Creative Thinking in the Time of Social Distance

There’s is a long history of breakthrough creative thinking coming as a by-product of social distance. According to Susan Cain, author of Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking, brainstorming groups generate fewer ideas than the same number of solitary people working alone.

Still, most people tend to avoid isolation. It’s no surprise that we are so reluctant to spend time alone. Research shows that for many people spending time with themselves can be uncomfortable. One interesting study from the University of Virginia indicates that many people prefer giving themselves a painful electric shock to just sitting with their own thoughts for 15 minutes.

A TIME FOR CREATIVE THINKING

I keep hearing from different friends who are holed up in their homes, that they are experiencing accelerated creative output. If social media posts and memes are any indicators, we are in a creative boon! Yes, collaboration and shared experiences are crucial to creativity as well, but isolation helps us to limit the noise long enough to make sense of what we’ve taken in. It allows us to trim the mental fat, so to speak, to tune our psychic abilities on the pieces that we can influence or which will influence us.