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Creativity 301
TRY ANSWERING IN YOUR OWN TIME
Another famous, but clichéd, problem is of you to draw four straight
lines through these nine points without lifting the pen from the paper.
Can you do it?
° e °
e e °
* ° e
TRY ANSWERING IN YOUR OWN TIME
I won't put the answers here, or even a hint. It’s quite famous and
many of you will be familiar with them. The answers are buried on the
website, and for those of you who already know the solution, there are
some alternative problems. If you can’t immediately solve a problem,
think about it overnight. It’s worth seeing what your brain will do while
you are asleep!
The Science of Creativity
The first person to theorize about the creative process was Graham Wallas,
the co-founder of the London School of Economics. In his book The Art
of Thought, he proposed a five-step model for creative thinking. First
preparation, when you become fully acquainted with the problem and
its domain. Then incubation; walk the dog or make a cup of tea. After
the meditative incubation phase you may get a gut feeling that a solution
is on its way. Wallas called this third step intimation. It’s left out of many
modern versions of his theory, but I think it’s an important step. Shortly
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