Creativity versus Intelligence

For quite some time now i have found myself questioning the values of both intelligence and creativity, trying to understand which one is better, which one defines me or even if both are different expressions of the same thing.

You see, in school i was never a great maths student. My results were barely enough to pass to the next level, and that was all. But besides maths, when i would play poker or cards with my friends, even tho i would get better with some practice over time, i never felt that smart when compared to them, which would do it quite naturally. I have never done those IQ tests, because i believe intelligence can't be tested in such a linear way.

But i have always been a creative person, since kid. Not only concerning the arts and drawing or geometry classes at school. But i always seem to solve things the unconventional way, partly because of innate stubbornness, but mostly because i find it the best way to learn properly, even if it is the longest.

Iremember that in the first uni year, we were learning 3ds max, but i missed the classes because i was in Spain, and when i arrived, we were being evaluated. We were requested to create an object and subsequently coat its surfaces with textures, using the software. i have always hated 3d renders because they always look so fake, no matter what. plus, i had no idea on how to work with this new software. as we were being evaluated for the final images, the process didn't matter, so i took screenshots of the object and then processed it with photoshop. as i could get better control over perspective, chose infinite variety of textures, but above all, knew how to work with it, i made it quicker and better looking than those of my classmates and the teacher did not suspect, because i could eventually get a similar (never better) result in 3ds max, but it would take a lot more effort.

This might not be the best story, but it is simply an example that displays creativity as a way of solving life problems, real problems, and not simply artistic related issues.

Grammar and etymology aside, i would like to hear you guys stories and experiences regarding this question.

Can creativity outsmart intelligence? Can intelligence get creative, besides barely being objective?

im a lot like you, i can relate.

creativity=intelligence

You simply use more of the right side of your brain than your left.

http://psychology.ab...right-brain.htm

I tend to use neither. Its how I roll.

Apparently combining both half's together make the brain we humans know and love.

  On 6/25/2012 at 7:19 PM, logakght said:

creativity=intelligence

(or at least a type of)

  On 6/25/2012 at 7:19 PM, logakght said:

creativity=intelligence

i know so many people who are intelligent but have 0 creativity. that's where it gets hard to understand...

I think they just memorize things. Being able to "create something from scratch" does requires creativity and intelligence

  On 6/25/2012 at 7:02 PM, ruiagnelo said:

I have never done those IQ tests, because i believe intelligence can't be tested in such a linear way.

intelligence i believe is the ability to function within ones circumstance or environment, efficiently and dynamically. this can be creative, expressive, spiritual, musical, etc etc. i believe many people who think themselves highly intelligent, lack fundamental skills, applicable to daily life. creativity is intelligent, more intelligent then academic intelligence i would say, but one must first define that which is not creative. we must ask if we, ourselves, truly create anything at all, and i believe, to answer this, we must first know who we truly are, something intellectuals seemingly refuse to come to terms with, away from their own self-invented, self-imposed laws

  On 6/25/2012 at 7:46 PM, ruiagnelo said:

  On 6/25/2012 at 7:19 PM, logakght said:

creativity=intelligence

 

i know so many people who are intelligent but have 0 creativity. that's where it gets hard to understand...

check out Howard Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences

using this system, and as troon and goDel have begun to say, intelligence is an umbrella term, and creativity falls under it. this is a way to explain why there are intelligent people who don't have a creative bone in their bodies, and why there are apparently highly creative people without developed reasoning skills, like that lana babylon cunt in the other thread.

There are many kinds of intelligence - even creative intelligence. Hell, I would even say that there's something called social intelligence.

This thread seems a bit snobbish, if you ask me.

and i will ask you, why is it snobbish?

Snobbish?

Explain

  On 6/25/2012 at 7:59 PM, sharptooth luke said:

  On 6/25/2012 at 7:46 PM, ruiagnelo said:

  On 6/25/2012 at 7:19 PM, logakght said:

creativity=intelligence

 

i know so many people who are intelligent but have 0 creativity. that's where it gets hard to understand...

 

check out Howard Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences

 

using this system, and as troon and goDel have begun to say, intelligence is an umbrella term, and creativity falls under it. this is a way to explain why there are intelligent people who don't have a creative bone in their bodies, and why there are apparently highly creative people without developed reasoning skills, like that lana babylon cunt in the other thread.

hey wait. am i missing something?

from my experience, i've met a number people who i regard as way more creative but less intelligent. that probably sounds a bit dismissive, but there's actually a bit of envy in there. because they're generally better able to look past the obvious logical stuff and imagine all kinds of weird shit and create new non-obvious things. art done like that is often the most exciting.

also, in all my experiences with the more intelligent, less creative types, it's often the case those really intelligent people seem to be stuck in their head. you know, those stereotypical academic types who have bodies with the sole function to carry their head. often they sound like that as well. like they're mostly talking through their nose at ridiculous speeds. they're so intelligent they've almost lost contact with their body.

the creative people seem to be way more in their body. more in touch with their senses and their intuitions.

those are just some personal observations though. i'm into anekdotes today, i guess.

