Creative thinking isn’t a luxury; it’s a necessity. Just as nature experiments endlessly to survive and evolve, human innovation depends on our willingness to explore, fail, and try again.
Nature is the ultimate creative lab. One trillion different species have trafficked the planet, yet less than one percent still exist today. Mother Nature’s genius lies in her strategy—she proliferates options. She never knows which idea will thrive in a changing ecosystem, so she relentlessly test-drives mutations: claws or wings, heat pits or bony plates. It’s a messy but magnificent process, where failure isn’t the end but part of the grand design.
Humans mirror this evolutionary playbook. Our brains generate ideas at varying distances from the familiar—some incremental, others revolutionary. Albert Einstein, known for reshaping our understanding of space and time, also dabbled in designing refrigerators, microphones, airplane parts, and cameras. The spectrum of his thinking is a lesson: breakthroughs often emerge when imagination roams across disciplines.
The challenge, of course, is uncertainty. You never truly know what the world will value. Tinker too close to the known, and you risk dullness; venture too far, and your idea may remain a beautiful mirage. The sweet spot lies in generating a wide range of ideas—some safe, some daring—letting experimentation reveal the ones that survive.
Brains, like forests, are wired for efficiency. They favor well-trodden paths, defaulting to familiar answers. That’s why creators like Leonardo da Vinci practiced deliberate disruption—questioning first instincts, digging deeper, and seeking hidden alternatives. Many of history’s innovators thrived by refusing to duplicate themselves. Beethoven’s shifting styles, Picasso’s evolving periods, Edison’s diverse inventions—all prove that creative vitality depends on reinvention.
In industries and organizations, that same principle applies. Google’s “graveyard” of discontinued products—Wave, Lively, Buzz, Notebook—illustrates how failed ideas often pave the way for future success. Each project, even if abandoned, refines understanding and reshapes direction. Tata celebrates this ethos through its “Dare to Try” Award, honoring ambitious experiments that didn’t succeed but advanced collective learning. What began with three entries grew to 150, as employees learned to embrace exploration over perfection.
History rewards those willing to pivot. Hermes shifted from saddles to fashion. Nokia evolved from paper milling to mobile technology. Nintendo, once a playing-card manufacturer, reimagined itself into a global gaming icon. Even Google, a search giant, now ventures into self-driving cars and health tech. These evolutionary leaps echo nature’s own experimentations—diversify, adapt, and transform.
The path of creation is rarely straight. It’s full of zigzags, false starts, and dead ends. Yet, this messy process—this “idea fling” of testing and discarding—is the essence of progress. Having a wide funnel at the start, even if most ideas get tossed out, ensures that the eventual success is robust and resilient.
After all, creativity isn’t about avoiding failure—it’s about multiplying chances for success. Just as life evolves through endless variations, so does innovation. The future belongs to those willing to trade certainty for curiosity, routine for risk, and security for surprise.
Source : The Runaway Species: How Human Creativity Remakes the World by David Eagleman, Anthony Brandt
Goodreads :https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34146662-the-runaway-species
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Thinking Beyond Science 
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