Who would you label as creative: Einstein or Picasso?

I read an article by Carl J. Neumann titled Fostering creativity. While this article was not directly related to my research topic it provided a lot of information on exactly what creativity is and how to encourage it in the research environment.

Creative is not the first word that comes to my mind when thinking about Albert Einstein. This article references a study that compared Einstein and Picasso’s work. The study says that their “creativity” was very similar. They are both creative. I never put much thought into the creativity of science but this article describes a study done at a large research institute- the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Germany. This company is a leader in molecular biology and genetics publications and creativity is it’s driving force.

The company fosters creativity through many different ways. The most interesting to me being a huge turnover rate. That’s something I would have never thought of, but it keeps fresh ideas circulating and the research faculty youthful. 90% of the 1400 employees are in temporary positions. There is an interdisciplinary approach to the staff as well; many different positions and educational backgrounds are represented. There are 60 nations represented to reduce social and cultural biases in the approach to research. There is an emphasis on social interaction with other colleagues, which is a main theme throughout the study.

Some other interesting ideas in the article are the comparison of creativity for art and science. It is said “that a creative scientific idea requires both originality and appropriateness” and “a creative idea cannot be produced by the same set of generic rules as a familiar idea, thus indicating that creativity depends on a conceptual shift in thinking”.

I found this that this article helped me to start thinking about creativity in a new way. It made me realize that creative ideas and creative work happen everywhere, definitely not just in art studio.