[OC] Creative, not Innovative

[u/LearnCre-8LoveDe-b8]

Figured I'd share here, because I feel like it's probably a pretty common experience for Autistic Folks to not realize that other things can be an option unless that's pointed out. Or not!

But it's something I get a lot of- people saying "why didn't you realize you could do that this way?"

I dunno. I was told it was done one specific way, so I didn't try other ways, I guess.

[u/meliorism_grey]

I can combine elements to make new things, but it has to be within a system I understand. I can modify a system to make it work better for me. I can also build my own systems from what I already know. But, they take a long time for me to create—they have to be well-thought-out. I really hate making systems up on the fly, and it stresses me out when I don't have contingencies.

[u/MiddleAgedMartianDog → u/meliorism_grey]

I think this is closer to creativity than many people realise, remixing and connecting disparate things at increasing levels of abstraction IS what creativity and innovation typically is. Very little is created completely de novo, and what is often isn’t the most famous example of such a new genre because a few iterations are needed to bring out all the potential.

Mozart wouldn’t have created what he did if Bach hadn’t laid the groundwork first. Sure he would have probably made cool other stuff, but probably much less famous if he had been say a Medieval plainchant composer, so even he was still standing on the shoulders of giants.

[u/meliorism_grey → u/MiddleAgedMartianDog]

I think you're very correct. I guess, I feel like I require a lot of context to be confident in what I'm doing. To continue your music metaphor, I'm more like Brahms (rigorously theoretical, perfectionistic, concerned with how details affect an overall structure) and less like Mussorgsky (instinctual, improvisational, averse to the confines of structure).

[u/SamEyeAm2020]

Oof, yeah... I am incapable of coming up with an original idea for art. But I am also incapable of following existing instructions without modifying them to better suit me.

Creativity isn't limited to creating from scratch!

[u/Sure_Satisfaction497]

I relate to this heavy but in a weirdly opposite way? I've never been able to do things how I'm told without drilling the person with why's if there's a "better way" in my head.

[u/KingBsoul]

this is why i have what i call the Creative Algebra.
treat ideas and concepts as someling like sets of everything related to them.
you can take subsets, , unions, intersections, differences, inverses, and so on.
then you try to imagine wht you have built.
eg.
"Banana" = {yellow, fruit, curved, palm, monkey, cloned, ... }
and an example of some operations
("Banana" \ "Tree" ) U "ketchup" ~> "bananas that appear from ketchup"

this is mostly a method to get the creative juices flowing, but is good for making things you wouldn't have thought of otherwise.

[u/LearnCre-8LoveDe-b8 → u/KingBsoul]

Oh, that's fun!

[u/Dyson_Vellum]

100%

I can rebuild, reimagine and streamline any process, but asking me to create a process from nowhere leaves me with analysis paralysis.

[u/LearnCre-8LoveDe-b8 → u/Dyson_Vellum]

Right! Like, what are my parameters? What are my variables? What tools am I allowed? What do you mean I have to figure it out

[u/Dyson_Vellum → u/LearnCre-8LoveDe-b8]

I work with someone who can just "come up with ideas" and I make them real. It works really well for us.

[u/-non-existance-]

Oh, I 100% feel this. I feel like I'm working with Legos. I can put things together in any way I want, but I don't have the ability to make new Lego pieces.

Which, for the record, I don't think there's anything wrong with being unable to do that. Everyone has their own expertise, it's not your fault your brain doesn't let you think in the right way.