A friend recently was amazed how easily that I solved a problem, he was amazed that he didn’t think of it years ago, he had been engineering and inventing around a certain technology for decades, his knowledge is impeccable on the topic. He had explored and thought and pored over a problem for years. To compare us intelligently on the topic is laughable.
I came in with total ignorance, completely unfamiliar with the problem. I didn’t know the rules, I didn’t know the restrictions, I didn’t know how it had been done for decades so it was very easy for me to see the obvious problem and therefore the obvious solution.
Glaring me in the face was key to the solution and I casually solved it not fully understanding what I had done.
Sometimes the most stubborn problems are solved with a fresh, and ignorant set of eyes.
Ignorance is not necessarily a weakness, in creativity sometimes ignorance is a strength because you’re not chained down with the excessive knowledge of rules or perceived restrictions.
There are two types of creativity, intelligence-based, knowing every detail, every angle, every boundary and all the history. But there is also ignorance-based creativity with fresh eyes that are too naïve to know that “I couldn’t solve the problem that way.”
Those who have all their eggs in intelligence and experience and knowledge baskets don’t always like to acknowledge the strength of ignorance-based creativity but it is powerful and useful.
