N: what are we actually speaking about ?

[ygolo]

Originally Posted by proteanmix

Creativity takes two forms: innovative and adaptive.

Innovative creativity is more original and novel than adaptive creativity. It's where new inventions and discoveries come from.

Adaptive creativity is taking what already exists and making a new or different use for it. It can take the form of creating new foods dishes from basic ingredients, rearranging formulas and numbers, and stuff like that.

From what I understand about creativity, Ns tend to excel (particularly Ne) at innovative creativity and Ss tend to excel (particularly Se) at adaptive creativity. As for Ni and Si I don't know what to say about those functions and creativity. I'll agree that Ni and Si aren't as creative but that's why you're picking up on the J part. NJs and SJs tend to be more driven, so maybe they're able to capitalize on the creativity of Ps more than the Ps can on their own creativity. It seems like NPs and SPs get bored with their inventions to ever bring them into fruition, which is where Ni and Si comes and forms a framework (either based on past experiences or future ramifications) and retool it.

Long range planning I think Ni and Si do well, which is creative in its own right. SJs are very good long range planners for things that think that they need. I think people tend to forget that SJs don't resist things that are in their particular mental framework and they have procedures to handle, the whole change by increments thing. It's a big world out there. People can plan for all types of events and it's not necessarily abstract. Retirement, births, weddings, homeownership, some of my friends started saving money of that kind of stuff in their early 20s. I think N long range planning looks different, but I'm not sure what it looks like. I think of Si "abstractness" as forecasting the weather (based on accumulated knowledge), while Ni "abstractness" as forecasting tea leaves. I don't know if that makes sense but that's what I think.

I don't consider myself traditionally creative, but I think I'm creative when it comes to dealing with people and generating things for them to do and talk about. That's not what most people think of when they talk of creativity and I suppose that would fall under adaptive creativity more than innovative.

Another Look At Creativity Styles

There are some interesting tables on this page.