Harvesting Creativity

“Let’s go invent tomorrow rather than worrying about what happened yesterday.” — Steve Jobs

We live in a complex world. We’ve come far in so many ways but we continually face challenges in our everyday lives. We have so much technology and knowledge at our disposal, yet these challenges persist.

We now have hybrid and electric cars but are limited by the availability of charging stations. We have launched privatized space travel, yet people are still going hungry and homeless.

It seems that money and technology are not solving all our challenges. What we really need are creative solutions.

Our primary and secondary education is driven by STEM — science, technology, engineering and math. These are, of course, critical, but the arts community has always been pushing for STEAM, with the inclusion of the arts. The arts challenge our typical right brain thinking and get us to think of solutions that lie outside the box. That’s exactly the kind of thinking that will help solve the challenges of tomorrow, or create new products and companies that will enhance our lives.

We all have the ability to be creative, but if those instincts are not nurtured as a child, then it becomes harder to think creatively as an adult. It’s not impossible, but it is more difficult.