“Those Crazy Ideas” is an essay by Isaac Asimov I read today about the criteria for someone to be considered ‘creative.’ Throughout the book, he uses Darwin as his example, clearly presenting his points and supporting them throughout with evidence. I thought that his theory about ‘bits,’ or pieces of information, was interesting, and what he suggested made a lot of sense. Basically, he said that people’s ability to be creative was based on their prior knowledge and ability to link the information they have. Then, they have to reveal this idea to the public, which is hard to do because the most creative ideas are also the most odd and the most likely to get ridiculed. Their ability to be creative is also dependent on their luck in finding the right information to obtain the right conclusions. The side story of Charles Darwin’s own creativity was a nice touch to Asimov’s essay, which I highly enjoyed. The writer incorporated some of himself into a scientific essay, which is hard to do, so I highly enjoyed reading it. Overall, I found Asimov’s essay to be fascinating and recommend that anyone interested in creativity read it. I would rate it 9.5/10.
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