Lack of Originality and Creative Thought | INFJ Forum

Lack of Originality and Creative Thought

Odyne

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Let it be a technological device, a movie, a tv show, a book, achitecture, or a lifestyle...Everyone copies from everyone, and just add a lil twist of their own, and think that it's somehow different.

Have we really ran out of original thought? Is there really nothing out there that is yet to be discovered or created that would revolutionize our society and the human race? Why is it that most people can't think outside the box anymore?

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this.
 
Well, part of it is that within the last 50 years, new ideas were able to reach more people more quickly, and with the internet, just about every idea anyone has can be posted for the world to see.

It makes it harder to be original like that because basically everything that could be thought by someone is already accessible somewhere. Or, at least, that's what it seems like.
 
Why is it that most people can't think outside the box anymore?


Most people have never been able to think outside the box, and out of the few that truly do, an even smaller select few have the means to have those thoughts carry out to fruition.

This is why progress, while always in motion, goes at a mere crawl.
 
That is just how our progression is as human beings. Someone discovered that if we rubbed the end of a stick against a rock that eventually it would form a point and it would be a rudimentary spear, someone else elaborated on this and learned that cooking the moisture out makes it an even better spear. Later still someone figured out how to make an actual point for the spear out of a rock shard, the design of which was further changed and elaborated on.

Some people have dreams but no means to create, some have means to create but no spark of idea...when two people like this get together something wonderful can be created, obviously some people have both. Then there are some people that are just able to look at something and figure out a way to make it better. I'm sure we'll continue to see wonderful new technological devices created in our lifetimes, but it is very likely we will see more modifications and improvements of what is already here.
 
Let it be a technological device, a movie, a tv show, a book, achitecture, or a lifestyle...Everyone copies from everyone, and just add a lil twist of their own, and think that it's somehow different.

Have we really ran out of original thought? Is there really nothing out there that is yet to be discovered or created that would revolutionize our society and the human race? Why is it that most people can't think outside the box anymore?

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this.

I have to disagree with you. As an inventor, my whole working life has been dependent on technological innovation. At any time in history, there has been innovation, but never so much as now. All inventions are comprised of a combination of previously known elements. It is in the "non-obvious" combination of these elements that innovation occurs. It may not be apparent, but if you consider all the incredible things that go into making an iphone or gps navigator, there clearly is a tremendous amount of innovation that has recently happened. The newest iphone is more than incrementally better than the earlier versions. I could go on and on, but a look at the US Patent and Trademark Office delays in allowing and issuing patents gives some indication of how swamped they are. My last patent, recently issued took more than three years to prosecute through allowance, twice as long as it should take. The USPTO is swamped.
 
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I've noticed that today's culture has become more critical. Since we have access to so much, we're starting to make cultural media and lifestyle ideas very 'personalized.' Everyone has their own tastes. What I find annoying is that people are taking their personal tastes (which are made up of multiple ideas and sources), and making them objective. People have these ideas about what makes a 'good' movie, book, t.v. show, song, etc., when really, what makes something 'good' is different for each individual based on the various factors influencing their lives.
To sell to people today, it looks like they're going with whatever people are saying is 'good.' However, there will always be people whose standards and values are different.
I think this has to do with the lack of originality. Our society is so oversaturated with all these ideas that we have access to. People are encouraged to be 'original', but also to like cretain things that fit the current societal standards. When someone has a different idea or way of living/ acting, they are often still unappreciated for their true individuality. Many people with creative ideas are either pressured into fitting the norm, or ridiculed for their differences and inability to fit in. It is these people who I believe have the most potential to influence culture with new ideas, if we would only give them a chance.
 
The assumption that most people ever thought out side the box is questionable.
 
That's pretty much how it works, and then once every couple of decades someone comes in and sets a new standard. Then the cycle can repeat itself.
 
I think there are still original thoughts out there... All you need to do is ask the right questons... people just give up too early...

Says the ENTP :m171:
 
I think the main problem is that in the history of human life, people have done and thought and invented SO MANY THINGS... that it's just hard to think of something that hasn't already been conceived of! Every now and then someone hits on something completely new, but it's rare.
 
Don't believe in originality, in the first place. (; It's all a series of small transformations, which at some point a shrewd seller exposes as a giant step forward, and everyone goes "WOW", and readily signs up for the slavery, cause they feel so owned, and small, and insignificant, and unoriginal, by comparison. They've just been tricked and kept a "healthy" bit ignorant, usually.

