Hello again. I would like to share with you one of my favorite illustrations on one of my favorite topics: the nature of creativity, or more accurately, on imaginative thinking. (As an aside, I think the distinction between the two is worth noting. Creativity is the practice of creating, or bringing something into being, and often involves tangible skills. Imagination is the conceiving of what to create, prior to using one's creative skills to realize what the imagination has envisioned.)

            

There was a final examination in Physics class, and the teacher observed that the his best student seemed to be stuck, scratching his head, playing with his pencil, and looking up, so he walked over to inquire what it was that had him perplexed. 

            

The problem he was stuck on had to do with determining the height of a tall building using a barometer. The teacher inquired what his best student was thinking of, if not the obvious answer of using it to measure the difference in barometric pressure at the top and bottom of the building and calculating from there.

            

Well, the young scholar replied, there are so many answers, so many ways to use the barometer that I don’t know which to choose.

 

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