Peter WalshResponse to a blog post about printing Yoda heads. Is *just* reproducing someone else's work being a maker? Is copying the same thing as doing original work?
I can add some suspiciously depressing observations: almost no one is creative.
There’s a psychological test for this, called the “Creative Achievement Questionnaire”, you can find it online and take it yourself. Don’t do that.
Seriously, don’t take that test – it’ll only make you depressed and want to give up being creative.
The median score for this test in the general population is… wait for it… zero. About 70% of the adult population scores zero on this measure of creativity.
Of further note, creativity follows a Pareto distribution; meaning that the amount of creativity people have is an inverse exponential curve: most of the creativity is generated by a small number of people, and the vast majority of people who even score on the creativity scale score below 5.
About 70% of the population score zero, of the remaining 30% we see that 70% of *those* people score a 1, and of the 30% of the 30%, about 70% of *those* people score 2, and so on.
About half a million books are published each year, the square root of that number have half the sales (Pareto distribution…), the square root of the square root take up 3/4 of all sales, and so on. Stephen king sells a lot of books, while the vast *vast* majority of writers have no sales at all.
It’s depressing, really.
As a further observation, I note that the vast majority of articles and videos of people doing “science” is actually people reproducing what other scientists have done. Ben Krasnow is mostly a reproduction shop (with a little bit of science), Tech Ingredients is somewhat sciency, but just about everyone else is just reproducing something “neat and interesting”, and claiming that it’s “Science!” for audience appeal.
Also depressing.
There are mitigating factors and some nuance in the Creative Achievement thing, but article commentary is the wrong place for discussion. Contact me on .IO if you want more details.
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I really don't see why this needs to be depressing.
"Why" people aren't being creative isn't really touched in your post here, which I think is a bit sad in itself.
If the people involved genuinely just don't enjoy being creative, then that's fine - let them do what they want as long as it doesn't hurt people.
Alternatively, what if people want to be more creative but don't know how? Maybe there are insights to be gained about how our current teaching structure can be improved to stimulate more creativity in people.
All I see here are raw numbers, and those in themselves have no reason to be depressing.
And even then - even if a lot of people just reproduce things - I still think that is wonderful.
It would be boring if we all had to reinvent the wheel.
I've seen what people do with my #LZRTag - Flexible DIY Lasertag project, and frankly, even if it's just taking my PCB and software, without modification, and turning it into their own system and to play with it, that makes me proud and happy to see.
Someone's enjoying what I did and is valuing it enough to go through the effort of learning how to reproduce it, sometimes even doing more with it than what I could have ever dreamt of doing alone.
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I really want to take that questionnaire, but you're right, I probably shouldn't.
And I agree with [Simon] -- please keep the posts coming as long as you feel like posting them.
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So if we are all copying each other (reproduction) , making minor changes (mutation), do you think we should attribute more to those who showed us what we are reproducing? And how big does the mutation need to be before we don't need to attribute to the source?
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You're asking me for answers I don't have, I'm just recounting the science.
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And calling it depressing. So I read from that you were offering your opinion too - which I would like to read more of. But I will gladly respect if this is an area you aren't keen for discussion on. It takes enough to write anything, let alone reply to everyone who comes along in the comments section. Please keep your posts coming, as and when. I appreciate them.
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to copy is a way to spread the knowledge on how to do something. it has dignity and an important place in the evolution. greece philosophers are still remembered. why? maybe because in 1000's of years humanity have only climbed few steps on the stair of evolution. but we can help each other to reach the same step instead of leaving other behind :-)
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