Its Own Sake
By Peter LloydIn any discussion about creativity, innovation, invention, art, or music, you're likely to hear the notion that creativity for the sake of creativity is not a good thing.
What is this business of doing anything for its own sake? Art for art's sake, for example.
The devil's advocate will say an innovation must have some beneficial application to be called innovative. The angel's advocate will say, no, the purest form of innovation--the kind we do for its own sake--gives rise to all innovation.
The first will say we are wasting our time if we don't have a clear objective in mind when we set out to invent. The latter will say that specific objectives lower and limit our sights.
Let's take the angel's side. While there's a place for both, creativity for its own sake is our only source of miracles. Pure research uncovers the totally unexpected breakthrough. All-night jam sessions unleash the hottest numbers. Dancing for the sake of dancing makes a party unforgettable.
Undirected, uninhibited, play delivers the kind of innovation no objective-focused creative genius will ever find.
I suppose we're justified in grousing about innovation when we can't keep up with it. When a new version of software breaks into the market before we've mastered the version we own. When we see people texting at the expense of speaking. When we look under the hood of our new car and fail to recognize anything.
Because the pressure to keep up with our ever-evolving world never relents, some of us will dig in our heels and protest, "Enough is enough!"
But doesn't that amount to saying, "Enough for the sake of enough"?
Peter Lloyd is co-creator with Stephen Grossman of Animal Crackers, the breakthrough problem-solving tool designed to crack your toughest problems.