Cleese Summary

John Cleese tells us in his video that creativity cannot really be explained, and I agree with that. We talk about this topic in class and we have a hard time coming up with something or we do and we are unsure if it’s really creative or not. I feel that a lot of things are creative, but they are just creative in their own way. He feels as though your childhood can be a factor in the ability of your creativity. The simplest thing as a child with a big box can be useful and show creativity as to what they do with it.

We need to not only keep an open mind when looking to solve a solution or come up with an idea, but transition from an open mode to a closed mode. To be in open mode, we need to be relaxed, playful, and be open to humor. He says that when being in a closed mode, creativity is not possible. In a closed mode, you can be active, impatient and become stressed. It is easy to go into a closed mode and get stuck in it. Certain conditions can help when you are trying to get into an open mode. Having space, time, time, confidence, and humor are all necessities for coming up with an original idea. We need to seclude ourselves, set a time for yourself, find out when your decision is due, don’t be afraid to take risks or make mistakes, and be inclined to humor.  We need to stay on topic and not let things get us side tracked. Being around other playful people can help us come up with ideas easier. When being a helpful person, you need to be a more positive person than a critic. In the end of his speech, he says that creativity is like humor and throughout his whole speech he makes jokes and that is a form of him being creative.

A few tips of my own for being creative is to brain-storm with diverse people. Surround yourself with others who like to have fun, can laugh at themselves and look at things from a different perspective. I feel that being creative can come when you least expect it and sometimes when you have to improvise. For example, when people cook sometimes they don’t always have an ingredient for the recipe. Instead of going out and buying it, they use something else in place and come up with a different dish or one better than the original.