Complexity and Creativity

Interesting article on causes and aspects of creativity.

"Creative people are complex, meaning that they see the world from multiple perspectives. This is an adaptive response to complex inputs during childhood. We are all constantly trying to make sense of the world we live in and the more complex our experiences, the more challenging this proves to be."

So... If you want a creative kid, make his childhood hell?

The bulk of the article is devoted to recognizing the creativity of square pegs - immigrants, homosexuals, people with a non-traditional yin/yang mix, and so on.

I definitely relate to being a square peg in many ways (I plan to title my autobiography, "A Woman of Excess Yang".), will happily hold diverging viewpoints (makes voting a good challenge!), and had a very, ahem, complex childhood. And I definitely have lots of grand ideas for the infamous brick in Guilford’s Alternative Uses Task. The most difficult part of the test is convincing my brain that it can STOP. Guess that's a yes in the creative column.

Still wondering about the coincidence-causality thing. Did being a weird kid in weird circumstances lead to all of those useful bricks?