Design Sojourn | Strategic Industrial Design Blog

Hi Design Sojourn,

I agree with you on the myth about freedom to encourage creativity. That’s the problem I have with the writers, artistes and even scientists sometimes. If you are creative and passionate about your idea, you will find your way to make it happen, rather than sitting down and wait or give up before even trying.

Hope to hear from you more

Hey BL,

Thanks for your comment!

That’s the thing, too many people sit and complain rather than think about a way or a solution around things. Have we been so spoon fed that we become a nation of complainers when the “food” does not come to us?

This is so counter-creative and non-entrepreneurial in nature if you ask me!

Hi DS,

Yes, I totally agree that Singapore is one of the best place to be an entrepreneur. However, to me, I belive perseverance is one attribute that is most required to be a successful entrepreneur. I’m not a clever person. There are times when brute-force method can also work instead of coming out with creative solution. :p

That is why I always believe that everyone can be an entrepreneur as long as you are determined. Determination is not a gift but an attribute that everyone has.

“The biggest myth in creativity is that you need freedom to encourage creativity. To me that is utter nonsense. Can you create something if your world is in utter anarchy? I don’t think so. Look at your work space if you could not find your tools would you be able to draw? ”
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I would hardly equate “freedom” with “neat workspace”. It seems a rather shallow example.

Here are more realistic examples of what freedom (or the lack of freedom) has got to do with creativity (or the lack of it):

(a) You are a JC student and you have strong views on politics and social issues. You have been expressing these views on the Internet. Your school gives you a serious warning to stop such behaviour, as you are jeopardising your chances of getting a scholarship.

(b) You make a film on politics but you cannot exhibit it because the government does not like it. You come under police investigation.

(c) You are a secondary school student. You would like to borrow the school lab facilities to do some science experiments on your own, but you are disallowed because your experiments are not part of the syllabus.

(d) You are a musical prodigy. You would like to study in a prestigious music institute which has offered you a place and for this, you ask for a temporary NS deferment. You are disallowed despite many members of the public expressing support for you.

(e) You are an extremely talented young poet. In 1997, you submit your entry for Singapore’s most prestigious writing contest (first prize $10,000) and in fact, everyone knows that you will have strong chances of winning. However you are disqualified because you are 20 years old on the date of submission. The contest rules are that you must be 21 years old on the date of submission.

(f) You are a secondary school teacher. You use innovative techniques to teach your History class. For example, when teaching them about Singapore during World War II, you ask your students to perform a simple 10-minute play in class, whereby they act out historical characters and scenes. Your principal orders you to stop such activities because they are not part of the syllabus.

(g) A certain Singapore GLC has a programme whereby staff are allowed to submit ideas to improve the organisation. You submit an idea to reduce the delivery time of the company’s products to its customers. However, your idea is automatically rejected because you are not an “officer” - you are a non-graduate - and under the rules of the programme, only “officers” (graduate employees) are allowed to submit ideas.

(h) You are a businessman. You have a business idea to offer tours on an amphibious vehicle (passengers will travel on land and water). For years, your business idea is held up by the government because you need a licence and they cannot decide whether your vehicle should be licensed as a vessel or as a land vehicle or as both.

(i) You are an entrepreneur. You have an excellent product and need to raise funds to take your business to the next level. You’d like to IPO your business in Singapore, but under the policies, guidelines, rules, regulations, bye-laws etc etc of the SGX, you’re disqualified. You have to take your IPO idea out of Singapore, to NASDAQ, where it is accepted.

(j) You wish to study a certain subject in school (you have a strong interest in it) but the school stopped offering it because it’s not so easy for students to score A’s in it, in the O-level exams, and offering it would drag down the school’s overall performance.

(k) To encourage cross-fertilisation across disciplines, the university allows you to take a module at another faculty. However, the university insists on grading your voluntary elective strictly, so students end up hunting for modules in other faculties which is most closely related to their main area of specialisation. So much for “cross-fertilisation”.

(l) Supposedly, creativity, and not rote learning and memorisation, is being encouraged in your school. You’re very excited by this. Then to your horror, you go to a “creativity class” and you find that you are asked to learn by rote and memorise certain passages from an Edward de Bono book on creative thinking. And yes, you will be tested, and yes, the grades depend on how well you’ve mastered the materials by rote learning.

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All of the above are drawn from real-life examples in Singapore. No doubt you will recognise some of them. What has freedom (or the lack of it) has got to do with creativity (or the lack of it)? Quite a lot, I would say.
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Hi Mr Wang,

Thanks for that fantastic post, and the time it took to write it. My analogy is, perhaps to you, simple because it really is. However the implications are far from shallow.

Perhaps I was not clear, but let me further explain, the way I see it is creativity is an action and a process and entrepreneurship is the result of applying creativity. This result of applying creativity could be anything, a drawing, a sculpture, a bridge, a cocktail, a new way to get to work. My point was you cannot start this process in the semblance of total freedom. Total freedom gives you no framework or point of reference to start this creative process. Total freedom gives you nothing to base your exploration on, nothing to control your limits, nothing to move on from. Even an artist has the size of his canvas, a sculpture the properties of his materials, or a dancer the strength of his limbs.

The examples you have described, can be viewed as the framework where we navigate from. So in an equally simple fashion is my solution to your points is:

Think creativity to get a solution around the problem.

Really it’s that simple. For every problem you highlighted, I could give you a creative solution. Put it this way, even Marquis de Sade found a way for his creative outlet of writing stripped naked in a barren prison cell. I don’t advocate his work, but I admire his spirit.

