worker, suggests that we are now, at last, using all dimensions of consummate human ability.

Why “Wisdom Worker”?

But it can be difficult to talk about wisdom. To many, it’s both a somewhat vague and deeply personal concept. And it just feels right to most of us to practice some sort of intellectual humility. That shouldn’t mean we should not strive to be wise, and to not embrace incorporating wisdom in all aspects of life, including our career and work. “Among all human pursuits,” Thomas Aquinas wrote, “the pursuit of wisdom is more perfect, more noble, more useful, and more full of joy.” In other words, it is a distinctly human activity requiring high-level human skills and dimensions, and is of tremendous value. Thus, “wisdom work” is the best way to convey a skill set that will not be a mere incremental step beyond knowledge work, but the next evolution of the human worker.

Operational Wisdom

Wisdom can also be thought of as the judicious application of knowledge. This description gets us closer to making the case for what might be better described as operational wisdom (similar to what the ancient Greeks referred to as phronesis, usually translated as “practical wisdom”). Workers functioning with heightened and augmented creative abilities along with emotional and communicative savvy would generate real value by enhancing individual or group performance at achieving goals and key objectives. Last but not least, operational wisdom should be improvable by enhancing its components. This last supposition will seem heretical to some; but if wisdom is indeed a process, why can’t it be enhanced, at least at the margins? Given the immense value more wisdom would add to society, shouldn’t we try?

Jeopardy! is so 20th Century

An insightful parallel to what is now happening to the knowledge worker is what has already happened to “knowledge games”. IBM’s supercomputer Deep Blue ended the human dominance of chess when it beat Grandmaster Gary Kasparov back in 1997, and the company’s Watson, with its deep dive queries and improved understanding of language and idioms, defeated the top Jeopardy! players too.

And that’s why Jeopardy! is so 20th century, and Shark Tank, the reality show where entrepreneurs pitch their ideas to savvy investors, so today. Not because entrepreneurs are somehow inherently wise of course, but that no machine yet has come up with an original, imaginative thought, created an innovative solution, product or service, pitched it to others, and built an enterprise that employs people and creates a novel and useful product or services.

That requires cognition, creative insight and emotional intelligence. And because this trifecta of abilities is well beyond the realm of machine capabilities, it is also where the good jobs of the future will be found, and therein lies one of the great challenges we face: developing a pedagogy and andragogy to cultivate and nurture these skills. Given that our schools are failing at fostering even just creativity, we have our work cut out for us to promote wisdom.

The Age of Sapience

So thousands of years after the time mankind first began to wrestle with the idea of wisdom, we find ourselves today once again compelled to do so, and perhaps more than ever. Indeed, it is now both desirable and necessary to embrace wisdom; we should all become philosophers in a sense—lovers of wisdom. Of course the pursuit of wisdom in and of itself is a noble one, but it is also becoming in part an existential one, as machines continue to replace the knowledge worker of the 20th century. In the past, technology has undoubtedly displaced jobs, but has also typically created even more. As some prominent economists have recently opined, it doesn’t have to always work that way, and perhaps we are entering such a period. But this “threat” could be an amazing opportunity. Just as the first machine age freed us to a large extent from our physical limitations, this “second machine age” could allow us to wallow in wisdom, in both our lives and our work.

Finally, surely the wisdom worker will belong to a new age, just as the knowledge worker was the offspring of the Information Age. It can’t be a coincidence that what may be the final evolution of the human worker, as Homo sapiens, would assuredly belong to the Age of Sapience.

 

Mark HT Ridinger, MD

The Creativity of Our Students: On the Decline?

Posted by Mark Ridinger on December 28, 2014
Posted in: Presentations. Tagged: , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

Brief clip from my talk at Georgetown University on “The Creative Mind and Process”. IQ and creativity–“CQ”– are not related. Here I discuss the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking and the analysis of over 50 years of data.

 

Jeopardy v. Shark Tank: The new skills of the emerging workplace.

Posted by Mark Ridinger on December 11, 2014
Posted in: Presentations. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

Brief clip from my talk at Georgetown University on “The Creative Mind and Process”. Here I discuss why Jeopardy! is so 20th century, and why you won’t be seeing a machine competing on Shark Tank. The worker of the future needs to embrace all dimensions of human exceptionalism.

