If the industrial revolution never happened, where would our world be today? How would human civilization look? Would we be so fast-paced that we would lose our sleep and mental peace for multiple weeks, wrecking our head over creativity?
Now that we scratched this surface we aren’t going back. The world has become extremely fast-paced and we are neck-deep into making money and losing our mental peace for a mansion we assume might make us happy. We have invested trillions into various industries for innovations and rapid development with a very short deadline. While we have made tremendous progress so far, we also face a huge danger of being too logical and time-bound, making it a threat to our creative juices which require time. Our world has transformed rapidly due to our creative minds giving it life and depth, while logic transfers it from one realm to another with a pinch of practicality.
For instance, the sketch of an air-based vessel that carries people from one place to another was something nobody assumed would be real. However, with the practicality of the Wright Brothers, we have a whole airline industry crediting the invention to them and the creativity of Leonardo Da Vinci and Otto Lilienthal who had developed sketches of the air-based vessel.
Coming to our present time, we require room to brainstorm and a huge number of people under stress to generate ideas and quality content.
This fault springs from the idiosyncrasies of the industrial revolution-based education system which has watered the seeds of logic and analysis to a great extent and shut down the doors of creativity.
The solution to this is not to make students write an essay or solve a problem within thirty minutes that would stress their already tensed minds. Rather it is letting them explore and walk around, understand, and absorb. Let them observe their surroundings by feeling, watching, and listening to all that’s around them. This would not only make them smarter students but also better employees or entrepreneurs who run the world with an understanding that creativity can’t be kick-started like a scooter within a given time limit. It’s like a river, it requires space and time to flow to its might and grandeur.
There’s evidence even from the arena of science that creativity and ideas flow with time and calmness. Charles Darwin, the scientist who came up with the theory of evolution, was in the routine of taking long walks and this apparently activated the theta state of the brain that lets creative ideas come out.
Similarly, Thomas Alva Edison ironically got the best of his ideas from his super short and rejuvenating naps, while some believe he was against sleeping. This only further proves that people produce the best ideas when they are mentally and emotionally at rest ( not physically since Darwin went for walks :P)
So, I’d like to conclude that people should be given the time, space, and resources to be creative and get quality ideas. It’s time we cease treating each other like machines that throw up creativity when pressed with time. Thank you for attending my written TEDx speech :)