“How Creativity Works: An interview with Jonah Lehrer,” by June Thomas, Slate’s The Afterword podcast (Friday, March 30, 2012). “In Imagine: How Creativity Works, Jonah Lehrer explores some of the myths of creativity and discovers that it isn’t a gift possessed by a lucky few, but rather a variety of processes that everyone can learn to use more efficiently. This 32-minute conversation ranges from the origins of the Swiffer, why 3M is such an innovative company, what people who work alone can do to replicate the creative advantages of the busy workplace, to Steve Jobs’ views on proper bathroom placement.”
Ridley discussed his views on trade, invention and creativity with the New York Times‘ John Tierney at a Reason Foundation event at the Museum of Sex in New York City on March 8, 2012.
The author of “The Rational Optimist,” tells Tierney that “Every technology we possess has ideas that occurred to different people in different times and different places…most innovation happens by perspiration not inspiration, it’s tinkering…rather than geniuses in ivory towers.”
Tierney and Ridley also discuss how traders and businessmen, much maligned throughout history as exploiters and “social parasites,” have actually contributed enormously to the spread of ideas and new technological breakthroughs. Ridley describes how Fibonacci, the son of an Italian trader who lived in North Africa, brought the Indian numeral system (the numbers we all know and love today) to Europe as one of the greatest tangible benefits of trade facilitating the exchange of ideas. Ridley implores the public to “Just stop knocking traders, they’re great people, they do wonderful things.”
The usual apology for IP (“intellectual property”) privilege is that effort has to be rewarded in an advanced society if justice is to be made to creators and producers.
Interesting: Marxists say the very same thing. They claim that previous effort (“frozen labor”) is that which gives value to economic goods. Well, Objectivists are doing the same in a more fashionable — yet equally flawed — way. They claim economic value is derived from frozen…thoughts. Yes, frozenthoughts. See, Objectivists consider labor performed inside our heads the source of economic value, and thus being the very core of value creation it has to be rightfully protected at all costs, right?
Wrong. The source of value is the customer’s valuation of said good during the time of sale.
Yes, ladies and gentlement, it is sales (that mundane and sordid act) that which generates an income in a free society (i.e. the division of labor). Sales are the only way in which demonstrated preference tells us that which is valuable to others. And if it is, they surrender certain amount of another good by giving it to us in exchange for what they need and want. That good is generally one of general acceptance (the most marketeable one), in other words, money. So in order to make money one has to sell. It does not suffice to sit, philosopher style (see pic), and wait for money to come to oneself. One has to know how to turn the idea into an attractive and/or useful product, which requires a whole different set of skills. Or find able partners for the risk-taking endeavor. Even choosing an adequate partner/team for production, distribution, and sales require entrepreneurial skills far beyond the usual thinker’s.
But in any case, it is not “who thought of this first?” that makes people buy more of brand X. The customer couldn’t care less either way. It is the positioning of brand X in the customer’s mind that creates what we call a true market niche for a product. Thus, it follows that it is opportunity, quality and ultimately demonstrated preference (sales) that determines commercial success. Alas, Capitalism is not the social system of thinkers (nor was Socialism, as it was predictably taken over by power-mongers): it is the social system of merchants. Yes, lowly, mundane, and anti-intellectual merchants.
This, to the despair of (Objectivist) NeoMarxism and Marxism, two philosophies founded by intellectuals who wanted to highlight the role of people like themselves.
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