Creative Heuristics #5: The Neuroscience of Epiphanies

Posted by Mark Ridinger on November 9, 2014
Posted in: Heuristics. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

Epiphany   Epiphanies—also sometimes called eureka or “aha! moments”—are those flashes of insight that are often part of the creative process. As discussed before, they tend to come when our minds are at rest and in a place of what has been called cognitive ease; diverted from trying to find a solution to a vexing problem we had been considering previously in a more analytical fashion. When we have an epiphany, we tend to know it right away, and there is a very pleasant feeling associated with that moment, and usually a sense that a real breakthrough has been achieved. Also of note, problems solved with insight do not occur in some step-wise incremental fashion; one goes from no conscious appreciation of a solution to the complete solution in one leap. Increasingly, neuroscientists have been studying these moments and some interesting findings have been made recently.

In order to study epiphanies, neuroscientist rely on administering various tests that are typically best solved by insight, one of the most common being remote associates tests, or RAT. An example is to ask an individual to find a word that is associated with three other words. For example the correct solution to pine, crab, and sauce would be apple (pineapple, crab apple, and apple sauce).

The tools used to measure the brain’s response to solving these insight problems are generally two: electroencephalography (or EEG, the recording of tiny electrical fluctuations on the scalp with electrodes) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (or fMRI, which detects changes in regional blood flow in the brain). They are complementary in that EEG has very good temporal resolution but limited spatial (anatomical) resolution, and the opposite is true for fMRI.

So what has been discovered to date? Solving problems with insight, versus a methodical analytical approach, results in a burst of high frequency gamma-band EEG activity (postulated to be indicative of complex cognitive processing) over the right temporal lobe, and a corresponding spike in blood flow on fMRI studies in the right anterior temporal gyrus, as well as the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and the hippocampus. Also noted however is a burst in alpha-band activity (which is associated with neural inhibition) in the occipital lobe, where the visual cortex resides. The effect of this is to diminish visual data input, (referred to as “sensory gating”, and fits with my premise of insight being a “looking in” process). These data also support the long held contention that insight is a “right brain” function predominantly.*

 

Also discovered is that the state of mind one is in predisposes or primes the brain to solve a problem either insightfully or analytically. Analytical priming shows increased activity (decreased alpha-band on EEG) in the occipital lobes (the “looking out” to survey a threat from a predator, for example), while preparation for insight shows activation of the ACC and temporal lobes. The ACC is particularly interesting, as it seems to function as both a monitor of other brain regions and as a switch. In short, stimulation of the ACC seems to increase the relative importance of weakly activated associations (less obvious solutions or links). Previous research has suggested that the right hemisphere is particularly well suited for these types of connections due to its more lateral and broad semantic network, and that it contains both more numerous and longer (more distant) axonal connections versus the left hemisphere. Thus, activation of the ACC switches the brain into being more of an insightful problem solver.

Also of note is the discovery that individuals more adept at solving problems with insight tend to have greater right hemisphere as well as diffuse visual cortex activity while at rest, and it’s the moments just prior to and during the solving of a problem with insight, that the switch is made to a more inward focus. This fits nicely with the ideas previously put forth in this blog that creativity involves intense curiosity (the data collection phase if you will—the outward facing time where one “looks up to the stars”) and then a desire to connect things in a novel way (the inward phase).

As already discussed here, humor and positive mood in general (and the absence of anxiety) has been shown by cognitive psychological experiments to enhance insight, intuition, and other aspects of creativity. Are there any neuroscience correlates? There appears to be. For example, there is an observed electrical potential called the N400 that is elicited when the brain detects two sequential words (or concepts or stimuli) that may have some degree of relatedness or similar semantic context. A repeated theme to understanding creativity and insight is the notion that connecting ideas that are not obviously related is at the heart of the creative process. The N400 (as measured by EEG) tends to be larger when the brain determines two words, for example, don’t fit well together, and smaller when they are judge to have better semantic relatedness. Studies have demonstrated that when a positive mood is induced, words that are more incongruent (less obviously connected) elicit a smaller N400 potential than the same words in a neutral state. Positive mood and the absence of anxiety then appears to open our minds to allowing for more varied and broader interpretations of incoming stimuli.

