The Role of Persistence and Domain Knowledge in Creativity

It's fascinating how technology trends shine a spotlight on various topics, like creativity, or the other way around, where these topics enter the realm of technology discussions. With the rise of generative AI tools, the word ‘creativity’ appears everywhere: in interviews with tech executives, on academic panel discussions, and in numerous events on creativity and technology, prompting many to ask whether these tools will make us more creative.

The answer to this depends on how we define creativity and where we think it comes from. The common definition is that creativity is generating novel and useful ideas. How creativity comes about is a more complex issue. While the intuitive notion suggests that it’s some sort of a magic and immediate spark, where a creative idea just comes to us, research shows otherwise.

In reality, the first ideas we generate are the most generic ones because we draw on a pool of mental associations that are the most accessible to us. As we continue working on something, our creativity tends to increase. Thus, the more we persist, the more creative the final outcome becomes, as we draw on less obvious associations and combine our knowledge in more unique ways.

It's persistence that leads to creativity. However, people’s predictions about their creativity and actual performance show a mismatch. In one study in which people were asked how creative they would be over the course of an idea generation session, people believed that their performance would decline, whereas the opposite was true. Over time people produced more creative ideas, with researchers calling this phenomenon creative cliff illusion.

Being aware of this illusion is important, as the belief that our most creative ideas should come first can undermine our persistence on a task. Also, while persistence is crucial to creativity, so is domain knowledge, as shown by research. Ideas don’t materialize out of thin air; they require experience to leap from. This is particularly interesting in today’s technology landscape. Generative AI tools don’t make us immediately more creative since using them still requires persistence. However, they provide us with material to build upon.

Now, consider further advancement of technologies, such as virtual reality, to a level where immersive experiences become convincing. This would offer the opportunity to acquire a host of experiences much faster than normally would be the case for an individual. For instance, imagine becoming a crew member on a space rocket within a virtual environment. Although this is a futuristic speculation, think about the possibilities it would bring to the pool of experiences that people could draw upon for creativity.