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In the group-creativity vs lone-inventor debate, the inventor has a
great legacy of inventions to bolster his or her claim. Ideas appear in
only one brain at a time, and people working alone do not have to suffer
the anxieties of social outcasting for wrong thoughts nor the pains of
having their ideas rejected prematurely.
See also
artists, being different, collaboration,
fragility*, genius, people*, risk,
self, subconscious, thinking
Quotes
‘The good ideas are all hammered out in agony by individuals, not spewed out
by groups.’
— Charles Brower
‘People must know that their ideas will be listened to and, if they have
merit, acted upon. If they do, it is possible to mobilize individual creativity
on a very broad scale.’
— James Champy
‘Creativity is essentially a lonely art. An even lonelier struggle. To some a
blessing. To others a curse. In is in reality the ability to reach inside
yourself and drag forth from your very soul an idea.’
— Arthur C. Clarke
‘There are few enough people with sufficient independence to see
the weaknesses and follies of their contemporaries and remain themselves
untouched by them.’
— Albert Einstein
‘Everything that is really great and inspiring is created by the individual
who can labor in freedom.’
— Albert Einstein
‘It is the lone worker who makes the first advance in a subject: the details
may be worked out by a team, but the prime idea is due to the enterprise,
thought and perception of an individual.’
— Alexander Fleming
‘Clearly no group can, as an entity, create ideas. Only individuals can do
this. A group of individuals may, however, stimulate one another in the creation
of ideas.’
— Estill I. Green
‘In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble
reasoning of a single individual.’
— Galileo Galilei
‘One machine can do the work of fifty ordinary men. No machine can do the
work of one extraordinary man.’
— Elbert Hubbard
‘There is no such thing as group originality, group creativity or group
perspicacity.’
— Edwin Land
‘Profundity and originality are attributes of single, if not singular,
minds.’
— Edwin Land
‘Self-image sets the boundaries of individual accomplishment.’
— Maxwell Maltz
‘For if the talent or individuality is there, it should be expressed. If it
doesn’t find its way out into the air, it can be turned inward and gnaw like the
fox at the Spartan boy’s belly.’
— Shirley McLaine
‘There is nothing great in the world that does not owe its origin to the
creative ability of an individual man.’
— Adolf Hitler
‘Individuals who break through by inventing a new paradigm are almost always
either very young men or very new to the field whose paradigm they change. These
are the men who, being little committed by prior practice to the traditional
rules of normal science, are particularly likely to see that those rules no
longer define a playable game and conceive another set that can replace them.’
— Thomas S. Kuhn
‘Madness is rare in individuals—but in groups, parties, nations, and ages it
is the rule.’
— Friedrich Nietzsche
‘I came to the conclusion long ago that limits to
innovation have
less to do with technology or creativity than organizational agility. Inspired
individuals can only do so much.’
— Ray Stata
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