i don't think you can really compare the two. creativity is really a subjective perception. what you consider creative is most probably not what i consider to be creative. like those painters that just splash some lines on a canvas, call it abstract and is worth a million bucks. but some nobody on DeviantArt makes and extremely in depth render that its breath taking and its worth nothing. id consider the lines nothing and the render creative. but there are a lot of people that would disagree. or how bout cubism. i FUCKING hate cubism. i don't consider it creative at all. but most people would disagree with me. on top of that Creativity, like Intelligence, has different forms. not just one.

so creativity can't be narrowed down to what you propose. and like others have stated, there are several types of intelligence. these things can't be compared.

that being said, creativity is not dependent on intelligence or vice-versa. but one can use the other for help. like you could use your knowledge of music to help you come up with something creative instead of messing around until you get something cool. look at Miles Davis - Kind of Blue. and you can use creativity to help you in intellectual pursuits. things like using HOMES to remember the great lakes.

This is what i've learned from taking Psychology classes. so i say, they are uncomparable. but aren't so much separate.

  On 6/25/2012 at 8:01 PM, Squee said:

There are many kinds of intelligence - even creative intelligence. Hell, I would even say that there's something called social intelligence.

 

This thread seems a bit snobbish, if you ask me.

doesn't intelligence always = social intelligence?

isn't an iq test based on what we think is intelligent, making it obsolete for if an other more intelligent species would take it?

I'm in the first year of uni now (a technical study in the netherlands) and there are quite a lot of people who are considered intelligent, but aren't even able to solve the simplest problem when working on a project. Could it be that in a way creativity is the ability to apply intelligence in the real world, while intelligence itself is more of the human equivalent of processing power?

^ i like that

@vincent: intelligence != social intelligence, ime+o. go to a sporting event with some "idiot savant" autistic folks and see what happens.

goDel: don't think you're missing anything... and i'll back up your anecdotes with my own experiences. i think maybe the part that i didn't make clear before was that these different types of intelligence do not rely on one another; a person can be linguistically intelligent and musically not so. or could be emotionally intelligent and logically not so. the intelligences do play on one another, ie if you have one type you can generally apply it to problems in other intelligent "areas" (you can apply creative intelligence to mathematical reasoning, for example), but the two types of intelligence do not need each other to exist in a persons mind, that is they aren't tied to each other in the way that losing one would cause you to lose the other.

in the couple of places where creativity and the stereotypical brute force intelligence do meet, magic can happen. kubrick is an example, i think. and in a different way, a game like portal is a game where both meet (from the makers perspective, but also from the players perspective).

another example is hofstadter of "godel, escher, bach" fame. and what's nice about this example, is that he's heavily in the logical intelligence without having lost that creative spark, imo. especially those logic types tend to be as dry as you can come across. not hofstadter.

@th555: what are you studying? in delft? eindhoven?

Industrial design in Enschede, the other technical uni of the 3. First year is almost done, I think I've made the right choice.

Btw, I don't think my previous statement applies so much to art (although I still can't imagine a very dumb person creating art...).

  On 6/25/2012 at 7:59 PM, sharptooth luke said:

  On 6/25/2012 at 7:46 PM, ruiagnelo said:

  On 6/25/2012 at 7:19 PM, logakght said:

creativity=intelligence

 

i know so many people who are intelligent but have 0 creativity. that's where it gets hard to understand...

 

check out Howard Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences

 

using this system, and as troon and goDel have begun to say, intelligence is an umbrella term, and creativity falls under it. this is a way to explain why there are intelligent people who don't have a creative bone in their bodies, and why there are apparently highly creative people without developed reasoning skills, like that lana babylon cunt in the other thread.

1 post and banned. That's gotta be some kind of record.

the force is strong in luke, but that doesn't keep him from getting banned!

  On 6/25/2012 at 8:48 PM, Frankie5fingers said:

i don't think you can really compare the two. creativity is really a subjective perception. what you consider creative is most probably not what i consider to be creative. like those painters that just splash some lines on a canvas, call it abstract and is worth a million bucks. but some nobody on DeviantArt makes and extremely in depth render that its breath taking and its worth nothing. id consider the lines nothing and the render creative. but there are a lot of people that would disagree. or how bout cubism. i FUCKING hate cubism. i don't consider it creative at all. but most people would disagree with me. on top of that Creativity, like Intelligence, has different forms. not just one.

so creativity can't be narrowed down to what you propose. and like others have stated, there are several types of intelligence. these things can't be compared.

that being said, creativity is not dependent on intelligence or vice-versa. but one can use the other for help. like you could use your knowledge of music to help you come up with something creative instead of messing around until you get something cool. look at Miles Davis - Kind of Blue. and you can use creativity to help you in intellectual pursuits. things like using HOMES to remember the great lakes.

This is what i've learned from taking Psychology classes. so i say, they are uncomparable. but aren't so much separate.

in terms of human ability, creativity isn't a subjective perception. creativity is the ability to link together unrelated ideas to make something new, solve a problem, etc.