Knowledge, Experience and Creativity

Every action performed by a person can be classified under knowledge, experience and creativity; some, under more than one heading. Knowledge is defined as the result of learning, perception and reasoning. Experience results from the accumulation and application of acquired knowledge. Creativity is the ability to use the acquired knowledge and experience to create new experiences. The result of these experiences may create new knowledge.

On a scale of 100, try ranking their relative importance.

My ranking would be:
Knowledge-> 30
Experience-> 30
Creativity-> 40

I emphasize on creativity a lot, mainly because while knowledge can be easily acquired and experiences are a part of life, unless you decide to be creative, you can lead your entire life without being so.

That said, creativity is the resultant of knowledge and experience. Suppose you know two facts which appear to be inter-related. You get curious and want to try combining them, to see what you get. That's a creative process. To be able to spot the places where you can be creative, you need experience with the said facts.

A simple example. Physicists identified the wave and particle nature of light. One brilliant physicist tried to relate both, in the form of a mathematical equation. This physicist was Louis de Broglie, and his creative work is the de broglie equation. This brought about a better understanding of the dual nature of matter and radiation.

To be creative, one does not need academic brilliance or years of experience. Creativity only requires a threshold level of knowledge and experience. Despite this, creativity is the most difficult of the 3 to obtain. Reason for that being a majority of the schooling focusses only on learning (acquiring knowledge) and lab work (first hand experience). Hence the witticism "I was brilliant. Education ruined me." That's creativity at work again.

How to become creative?

Creativity is inherent in all. It has merely been dulled by the constant influx of knowledge and experience. If you let your mind wander, creativity speaks to you. You'll start questioning things which you once thought of as logical, asking yourself new questions, and answering them too. That's creativity at work. It will not happen when you are busy with some task. Since most people keep themselves occupied all the time, they never give their creativity any time to surface, burying it completely in the long run.

For a start, give some time for your mind to wander. However, if you are under the grip of a strong emotion during this time, you'll harp on whatever is affecting you only.

Next, try out the ideas obtained. Create an experience and make note of the resulting knowledge. Guide your mind into thinking about these results. Creativity will strike again!