Eureka!
The moment of creativity
Eureka!
I finally had an idea for something to write about this week. It came to me when I was out for a walk, a moment of creativity when I least expected it - sound familiar? But why did it come to me then when I wasn’t even trying to think of something…and that’s exactly what I’ll be exploring in this post.
Let’s start with the story of Archimedes. You may have heard of him, a kind of famous, classical, mathematical genius. He lived in Sicily when it was part of Greece back in its heyday, pre-major financial instability, when Greece was known for some pretty incredible architecture, pioneering philosophical debate & hiding in wooden horses.
Anyway, our hero Archimedes was evidently at the forefront of his industry, a thought-leader and, importantly, hygienically inclined (that bit will come later).
As the story goes Archimedes was buddies with the King of Syracuse, evidently a smart guy in his own right for surrounding himself with intelligent folk (leadership 101 right there!)
The King had decided it was time to upgrade his gold crown, probably trying to keep up with the ever-changing crown trends around the Med at that time. The problem was that he was having some trust issues with his goldsmith, whom he suspected of scamming him. He had reason to believe that his crown wasn’t made entirely of gold, yet he had no way of proving it.
Archimedes was tasked with finding a creative solution to the King’s problem. He went away and thought long and hard for a solution: how could he prove the scam?
Later that afternoon, he decides it’s time to take a bath. As he lower’s himself into the bath tub, the water overflows. His inner monologue blurts out, “I have it!”. He has found the answer to his problem with an extremely creative solution. By measuring the volume of the crown, from the volume of water displaced, and knowing its mass, he could calculate the density of the crown and compare it with the densities of silver and gold.
This moment was immediately followed by his infamous streaking through the streets of Syracuse: an event that has gone down in mythological history as the ‘Eureka’ moment.
Now, as much as I love a streaker, what really interests me in this story is where this moment of brilliance and creativity happened. Sure, the water spilled out of the bath giving him the solution to his problem, but I’d like to draw a slightly different lesson from this story.
And it is that this Eureka moment, like my walk, was not when he was trying desperately to find a creative solution, but it was in a moment of peace, where he let his mind breathe.
What is it about these often quieter moments, after periods of thinking, researching or experimenting? Why are these more often than not the moments of creativity, and not when you’re desperately trying to find a solution. What do they all have in common and is there anything we can build into our creative process?
I think it’s fair to say that these moments occur when simple, but not entirely mindless tasks are taking place. They require some physical effort, but not too much. They are non-demanding, almost automatic. In Archimedes’ case this was taking a bath, for me, it was a walk, but for you it might be …
Having a nap
Driving to the store
Commuting
Running
Doing the washing up
Mowing the lawn
The list is endless, but what is important is that they take up some mental and physical capacity, just enough to distract you from thinking about your problem and to let the magic of your subconscious start to make connections when your conscious brain has been exhausted by. But make these breaks too demanding or related to your problem and it’s going to hinder this process.
Check out this clip from a great BBC documentary about creativity. You will see an experiment demonstrating that just the right level of mindlessness can increase your divergent and creative thinking.
BBC Documentary - watch from 47m30s to 52m45s
So how can we put this into practice…
Firstly build breaks into your creative process, especially after absorbing a lot of material. You might be reading, interviewing, workshopping, writing, drawing, or making prototypes all day.
Whatever your creative endeavor might be, step away from it.
But remember this does not mean do nothing! Do something undemanding, both mentally and physically, give your conscious brain a much deserved break and let the subconscious do the heavy lifting.
…and who knows you might have a Eureka moment when you get into your next shower and find yourself streaking down the street much to your neighbours’ amusement!