What’s talent got to do with insulation? (Photo Courtesy: Businessweek.com)
So are we born with talent? Or is there a code?
Of course there’s a code. And that code is embedded not in what you learn, but how that learning is insulated?
Huh?
Think of it as a pipe filled with water. Which one will allow the water to get through faster? A pipe filled with holes? A pipe that allows leaks? Or the pipe that’s well insulated?: A pipe that allows almost no waste.
We’re talking about myelin. It’s an insulator for your learning. The more you learn, the more the myelin wraps insulation around that learning, so that you get faster, and faster, and faster. But not just faster, but every freakin’ pipe in your brain gets faster. Imagine having squillions of pipes pumping water—and with little or no waste.
This is what so-called “talented” people do. Their pipes have little or no waste.
They have developed thousands of pipes that pour thousands of gallons of water at a single moment. So when you look at headline and I look at a headline, we’re not looking with the same brain. I’m looking at the headline with thousands of gallons of water pouring into what I’m looking at. You on the other hand are just looking at a headline. Which is why I can tell you how what’s wrong with a headline a mile off. And you can’t.
It’s not because I was born with superpowers to read and de-construct headlines.
Rather it’s that I’ve learned. Just as you can learn.
And what’s more it’s teachable.
And you can do what every untalented person does: Make excuses.
Or you could start working on your myelin today.
Could you read maps with your feet?
That’s not quite how we read maps, eh?
Some of us need directions, and need to close our eyes.
Some of us need to see a picture. And print the picture.
Some of us need explicit left-right directions.
But what if you weren’t any of those people mentioned above?
What if you read maps with your feet?
Gillian Lynne is a dancer.
Back in the 1930’s she was doing miserably at school.
The pictures didn’t help. The words didn’t help.
Obviously, nothing the teachers did or said got Gillian’s attention.
And she spiralled into, what we’d today call, a ‘challenged child.’
She was unfocused.
Fidgety.
Refused to learn.
So her mother took her to a doctor
Luckily the doctor wasn’t a teacher.
He turned on the radio, sneaked out of the room, and then asked Gillian’s mother to look at what Gillian was doing.
So what was she doing?
She was dancing.
Gillian didn’t think with her head. She thought with her feet.
All those words, and pictures, and blah-blah that was being taught at school was completely wasted on Gillian.
Because her method of learning, wasn’t words, or picture, or lecture-related.
It was all about dance.
Now here’s the sad story: Gillian went on to be famous
She went on to join the Royal Ballet.
She worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company, at West End, and was cast in roles on British Television.
She was the choreographer on the world-famous Andrew Lloyd Weber musical: Cats.
And then The Phantom of the Opera.
She was the director and choreographer of the Muppet Show.
She started her own dance school.
She did this and did that.
So why do I call it sad?
What if Gillian weren’t famous?
What if Gillian didn’t do what she did to become famous, but simply settled down for the rest of her life in the suburbs?
What then?
There are six billion talented people on the planet, all being fed with the school-system of teaching.
And for all practical reasons, at least five billion are getting the wrong instructions.
Which of course brings up the question
Do we really have dumb kids?
Do we really have dumb adults?
Do we really think that there are un-creative people out there?
Do we really think that Gillian couldn’t read maps by dancing on the map with her feet?
The method of teaching is wrong.
Yes, wrong.
We’re all fed with this same funnel of words. Mostly words.
The biggest chunk of your education is a matter of reading a book.
But what if someone could teach you through cartoons?
Or what if someone could teach you through music?
Or what if someone could teach you through dance?
The method of teaching is wrong.
Has always been. Well, it’s been right for some and wrong for many.
And it’s because we’ve never recognised the most important factor of all.
The factor that some of us, can indeed read maps best with our feet.
So how do you think best?
Post your answer in the comments below
Do you find this cartoon funny?
Do you know the single powerful element that makes it funny?
And what makes one person creative and the other, um, not so-creative?
It’s the understanding of disconnection.
It’s the understanding of talent.
And creativity.
Talent is the combination of many emotions, memories, patterns and repetitions, implemented at high speed.
So what’s creativity?
Creativity, is simply ‘talent’ + ‘disconnected objects.’
So what is the meaning of the term ‘disconnected objects?’
When two objects or situations aren’t related, and force-fitted together, they form something we call ‘creative.’
To explain ‘creativity,’ we actually have to put in a few examples. And let’s take those examples from cartooning for instance.
Cartooning is ‘supposed to be’ a highly creative ability (yeah right)!
If you could take a movie of a cartoonist’s brain in ultra-slow motion, here’s what you’d see. You’d see the combination of many emotions, memories, patterns and repetitions. And the you’d see how that cartoonist was drawing a cartoon that’s super-funny.
So what made the cartoon super-funny?
They took a regular situation. And disconnected it.
Example 1: On Air-New Zealand we have the Koru Hour. The Koru Hour is when you actually get served cheese, grapes and wine on your flight at no extra cost. Well, so what’s so funny about an air-hostess serving cheese and wine?
There’s nothing funny.
Yet, if we changed that plane into a canoe. And an air-hostess like person was serving cheese, grapes and wine as everyone paddled. Now that’s funny.
Example 2:
Imagine a person saying in the Arctic, fully bundled up with warm clothing, saying: “I don’t care what they say. I feel cold.”
That’s not funny is it?
Now imagine Mamma Polar Bear and Baby Polar Bear in the Arctic. And baby polar bear is saying: “I don’t care what they say. I feel cold.”
Instantly, the image brings a smile to your face, doesn’t it?
Example 3:
When a person leaves a relationship, they often say: “You’ll never find another person like me.” And they storm out.
(Ok, so that is anything but funny).
So let’s tweak that situation a bit. Let’s say a comedian is reciting the same thing. Here’s what the comedian would say: “I hope I never find another like you. I mean you don’t get out of a bad relationship expecting to find another exactly like the person who’s left do you? You actually hope you don’t find another like her. Man, that would be tough on you. Having back to back trouble. You get out of a relationship, because you think it’s bad, don’t you? You don’t get out of a relationship saying: “Hey do you have a twin?”
So let’s analyse what made that funny
Oh, we covered that at the top, didn’t we?
What made the cartoons and the gag funny was a single element in each case. In Example 1: We changed the plane to the canoe. In Example 2: We changed the freezing person to a freezing polar bear. In Example 3: We took a standard, stock statement, and put in a disconnected person like a ‘twin.’
In every instance, what stamped a factor of creativity, was simply one disconnection.
When every black singer was singing soul back in the 60’s it wasn’t considered creative. When Elvis Presley started singing soul, it suddenly became creative. When you write a term like “he fell to the carpet,” it isn’t considered creative. When you write “The carpet rushed up to meet the falling man,” it becomes creative.
You want the definition of creativity?
There it is: The definition of talent + Disconnection.
A to-do list isn’t funny.
Thinking about a to-do list when fighting a dragon, is um, creative. 🙂
That’s all there is to it.
