Yet the ultimate form of creativity might very well turn out to be in understanding those frameworks which allow for slight variances, i.e., fractals. Fractal thinking says, "How is it that every snowflake going through the universe's snowflake factory always ends up a snowflake, but, somehow each snowflake is different and unlike any other that has ever been or ever will be and yet is always a snowflake."

Newtonian scientists used to find slight variances at the end of their equations and experiments. In an effort to explain their universe in a set of fixed terms, they would chop the variance and round off the equation thinking that slight variance is unimportant. Fractologists argue that this slight variance is a clue to the most important thing.

Accordingly, the essence of fractal thinking is to hold the framework steady, then add a unit and shift one.

As a programmer, I can really appreciate this fractal logic. Consider the registration process for a Web site. Everybody who registers gets a unique ID number/password, thus having a unique personalized experience. Yet the logic and software doesn't change. "For the next person to register, get the previous number used for the last registrant, add something to it, present it to the registrant, then save it and wait for the next registrant." The something to it stays constant, yet each registrant has their own number.

To be creative within a realm, it helps to understand the frameworks before introducing the fractal shifts. Consider how effectively Pablo Picasso could have painted without knowledge of the color wheel or understanding the dynamics of mixing paints and brushes. Or how effectively jazz musicians can play without knowing chords, scales and other musical structures. Or how engaging Leonardo Da Vinci could have painted without understanding anatomy. After all, he stated, "The first object of the painter is to make a flat plane appear as a body in relief and projecting from that plane."

Once the frameworks are understood, the freedom to weave in and out, shifting slightly, adding a unit here and there, is the key to great creativity.

Even communication has simple frameworks we take for granted everyday, such as the alphabet, punctuation and grammar. By understanding, or agreeing to certain grammatical building blocks, we are then free to express ourselves via reading, writing, and speaking.

Before the inventions of moveable type and the printing press, one had to be a person ordained by God in order to learn to read and write. Today, we know that by mastering alphabets, grammar and their corresponding frameworks, we can dance an eternal expression ranging from corporate memos to Shakespearean dramas.   top