Musings Report #2 1-12-14 Can all problems be solved by creativity?

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Can all problems be solved by creativity?

My sister introduced my brother and I to the book Your Creative Brain: Seven Steps to Maximize Imagination, Productivity, and Innovation in Your Life via a description of the book's two key points:
1. There are seven (according to the author) different types of creativity, and some are more useful in certain situations than others
2. The types of creativity that we default to as individuals are our "creativity comfort zone." Though we naturally prefer to stay within this comfort zone, our own creativity would very likely be enhanced by consciously working the types of creativity that are outside our default choices/comfort zone.

Longtime readers know that the field of problem-solving has long fascinated me, for it seems self-evident that trying to pound a nail with a handsaw will lead to frustration and failure--that is, attempting to use the wrong tool for the job at hand.

It struck me that perhaps creativity works in a similar fashion: when the tools of creativity don't align with the problem, all the creative brainstorming in the world is not going to help conjure up a solution.

I think it fair to say that the "can-do" American culture makes several implicit assumptions about problem-solving and creativity:
1. All problems can be solved with the usual tools and techniques at hand; there are no "unsolvable problems."
2. All problems can be solved by getting a bunch of smart people together and brainstorming solutions.
3. If all the easy brainstorming stuff fails, history (ugh, long-form reading required) offers practical templates for present-day solutions.

For average problems, these assumptions function pretty well, as most problems can be solved with the usual tools, brainstorming and occasional "lessons learned" from history. But what if the primary problems facing our society, culture and economy do not respond to the usual bag of tricks? What if history is a muddled or unreliable guide to the near future, because the problems facing us are unprecedented?

Last year I wrote a blog entry, What If ObamaCare, Too Big To Fail Banks and the State Are All the Wrong Sized Unit? (February 2013) The basic idea is that the unit size of these institutions is itself the problem, which means that these institutions cannot possibly solve the problems created by their unit size except by self-liquidating/imploding/going away.

To solve critical problems, authority has to be relocated up or down to the level where accurate information and exposure to risk are present. In market parlance, this means devolving authority to those closest to the market. In political terms, it means devolving Central Planning/Centralized Authority to the local level, i.e. decentralization.

To solve global problems, however, for example, the decimation of the world's oceans, authority has to move up from the nation-state to global bodies that have the moral authority to coordinate a global response.

Perhaps the failure of so much present-day supposedly creative thinking reflects not just an ignorance of history, or the limitations of our creativity comfort zones (real as those limits may be), but that conventional creativity is the wrong type of creativity entirely.

How many organizations will tolerate a creative-brainstorming conclusion that the organization is the wrong unit size and must be dismantled to effect a solution? We can anticipate the number of organizations willing to entertain this solution will be zero, especially those with power and a huge budget.

In other words, the politics of experience suggests that the only acceptable types of "creativity" are the ones that do not threaten the Status Quo. But when the unit size and structure of the Status Quo is the source of the problem, then any solution that leaves the Status Quo intact is doomed to fail.

In practical terms, the Federal Reserve and other central banks are incapable of any action other than creating more credit/money and lowering interest rates to zero. Any other actions would pose a threat to the Fed and/or the Status Quo, so they will not be entertained, much less acted upon.

The same is true of individuals, families, communities and organizations: we all want "creative solutions" that leave existing power structures, revenues and freedom of movement intact. (This is a scale-invariant feature of human experience.) But when the structure itself is the source of the problems, then any creative solution that is not allowed to change the structure (or unit size) is doomed to failure from the start.

Put another way: trying to use creativity to maintain the Status Quo when the Status Quo is the source of the problem is solving the wrong problem. No amount of creativity can possibly solve the real problem when the system will only accept solutions to the wrong problem.

Summary of the Blog This Past Week

Renaissance of the Fix-It Society? January 11, 2014

Could 3-D Fabrication Technology Lead to Re-Industrialization? January 10, 2014

Janet Yellen, the Nation's New Chief Slumlord January 9, 2014

Pimping the Empire, Conservative-Style January 8, 2014

Pimping the Empire, Progressive-Style January 7, 2014

In Terms of Real Stuff, the Dow's "New High" Is Pure Illusion January 6, 2014

I think these essays on pimping for the State are important, as they discuss what I consider a key concept: the teleology of the State.

