Creativity & Urban Living

hiking in Saxony SwitzerlandOne of the most puzzling myths about urbanization is that the more we live together in big cities, the more creative we become. Despite all the evidence to the contrary - longevity, quality of life, increased commutes - this conclusion remains strong.

There is some evidence for it. There are more patents in urban areas. It is very interesting that the fewer people in the urban area, the more patents per capita. Higher density living also makes networking easier, or so the argument goes. I am guessing the advocates never lived in Oklahoma City. In addition, the financial resources required for creativity to be successful - concerts, tickets, art sales, people to buy things - are best found in urban settings.

However, there is another side to this coin. Most creativity requires expertise, which is best developed alone. When checking beyond patents and sales, you discover that arts, writing, thought, even politics find their beginnings in solitude. Maybe I'm just trying to justify my introverted needs.

Check out this blog article by A. J. Kessler. His blog has several excellent articles about creativity. In his article he quotes Steve Wozniak and I'll close with that:

Most inventors and engineers I’ve met are like me — they’re shy and they live in their heads. They’re almost like artists. In fact, the very best of them are artists. And artists work best alone — best outside of corporate environments, best where they can control an invention’s design without a lot of other people designing it for marketing or some other committee. I don’t believe anything really revolutionary has ever been invented by committee… I’m going to give you some advice that might be hard to take. That advice is: Work alone… Not on a committee. Not on a team.

- Steve Wozniak, iWoz