European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - June 12, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                June 1985 the stars and stripes Page 17 by Daniel Haney associated press few achievements of human sweat Are so difficult or so satisfying As creating something new an a a turn of phrase that has never occurred to anyone else psychologists poke into those moments of Clear so elusive and a predict when fresh ideas Are and they Analyse the people who Are blessed with a Talent for bringing them to their goal isto learn what nourishes Crea what kills what makes these Mas ters of originality so different from the hordes who never Rise above the common the innovators of great and memorable works Are in some ways surprisingly Ordi it turns studies show that they Are frequently smart but not too educated but not too if anything sets them it is their they Start Young they work hard they keep often far into old above they Are and their drive to achieve comes from creativity is often a fragile easily researchers Are learning that the forces that inspire it or try to also shape its at Brandeis psychologist Teresa Amabile has boiled Down nine years of study into one observation intrinsic motivation is conducive to but extrinsic motivation is when people Are inspired by their own interests and she there is a better Chance that they will explore unlikely take risks in the produce something unique and when their insights into creativity modern living Mozart completed More than 600 compositions before he died at control Over ones own ideas and people who have successfully nourished the work of gifted people know freedoms Salvador Luria of Massachusetts Institute of tech o several famous Scien a Nobel con Al paper at Johann Sebastian Bach dictated his last Well Over his on his deathbed at age something appears to drive these creators to venture into the world of truth or Beauty at an Early to contribute masterworks at a hectic Pace and to continue their creative endeavours until late in Simonton while Good works May Start Early and end the Peak productive age comes Midway through the modern or around age Michelangelo finished the sistine Chapel when lie was the same age that Ludwig Van Beethoven wrote his fifth Simonton studied 420 literary creators from 25 centuries of world he found that the Peak age for writing prose was about while the Peak for poetry fell around creative juices never totally dry in he theorizes that creators in their 70s will be More prolific than they were in their for All their prowess awesomely inventive people Are in some ways quite Many were lacklustre up neither especially Well educated nor particularly creative people arc but a High in is no guarantee of in Simon ton says theres evidence that too much brainpower May actually be a bad his studies suggest that the optimal in for creativity is about 19 Points above the average of other people in the wrote poems or performed other creative tasks while hindered or helped by such influences As rewards or psychologist Dean Keith Simonton of the University of to get in the Way of creativity v ii Cluer perishable of a revolutionary nuclear phys Ity the lives of highly creative people Cist May need a graduate degree just to understand the key problems of the too much education also seems says i suspect it May be easier to destroy environment than it is to stimulate Crea it May be that the Best Environ ments Are those that just allow creativity to be maintained without destroying the single Best prod to she is Freedom the Power to decide what to do and How to do a sense of their output is not reviewed As they Genius most striking findings that it ass Alva Edison held 1 091 thing lose f he dan8er should have the Freedom to take risks and to she Amabile reached her conclusions mainly by conducting Brief experiments in which volunteers worked out Mozart had More than 600 compositions to his credit before he died at age for the most they tend to Start step beat if you learn about a Domain in ways that maintain flexibility in your if you learn Basic principles rather than or an earlier and end Simonton just then knowledge can really Sigmund Freud wrote his first profession she says Erm Bombeck i read an astounding statistic the other the number one Leisure activity in America is that not watching television or jogging or playing but growing Flowers and House plants and mowing the As with any the important question is Why is America having a Romance with Earth Worms and fertilizers there Are possibly several valid when you think about women became infatuated with House plants around the time televised football in creased its coverage to 58 hours a women Hun gered for something around the House that moved and was it was someone to share a drink nuzzle and sit in the Sun plants became someone to share their corporate gardening came into being about the time everything you did was motivated by medical offices flourished with Large potted Trees and hanging baskets of it was a time for the medical Community of flaunt their life sustaining after no one wants to go to a doctor whose office plants have in Flowers and plants became the decor of the showing that business was Good enough not Only to hire an exterminator who came at but a Plant consultant and maintenance it got your mind off the to gardening became a status Symbol especially the any commuter who  throw around fertilizer numbers or keep his Bare spots under control was a social to Many gardening became a it was something to conquer like baldness or biting your imagine How your spiritual Fervour would be revived if you kept a Boston Fern alive for say 12 hours after you bought or if you were Able to maintain a ficus tree in your bedroom without All the leaves falling to some keeping a Poinsettia from one Christmas to the other was an accomplishment Worth putting on a i can understand the american Peoples infatuation with Flowers and but Ive never been Able to understand the 34 million people who grow vegetables As a Leisure this has to be the olympics of it separates the Petunia Pinchers from the manure spreaders the gardeners who Wear cute cot ton gloves with daisies on the cuffs to the gardeners who grab off cutworms with their blistered vegetable gardening is not for its hard Ive done one year i brought to Harvest 13 Green peas that ran me 35 cents a 85 pounds of cucumbers that Cost me to preserve under eight cantaloupes that had one thing in common a Rabbit bite out of the Only explanation that makes any sense is that people who Are highly comple Tive in their work tend to be highly competitive in their its a its Man against the excessive searing Dis calluses and aching you cant have that much fun at c los Angeles times by Ducale