So both positive mood and as discussed before, small does of alcohol, improve our ability to solve problems with insight, but is there any other way to induce insight? Perhaps. Although still very early on, studies using simultaneous transcranial direct current stimulation (or tDCS, which is the application of low current to the brain via scalp electrodes) of the right frontal-temporal cortex and inhibition of the same region on the left, resulted in marked improved ability of subjects to solve problems that require insight.

 

Creative Heuristics #5: Over the preceding decades, many observations and cognitive psychological experiments have been made that lend support to the notion that the right hemisphere of the brain takes the lead when we solve problems with insight, and have moments of epiphany. Although still early on, neuroscience is confirming these observations and helping us to understand how insight may be deliberately enhanced.

 

* As previously discussed, the creative process as a whole (of which the moment of insight or epiphany is just one part) requires both divergent and convergent thinking, and thus is certainly a bi-hemispheric process.

 

-Mark HT Ridinger

 

Creative Heuristics #4: Codifying Creativity

Posted by Mark Ridinger on October 27, 2014
Posted in: Heuristics. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

Cx Schema2_jpg I know what you might be thinking: “Codifying creativity—isn’t that oxymoronic?” And to some degree perhaps yes. But attempting to establish a methodical framework should not be considered the antithesis of creativity. We shouldn’t shy away from trying to understand the creative process so we can facilitate it, particularly within the setting of an organization or enterprise.

What is clear is that creativity as a codified process very much requires a divergent and convergent thought process, and hence is very much both a left and right brain activity*. I think there is a bias towards believing that creativity only operates in the divergent realm. But it is in fact very much a bi-hemispheric process. Additionally, creativity involves the combination of originality and task appropriateness. Any framework that attempts to foster achieving a creative solution must therefore take into account these dimensions.

In both reviewing the literature as well as formulating my own thoughts from my experience, I have realized that there is a common thread among all the various methodologies put forth, and it goes pretty much like this (see also the figure above):

 

1. Clarify the problem: Are you asking the right question? Searching for the proper solution?

2. Prepare: There is no substitute for doing good old fashion homework. What is the state of the art? What have others said, thought, attempted in the past that is relevant?

3. Ideation and reality mining: Come up with a lot of possible solutions (a future Creative Heuristic will discuss some well documented techniques). Here, quantity reigns superior over quality. Now is not the time to be critical or discerning; allow yourself and the team to be foolish even. Suspend judgment on any ideas or solutions put forth by the group.

4. “Walk away”—allow for incubation and gestation of the challenge and the ideas put forth; allow your mind to wander free of conscious thought on the problem. This allows the unconscious mind to work and churn on the task. Utilize good creative hygiene!

5. Eureka! What inspired solutions has your subconscious mind put forth while you were exercising, on a long walk, in the shower? Write them down!

6. Evaluate those new solutions: Now is the time to switch back to convergent and analytical thought. Which idea is best?

7. Make real and share: Time to get ideas, solutions and options into a concrete form. Share with others—preferably those outside the current team. Opt for generalists over specialists who may be locked into their own silo of domain expertise. Now is the time to test your solutions and expect and evaluate criticisms.

8. Implementation and production: Is the solution both novel, task appropriate and feasible?

 

Creative Heuristic #4: Solving challenges with a creative approach can be facilitated with a framework like the one above. It’s a process that very much utilizes both hemispheres of the brain and both divergent and convergent thinking.

 

[* By “divergent thinking” I mean the ability to come up with many responses to a challenge or issue, as contrasted with “convergent thinking,” or the process to come up with the correct answer to problems that have only one answer.]

 

-Mark HT Ridinger

 

 

 

 

Creative Heuristics #3: Getting in the Mood with Good “Creative Hygiene”

Posted by Mark Ridinger on October 4, 2014
Posted in: Heuristics. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

archimedes  There are certain states of mind and mood that increase our ability to solve problems using insight, be they Aha! moments or more deliberate attempts at being creative.