However the process of creativity is not so simple. Actually many of your examples are really about people NOT understanding the rules of the game, and thus failing to play the game correctly. It’s as simple as that.

Let me give some of my take on your examples. I’ve picked the hardest of your examples to honor your challenge.

a) A political motivated student, threaten. Easy, the young have time. The scholarship is more important. Get the scholarship, finish studies, then bitch all he/she wants after.

c) Curious science student. I don’t see what’s the problem of doing the experiment at home? In a school environment, the school is responsible for the student’s safety.

d) Ah the music prodigy. Sad story, but rules are rules; the safety of Singapore’s environment allows him to practice. If not do you think he could have prospered in the first place? I myself have been thru NS and can empathize with him. But there are ways around it. If he is as good as he is, he should have not problem getting into the MDC or The Music and Drama Company Band. Its not world class training, but he will still get a chance to continue to practice and play. Best of all, he has the ability to protect his precious hands.

They say younger music students have a distinct advantage, but after NS, two years older and more matured could he then have the maturity to catch up? I know I did, I was more driven then my peers who were 2 years younger than I. In the long run the 2 years really does not make a difference. Being older has its advantage. Also has the school stated they will not accept his application 2 years later?

I used to vehemently hate the idea of NS, but as a fellow creative, the discipline it instilled to me after NS, has actually made me a much better designer. It’s a glass half/full and half/empty situation; the challenge is to convince the poor boy to find some meaning in all this.

e) The disqualified poet. Really this is nothing about creativity; it’s about a person that did not read the rules.

A lot of your examples are people not really understanding what creativity is all about. A lot of lip service, such as the GLC suggestion box, cross-fertilization subjects, rote learning de bono etc. It’s not an act to stifle but poor implementation of the program. It could be worst, it could not have even been considered in the first place!

I honestly don’t take too much note to such situations, simply because I see it as whining, and this leads me to my main point of my blog, an entrepreneur will not let himself get held back. A smart entrepreneur understands the rules and plays by or creativity thinks ways around the system.

Honestly, at the end of the day, how the people in these situations deal with it will make that person a success of not. Thinking out of the box, thinking of the bigger picture can be all ways around the situation. Much better than sitting back complaining. I rather spend the effort to affect change than writing to the newspaper forum.

Perhaps it’s a question of which angle you want to use to look at it. You’re approaching it more from the angle of:

“I am a creative individual. Now I have some problems. Can I find a way to work around it? If I am creative enough, I can.”

My examples here are more along this angle:

“More creativity is a good thing for Singapore. But the environment in Singapore seems to contain many obstacles that obstruct or impede creativity. Shouldn’t we get rid of some of these obstacles, for the good of Singapore?”

I think that the local environment has a lot to do with it. If local environments do not have anything to do with creativity or entrepreneurship, we would expect the people in all nations to be more or less equally creative or entrepreneurial. This clearly isn’t the case ….

Cobalt Paladin himself asserts that Singapore is one of the best places to be an entrepreneur. By implication, this means that some places must be better than others, for an entrepreneur to be in. Since entrepreneurship is generally felt to be lacking in Singapore, and entrepreneurship is felt to be important, the question from a policy maker’s or civil servant’s perspective must be “What can we change about S’pore, to make it more conducive for entrepreneurship?”.

It may well be that Sim is right when he says that the best way for the government to encourage entrepreneurship is to “do nothing” - ie leave them alone. Again, by implication, this means that right now the Singapore government is not leaving them alone - the government must be “doing something”, and too much of it, right now.

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A personal example, from me. I once won an award from the National Arts Council. Among other things, the award included thousands of dollars for me to go overseas to do a course in my artistic genre (if I wanted to ).

However, my job situation would not allow me to take 3 months or six months’ leave to do such a course. So I said to the NAC, “I won’t be going for any such course. However, I volunteer to run a project locally, whereby I will work with young, inexperienced Singaporeans (who show potential) in this field to improve their artistic ability and give them some exposure. Let me use the money to sponsor this project.”

They rejected my altruistic offer. I was offering to help them develop local creative talent, for free - I wouldn’t get a cent out of this for myself. All the NAC had to do was to sponsor the project using money which they were already prepared to give to me for another reason, but which I wasn’t going to use for that reason.

But they rejected me, because it was “against the rules” - the money was meant for overseas courses, not local projects. They would rather see the money not used at all, that is, totally wasted on nothing … than to be used for something useful, constructive, creative and artistic, but which wasn’t in accordance with “the rules”.

The losers? All the young, creative Singaporeans whom I could have helped with this project. See what I mean? About a local environment that obsctructs and impedes creativity.

Mr Wang and DS,

Here is my reply to both your comments: Thoughts on what Singapore lacks.

[...] Further Reading (Entries which came after that): [0] Tomorrow.sg, Things That Can’t Be Taught. Or Maybe They Can.” [1] Cobalt Paladin, Everyone can be an entrepreneur. [2] Nomed’s Letters (a good parody on what I meant by fake entrepreneurs), Entrepreneurs are from Uranus, Con-men are from Pluto. [3] The Kway Teow Man, Molly-coddling will never produce winners. [4] Design Sojourn Teaching creativity a possibility or myth? [...]

[...] tonnes of information using their government portal like EnterpriseOne and ACE. Actually,”Teaching Creativity: a possibility or myth” by Design Sojourn also touched on this issue indirectly, and he attracted some strong [...]