Human creativity can be defined in many ways. One of the simplest and, perhaps, most profound and interesting definitions comes from Spanish advertising executive Luis Bassat, who believes that being creative means living our lives thinking about how we can improve the things around us.
Genetic data and the capabilities of Artificial Intelligence have now allowed us to conclude that this ability to go around the world and understand how we can improve it may have kept us from the abyss of extinction.
It's time to talk about one of the emotional states that most stimulates creativity: boredom. Although boredom has unbelievable creative potential, we try to avoid it at all costs. It bothers us to experience the slowness of time. Since we hate being bored, our brain immediately tries to find something to get us out of that state, to fill that void. And this something is often quite creative. The problem is that we find it very hard to walk or run without listening to our favorite podcast or music, we can't sit still in a waiting room without reaching for some electronic gadget and when children get bored we immediately try to save them from the discomfort of boredom.
Since the main mission of organizations is to improve things around us, we should be asking ourselves some important questions right now.
Why did Frida Kahlo start painting after the bus accident that left her bedridden for months? Was it to fill the void of time? Could it have been to escape boredom and start painting what she knew best - herself? Her self-portraits?
What if, at a time when he was suffering from a lack of inspiration and limited himself to copying works from the Prado museum, Picasso hadn't fallen ill with scarlet fever? What if he hadn't sat still and recuperated for more than seven months in Horta de Ebro? Why did his creativity peak after spending more than seven months in a mountain village where nothing was happening?
Could it be that in order to be able to live and try to improve the things around us, we need to let ourselves get bored from time to time?
What would have happened if Picasso and Frida Kahlo hadn't gotten bored?
What if, instead of paints and canvases, they had a smartphone in their hands ?
