Wall Street Journal, noted bastion of the arts and rumoured to be the inspiration for Virginia Woolf’s Orlando, has done one of those How to Be Creative articles. It’s called How to Be Creative:

The image of the ‘creative type’ is a myth. Jonah Lehrer on why anyone can innovate—and why a hot shower, a cold beer or a trip to your colleague’s desk might be the key to your next big idea.

How to Be Creative – Jonah Lehrer, Wall Street Journal (12 March 2012)

Another tug of the forelock, this time for 99U. Anybody can be creative, but they’re not. Says I. Lehrer, not so much:

…creativity is not magic, and there’s no such thing as a creative type. Creativity is not a trait that we inherit in our genes or a blessing bestowed by the angels. It’s a skill. Anyone can learn to be creative and to get better at it. New research is shedding light on what allows people to develop world-changing products and to solve the toughest problems. A surprisingly concrete set of lessons has emerged about what creativity is.

The full feature goes on to list exactly what you have to do in order to be creative. Please follow the instructions and let me know when your symphony is read.

I’m minded of Community, the comedy. In one episode, there’s a mobile phone app that you use to rate everyone else. Rather than stars or ticks, these ratings are called meowmeowbeenz. And Abed, an Aspergers’ character says at one point:

Meowmeowbeenz takes everything subjective and unspoken about human interaction and reduces it to explicit, objective numbers. I’ve never felt more alive.

Go read the full piece and let me know if you rate it two or more meowmeowbeenz.