Creativity, types of Inventions

Creativity
Do not go where a path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Creativity/creative thinking / inventive thinking is thinking up new things.
Acc. To Oxford dict. Creativity means to use / involve one’s own thought or imagination to create something new as work of art, and invention.

Acc. To Porter Creativity has the following 5 elements:
1.Fluency, which is the ability to provide ideas in volumes. It means having lots of ideas, but the ideas may not be necessarily unusual.
2. Flexibility, which is the ability to convert familiar concepts into new shapes or jump from old concepts to new ones.
3. Originality, which is the ability to create unusual ideas. It must lead to something novel or unique.
4. Awareness, which is the imagination to perceive connections and possibilities beyond the obvious.
5. Drive or motivation, which is the ability to think up new ideas.






Inventions Types:

Spontaneous/ Autonomous
Induced inventions

1. Autonomous:
They occur simultaneously rather than in response to environmental impulse. These inventions arise from the instinct-necessity is not the mother of invention., act of inventing , rather , is a necessity in itself. Here sense of curiosity and idea of fame play a dominant role and act as motivation for invention rather than the motive ofr economic gain. These inventions could be accidental also and generally lead technology transfer.

2. Induced Inventions:
They are guided by the motive for economic gain. These inventions arise form instinct. Necessity is the mother of invention. They involve tech. transfer usually through formal process. They are usually patented so as to gain competitive and commercial advantage.

Following factors may lead to induce invention:

- Growth of scientific knowledge
- Degree of competition
- Changing customer needs
- Life cycle of the product
- Forecast about technological discontinuities
- Serving and developing new markets
- Goal to obtain technological competitiveness and leadership.
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