I think I have come to the end of my Year of Creative Reading. I have two books on creativity sitting at my bedside waiting to be read and my reaction to them is, “Meh.”
I don’t care if I ever get around to reading them. Okay, so I did read the section that supposedly has a direct relationship to me in one of them, but that was 3 pages and I’m not interested in reading any further, so it’s time to call a halt to the Year of Creative Reading. It doesn’t feel creative anymore. It’s now a drag.
So, here are the two books on creativity that I’m not going to read:
The first one, “Creative You” by David B. Goldstein & Otto Kroeger, looks at creativity through the lens of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. If you’ve taken this personality test (and there are scads of them online), you’ll recognize it by the four letters that get assigned to you based on your answers. I am an INFJ and I haven’t budged from this type since I was first tested 20-some years ago. (Apparently only 1% of the population scores as an INFJ. Huh. Take that for what it’s worth.) Naturally, I read the section that describes creativity in INFJs. Here’s the first sentence of that section:
“Inspiring others, INFJs are contemplative visionaries whose creative style is driven by the possibilities they see in people.” (pg 113)
I suppose.
“INFJs develop an understanding of individuals by evaluating past context with present events. Connecting the dots in people’s personalities allows them to construct multifaceted composites. Besides people, they also notice patterns and trends. And when they overlay their understanding of people with the trends that they see, a vision of the future emerges.” (pg. 114)
Yep. Kind of explains my interest in history and in futurism.
“With INFJs not being entirely sure where their thoughts come from, one idea sparks the next in their minds. Yet, in spite of this flurry of ideas, these Inspirers are decisive, and their thoughts are categorized, evaluated for feasibility, and then executed upon.” (pg. 115)
Most assuredly, this is the case as far as executing ideas goes. Not every idea I have is a good one and I discard these or combine them with other ideas later. When I decide to create something, watch out. I’m on a mission and it’s going to get completed.
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So, I cracked open the second book, “The Myths of Creativity” by David Burkus, and entered a discussion on the Greek Muses. [Sigh.] It just didn’t grab me enough to want to keep reading.
And this is the danger (at least for me) of trying to focus on one subject matter for a year’s worth of reading. No matter what angle authors of creativity take, after a while, they all start sounding vaguely the same, not because of how they write, but because there is so much overlap in the subject.
Time for me to read something else.
But, if you are looking for books on creativity, give these two a try or look through my past Year of Creative Reading posts.