Perhaps the most famous anecdotal story of inspiration is Archimedes’ moment of inspiration that occurred while he was bathing. The ancient Greek scientist reportedly shouted “Eureka!” (meaning, “I have found it”) upon realizing that water displacement could be used to compute density, and thus he could solve the task of determining whether a crown of King Hiero II was pure gold or an alloy. As it turns out, activities like bathing and showering, or other tasks that promote relaxation and allow the mind to wander (a long walk in the country, fishing etc.), are associated with such moments of epiphany. This is often referred to in the literature as ‘random episodic silent thought’, or REST.

In his book Thinking, Fast and Slow, Nobel prize winner Daniel Kahneman discusses how being in a state of what he terms cognitive ease (as opposed to cognitive stress) allows our more intuitive mind (what he refers to as system 1 thinking) to function better. This comes at some cost to our analytic, or system 2 thinking mind however, and we tend to be less analytical and skeptical. This makes sense, as part of the creative process is withholding judgment and collecting a wide range of ideas and solutions (and will be discussed in a future Create Heuristic essay). Interestingly, being in a state of cognitive stress or anxiety in general, tends to narrow our scope of attention, and makes incorporating novel or broader stimuli less likely. There is evolutionary correlates to this as early humans would have been served well to focus on a threat from a predator, for example, and to not be distracted by less (immediately) relevant data.

Going a step further, beyond just being at a state of REST or ease, in turns out that an upbeat, positive mood enhances our ability to think insightfully and this is true whether that condition occurs spontaneously or whether it is induced in a laboratory setting. For example, neuroscientist Mark Beeman and his colleagues found that showing a clip of Robin Williams doing stand-up boosted the success rate of solving insight problems by about 20%. Humor seems to allow the brain to make connections between weak associations—a key to creativity. As the brilliant comedian John Cleese of Monty Python’s Flying Circus and Fawlty Towers fame said, “the main evolutionary significance of humor is that it gets us from the closed mode to the open mode quicker than anything else.” Another fascinating finding is that humor is a two way street: positive mood enhances insight, and solving problems with insight enhances mood. Apparently, we enjoy being creative!

There is also evidence that alcohol can enhance the ability to solve insight problems better and more quickly. Researchers at the University of Illinois, Chicago, found that a cohort that had achieved a blood alcohol level of .075% performed much better at solving word problems that required insight than their sober counterparts. Why? They postulated that “moderate intoxication may be one way to alter attentional states to be more conducive to creative processing.” The idea is that the right hemisphere can be freer to “ignore” the focused, attention state of the left, and connect weaker and more distant thoughts and associations with some alcohol on board. (A future Creative Heuristics essay will discuss the neuroscience of inspiration.)

Sleep and the transitional condition between wakefulness and sleep, called the hypnagogic state, also facilitate the creative mind and process. Many famous creatives have credited hypnagogia to their ability to invent and innovate. Thomas Edison, for example, was said to hold his metal keys in his hand as he rested in an armchair, with a metal plate on the floor directly below. As he was about to fall asleep, the keys would slip form his hand and clang on the plate, waking him and hopefully allowing him to benefit from any insights! Actual sleep itself is critical for achieving insight as well. In a paper published in the journal Nature, ‘Sleep Inspires Insight’, Ullrich Wagner and his colleagues discovered that eight hours of sleep greatly “facilitates extraction of explicit knowledge and insightful behavior.” They theorized this occurred due to some form of restructuring of newly acquired memories that occur during sleep.Finally, color may influence or enhance creative mood; specifically the color blue versus red. Subjects, in a study published in Science, were divided up between those performing tasks on a computer screen with a red background or a blue one. “Red groups did better on tests of recall and attention to detail, like remembering words or checking spelling and punctuation. Blue groups did better on tests requiring imagination, like inventing creative uses for a brick or creating toys from shapes.”

 

Creative Heuristic #3: Foster a culture of innovation and original thinking by encouraging and promoting good “creative hygiene”. Inspiration and creative insight can be augmented by allowing the mind to be well rested and free to wander, and be in a state of cognitive ease. Positive mood and humor—and the absence of anxiety—further enhance our ability to be creative. And when in doubt, add a glass of wine to the mix!

 

-Mark HT Ridinger