Creativity is an excellent cure to mediocrity
It occurred to me the other day that most people in this world are boring, cookie-cutter drones. Of the 12 years I’ve spent in school, very little of that time was spent doing anything creative. In fact, I sense that for most people, formal education blocks off the creative juices that would otherwise flow through their minds.
In school, our academic abilities are rated. We’re taught how to think systematically about the world. We’re taught about facts and definitions. When we take our standardized tests, we’re tested on the things that we don’t know, rather on the knowledge and ideas that we may have. The small liberal arts college that I used to attend was unique, in that creativity was prioritized above anything else. Of course, that had its fair share of issues: students were able to think deep into a problem and suggest a solution, but they didn’t know enough about systems such that they’d be able to suggest realistic ideas. Instead, our educational system need a middle ground that allows students to learn hardcore facts that are fueled by creative thinking.
Where and when do our most creative ideas come about? Where and when do entrepreneurs catch their entrepreneurial bug? For me, I remember that my first entrepreneurial thoughts came to me on the playground. First grade classes were boring like no other, but recess allowed me to drastically grow as an individual. In fact, I believe that recess periods in elementary school single-handedly offered me the biggest opportunity to explore my entrepreneurial side.
It was a sunny day in 1st grade, and I was out on the playground drawing what I thought were beautiful, state-of-the-art portraits. Of course, they were only traced drawings from my best friends notebook. Shame on me! But I had an idea: I would sell each of these pictures for a price that would depend on how much the person was willing to pay for the item. In my first day of business, I sold a traced drawing for $50 to one of my less-informed classmates. It was on that day that I first considered myself an entrepreneur. Without the opportunity to explore my creative side on the playground and in my free time, my adolescence would be filled with homework and non-creative academics. And if that happened, I wouldn’t be talking to you right now.
Academics are over-rated
Let’s re-think intelligence, and what is deemed as being *smart*. In the “old-world”, having a college degree and getting good grades would make someone seem smart. In the new-world, having a college-degree is only a pre-requisite to getting a half-decent job. Instead, creativity and personal projects will take precedent on how an employer views someone’s abilities.
For example, if I was looking to hire a fellow computer science student here at UC Berkeley, I’d want one who had far more than just academic smarts. I’d want a creative thinker who knew how to solve problems in different ways. I’d want to hire an individual who had interests far beyond computer science. Does this person draw, play an instrument, or play a sport? (yea, right) Or maybe this person enjoys making cool startups in his/her spare time. In other words, we would see someone’s *intelligence* in all of the things that s/he does, both inside and outside of the classroom.
True reasons for going to graduate school
Many of my peers are set on going to graduate school. Many of them want to become professors, but the others want to go to graduate school because they have an inflated view on the importance of academics. How do I know this?
When someone decides that they’re going to graduate school, I ask two questions: 1) Why go to grad school? and 2) What do you do for extracurriculars? 75% of these people fail the test, because they have no clue why they’re going to grad school, and they have no sense of being creative with the extracurriculars that they pursue. If these students developed a slightly different sense of how to be successful in this world, they’d be less likely to focus their time and energy on grad school applications.
People over-rate the importance of grad school to a shocking degree. When people ask me if I plan on going to graduate school, I tell them that I’m not planning on it. If I had a good reason to, I wouldn’t be against it. However, most people assume that my success is dependent on the quality of the graduate school I attend, and what kind of degree I get out of it. I find it quite entertaining when people ask me why I don’t plan on getting an M.B.A… simple: because I don’t (yet) feel the desire or need to. I rate my personal intelligence equally between creativity and abilities, and graduate school is better used for improving the latter. One of my co-workers from PBwiki mentioned that engineers often learn more in the workforce than they do in graduate school, because they’re getting real-life experience.
Now… how do we convert these cookie-cutter drones into creative, productive citizens of the world?
Good question! Unfortunately, it takes a lot of self-discovery for individuals to realize that there’s much to learn outside of the classroom. There are a few ideas as to why students don’t spend more time improving their creative qualities: Because they were taught that academics take precedent over creativity, and/or because they’re scared of exploring their creative side. The solution is simple, but easier said than done. Pickup a creative hobby - whether it be playing the piano or starting tech companies for fun. Personally, I prefer the latter. 
Creativity is among the best cures for mediocrity because it unleashes a special power in individuals that allows them to discover what no amount of logical thinking can ever achieve. It’s the creative side in you and me that encourages us to do more than what we’re taught. Because of this, creativity is just as important as academic abilities. By living with this different attitude, we are better prepared to bring new and exciting things to this world. With that said, here’s an inspiring TEDtalk that discusses the importance of creativity:
