Philosophy

Where does creativity come from? 

Ask most people, and they’ll tell you that great ideas come from within us — a mysterious well of human ingenuity and spirit. This view casts creativity as a sort of inner magic, a rare gift possessed by a special few. And, admittedly, that’s how it can feel to have a new idea. A switch flips, a spark ignites, an epiphany happens. An idea, which didn’t exist before, suddenly does.

But listen closely to history’s most celebrated creators, and you’ll hear something different. They describe their greatest work not as something they conjured, but as something they found. Not as invention, but as discovery. They talk of standing on the shoulders of giants, of patiently searching for just the right combination of elements, of capturing that first ember of promise and following it where it leads.

Their language is that of explorers, not magicians.