Creativity and the Search of the Eureka Factor

Creativity is something our society values highly. But what is it exactly? Contemporary psychology offers the standard definition of creativity: Creativity requires both originality and effectiveness. It must serve a practical purpose and be appropriate to the task at hand. The idea, process, or product must be unique, novel, or unusual. An idea that is purely original but completely useless is not considered creative by modern scientific standards.

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You may remember from your high school days the story of Isaac Newton and how watching an apple fall from a tree led to his discovery of the law of gravity. It is probably part history and part legend, but it captures one of the key features of creative thought.

Millions of people had seen apples fall before that. But it occurred to no one before Newton to ask, as he did, whether the same force that pulled the apple to the ground also existed in space, keeping celestial bodies in their orbits. In doing so, Newton connected two phenomena that everyone else treated as unrelated.

Newton’s discoveries, like those of extraordinary scientists from Archimedes to Stephen Hawking, align with the information-gap theory of curiosity first formulated by Professor George Loewenstein at Carnegie Mellon University. He hypothesized that when we notice a gap in our knowledge, it feels like an itch we want to scratch, driving us to look for an answer. Recent advances in brain imaging have begun to reveal how curiosity recruits the same dopaminergic circuits that underlie motivation and reward. Additionally, curiosity increases communication with the hippocampus, thus enhancing learning and memory.

Creativity is not just a chance phenomenon. Creativity emerges in people with solid knowledge in a particular area—physics, cooking, arts, or other domains—who are curious, intelligent, and under some pressure to solve a problem.

Creativity in the Kitchen

These fundamental principles of creativity are well exemplified by Julia Child, the first person to make cooking shows on television popular. She was curious and encouraged curiosity in her viewers. She would ask questions of herself, such as, "Might another herb improve the dish? Could there be a more effective technique?" The need to produce a new show each week was a good motivator. She treated recipes as living experiments, and if anything went wrong, she embraced her mistakes with humor. For example, she taught her viewers to be adventurous, to view failure not as a catastrophe but as a positive learning experience that will eventually pay off.

Curiosity is one of the primary engines of evolution. It is in our DNA because those most eager to investigate and understand their environment were often the ones most likely to survive. From scientific breakthroughs to the arts, innovation propels humanity forward and adds enjoyment to our lives.

We are born curious, but depending on the attitudes of our parents, community, and culture, that curiosity can be supported or suppressed. A comment from an authority figure like, “Stop asking stupid questions,” often suffices to put the lid on an inquiring young mind. On the other hand, responding to every question seriously and positively will encourage a child's creativity.

Barriers to Creativity

In our thirst for knowledge, we often turn to universities and other places of learning such as teaching hospitals. It is commonly assumed that universities are wellsprings of information and creative thinking. Sadly, this is not always the case. Often new ideas are met with resistance—they can be perceived as a threat to professional identities, institutional authority, and long-held beliefs.

The path to advancement and tenure at most universities is paved with published research papers that support the views of the senior scholars. You can rock the boat, but not too much. Incremental adjustment to the status quo is sanctioned—within limits.

“Creative people have the kind of curiosity that draws them toward learning new things and experiencing the world in new ways,” noted Professor Anna Abraham, Director of the Torrance Center for Creativity and professor of neuroscience at the University of Georgia. Modern creativity research adds that expertise provides the foundation for innovation, particularly when combined with flexible thinking and strong motivation.

In addition to the factors already discussed, creativity requires a certain level of intelligence. A flash of insight has little value unless the individual can recognize its significance, evaluate it critically, and develop it into something useful or beautiful.
Also, personality characteristics, particularly the tendency to think outside the box and persistence, enhance creative achievement.

The thought processes of creative thinkers favor a free-flowing, spontaneous, and non-linear approach to a question or problem. This approach, called divergent thinking, plays a significant role in creative thought. Divergent thinking is often contrasted with convergent thinking. Convergent thinking organizes and structures ideas and information, which follows a particular set of logical steps to arrive at one solution, the “correct” solution.

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Creativity is best understood as intelligence working in concert with curiosity, openness, and imagination in a society that permits and supports unconventional ideas. The creative mind is constantly combining old ideas into new forms, always testing possibilities, discarding dead ends, and occasionally stumbling upon insights that help us better understand and enjoy our world.

Creativity is not limited to geniuses. All of us have the capacity to solve problems, adapt, and improve life. If you want to exercise your creative potential, live boldly. Do not be embarrassed to ask questions. Fear not failure, fear not criticism, and do not worship tradition.

This article is excerpted from “In search of the eureka factor”, The Globe and Mail, July 31, 2026.