Best Thing That Happened To Me This Week

A long bike ride skirting Pearl Harbor with my brother-in-Law Fred R. He's taken me on this trail numerous times, but each time the ride out and back offers new experiences and conversations.

Market Musings

I am considering the possibility that the global markets are starting to exhibit the oscillations that occur before a system veers into chaotic dislocation. Such oscillations tend to increase in intensity and randomness as the system veers further from equilibrium; stock indices, for example, will display more wild swings up and down that make little sense in terms of trends or news flows.

The driver of such instability is obvious: the gap between financial reality in the real economy and the asset valuations based on central planning legerdemain is widening.

Trying to make sense of such a pre-chaotic environment may be inherently impossible; in other words, predictions that past trends will continue through increasing instability have no causal basis.

Unleveraged cash is a low-risk position in such an environment, especially when so many of the players are highly leveraged. Those trying to turn their leveraged securities into cash collateral in a dislocation may find the bid for securities or other assets has disappeared along with system stability.

From Left Field

How The College Bubble Will Pop -- with a whimper rather than a bang?

Peter Thiel’s Graph of the Year--student loans, way up; college grad income, way down.

US economic mobility data -- more mobility than you might expect, but only for those with high test scores....

In Life and Business, Learning to Be Ethical (via Joel M.) -- unexplored territory IMO--people resort to unethical behavior/cheating when they feel being honest and ethical will doom them/cost them their jobs-future prospects in today's corrupt institutions....

U.S. Stock Ownership Stays at Record Low: The 52% who own stocks continues trend of sub-60% readings seen since 2009 -- This is the reason the Fed has inflated an echo bubble in housing: it's the only widely held asset class left....

Rentiers, Apparatchiks, and the (pre)modern political spectrum
"If we very crudely, and with total disregard for their original meanings, use “left” to designate apparatchik rule and “right” that of rentiers, the political spectrum for most of human history runs from transhuman raiders at the far right end on to slaveholders’ republics, to feudal kingdoms, to hydraulic despotisms, and then on to palace economies at the far left. Whether or not they win, apparatchiks write the histories, so apparatchik victories over rentiers usually get remembered as reforms that strengthened the empire or the starts of cultural renaissances, while rentier victories usually get remembered as imperial collapses – also because these are typically true, though of course the arrow of causation runs both ways."

Why French Kids Don't Have ADHD: French children don't need medications to control their behavior. -- What's missing are the Big Pharma corporations profiting from ADHD meds... from their POV, every kid needs a med of some kind.... so Doc, Teacher, school district, parent, you missed the diagnosis; let us help you....

Investing Like an Ecosystem (via John D.) --"looks at investment strategies for the upcoming economic "reset". How do ecosystems invest in their ongoing health? This is used as a role model."

Daphne Miller MD looks at The Healing Qualities of Dirt (via John D.) --"the benefits of microbial balance in the soil to plants, to us, and to our own internal bacterial biosphere, which we are discovering as our first line of defense, as well as our alliance in accessing nutrients." -- I am convinced playing in the dirt/garden helps build the immune system during one's entire life....

Is a Cohousing Community for You? (via Wayne A.) Some nice photos of cohousing projects in this overview....

Having trouble sleeping? Check for a glow, inches from the pillow: (via Joel M.) Bedroom-Invading Smartphones Jumble Body’s Sleep Rhythms -- another excellent reason to leave communication devices off most of the time... anything that messes up your sleep is dangerous (see below)

Sleep, it turns out, may play a crucial role in our brain’s physiological maintenance. (via Joel M.) Sleep, vigorous sustained exercise, real food, love, wu-shu (or equivalent)--the five essentials of health.

"To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment." Ralph Waldo Emerson

Thanks for reading--

charles