We've all heard about what Einstein presumably had to say about originality, but I also like a more modern quote: that you never have to worry about others stealing your ideas, because if it's truly original, you'll have to force them to appreciate it. Felt that, many times..

Originality is also very relative. People like to be surprised and are excited about someone doing what they think they couldn't do. They tend to omit the fact that what may seem original to them, may not be at all original for another group of people. All inventions we know about, with some name of a famous inventor behind them, actually have predecessors, even in complete form. Some of the 20th century modern inventions have been forgotten and rediscovered older ones, such as the cinematographic camera..

It's not that people are less original, it's that the improved communications expose more clearly that people have never really been that original, in the first place. So the process of creativity finally becomes more honest, open and fairly distributed. We may not have the cult figures representing extraordinary originality in the past, but that's more about logistics and social structure; we still overall have unprecedented exponential boom of novelty. Perhaps it is because we've learned to not create those idols.
 
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Well, I can't speak for the rest of the world, but I know I'm only considered original when someone doesn't like what I'm saying :p. Thats a tad harsh, but like the panda above me said, lots of things get lost and reinvented, but does that mean that the reinvention is suddenly made out to be a falsehood and we should be angry and call them a fraud? I really don't think so, they still had to research, create and market the invention.

If we are thinking along the lines of entertainment, with songs and books and movies, it is indeed harder and harder to be original, and impossible to be completely original anymore ever. There are ways to think and do something, the opposite, and the inbetween and they have all be done before. HOWEVER, the originality exists in exicution: What ideas you combine, old and new, and the actual quality of the end product is what can make it original, even if the ideas within aren't all.

So if you are afraid to write something because you think its been done, go find out if it has, and then strive to write it better and with ideas from elsewhere, and some of your own which really are original. And remember, even if its shit (like a certain vampire series) you can still be read and popular.

Its also a good idea to not get too hung up on making everything "perfect art" either. Just cause you can't be completely original does not make you a hack.
 
I don't really see any lack of originality/creativity. I see a lot of mainstream markets ignoring that creativity for what is 'safe' though.

Just depends on where you look and how hard you dig.
 
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Well, I can't speak for the rest of the world, but I know I'm only considered original when someone doesn't like what I'm saying :p. Thats a tad harsh, but like the panda above me said, lots of things get lost and reinvented, but does that mean that the reinvention is suddenly made out to be a falsehood and we should be angry and call them a fraud? I really don't think so, they still had to research, create and market the invention.

If we are thinking along the lines of entertainment, with songs and books and movies, it is indeed harder and harder to be original, and impossible to be completely original anymore ever. There are ways to think and do something, the opposite, and the inbetween and they have all be done before. HOWEVER, the originality exists in exicution: What ideas you combine, old and new, and the actual quality of the end product is what can make it original, even if the ideas within aren't all.

So if you are afraid to write something because you think its been done, go find out if it has, and then strive to write it better and with ideas from elsewhere, and some of your own which really are original. And remember, even if its shit (like a certain vampire series) you can still be read and popular.

Its also a good idea to not get too hung up on making everything "perfect art" either. Just cause you can't be completely original does not make you a hack.

Revisiting 'old wisdom' is not un-creative or lacking in originality. The creativity is in the re-shaping of our own thoughts and impressions in concepts that are new to us. Grasping something profound lets us participate in the originality of of great thought.
 
I don't really see any lack of originality/creativity. I see a lot of mainstream markets ignoring that creativity for what is 'safe' though.

Just depends on where you look and how hard you dig.
Here here!

And a remark on the entire thread; even if there is no "originality", is that a bad thing? Does it make anything anything less worthy or respect/admiration/whatever?
 
Here here!

And a remark on the entire thread; even if there is no "originality", is that a bad thing? Does it make anything anything less worthy or respect/admiration/whatever?

No it doesn't. No one said anything about it being less deserving of admiration or respect.

The ability to refine something and bring it to it's peak of perfection is not something everybody has, and it's definitely worthy of appreciation.

There just hasn't been much contrast in the nature of things, works and products that people come up with. I am not complaining about anything here, I'm simply examining the reasons behind this.

It could very much be because we, humans, are similar in our nature and ideas, so there's only so much we can create.
 
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No it doesn't. No one said anything about it being less deserving of admiration or respect.
Yeah, I wasn't trying to say anyone did. I hope you didn't think that I was projecting that it's what you were thinking, and if I did, I apologize.
 
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You want creativity and scientific development?

Give every ENTP an army of staff.