Wanna Be Creative? Get Lectured To!

It may sound strange, but all of us need to be lectured to for the sake of creativity. That sounds contradictory to what we heard from creativity people. Aren't teachers who drone on and on, authoritarians who reprimand us publicly, at fault with how creativity isn't happening in the world? 

Not essentially, no. Lectures are like any other tool. They can be used or abused horribly. They were at one time an amazing tool of entertainment. In the 19th century, people such as Robert Ingersoll or Edward Everett Horton would give lectures of hours in length. Cruddy lectures, ones that lack substance, can bore someone profoundly. However, problems with cruddy lectures are not the fault of the lecture per se. It depends on how the craft is done.

I firmly believe based on a few experiences that lectures will help you. Let me give you three.

First, I attended very long courses by Leonard Peikoff, available for rent, and all noncredit. These lectures would last for two and a half hours, including a question and answer period. Courses in this format would go on for 12 lectures or so. I think my being exposed to mentally taxing yet motivational material gave me an ability to manage ideas on a greater scale, and to generate better ideas because of that exposure. It was not simply the content of the ideas but their length in presentation and the depth in which Dr. Peikoff examines them.

Second, I taught a course that required me using TED talks. Boss's orders. I did it, and very quickly learned which ways worked and which didn't. One student, a PhD candidate in social work, told me that the course helped her be more creative. I do not think it was simply how I spun the ball. I think it was largely the ball itself, the exposure to big ideas done at length and in detail, then exploited.

Third, years ago I read a book entitled I Am a Teacher, a sort of teacher inspiration book. One of the teachers profiled in the book worked somewhere in Alaska, and he had his high-school students participate in national creativity contests, year after year. How? He figured they should have content with which their minds could play. He thought it would be a disaster, that they would be bored. Instead, they found it interesting. Often, his students would win these contests -- and by "often," I mean frequently enough for someone to put his testimonial in a teachers' inspiration book.

It's too bad that the lecture is a dying art form. That's sad. Much creativity would die with it. As we consume smaller and smaller bits of content that is less and less challenging, we will not grow so well in our ability to juggle concepts in our minds and find new connections. 

Well, even if it's all going to Hell, at least save yourself. What I recommend is finding someone wise who can give lectures on ideas you might find challenging but that you are genuinely interested in learning. Be picky, and play to the top of your intelligence. Sit down and listen, and take notes if necessary. The brain could always use a bit of stretching, and consuming challenging lecture material would be useful in the direction of greater creativity.