Why You Were More Creative at Age 5
Schools claim to value creativity while systematically rewarding its opposite. Workplaces do the same. The data shows the consequences.
In 1968, NASA needed to identify engineers capable of genuinely innovative thinking. People who could solve problems that hadn't been solved before. George Land developed the assessment, and NASA used it successfully.
What would happen if you gave this same test to children?
He tested 1,600 five-year-olds. 98% scored at creative genius level.
The same kids were taking the same test over years:
Land called it de-geniusing.
Something was happening between kindergarten and adulthood that systematically dismantled creative capacity.
Let's talk about tomatoes for a second.
During WW2, tomatoes were a problem. They bruised during shipping, ripened unevenly and didn't stack well in crates. So agricultural scientists got to work. Over decades, they bred tomatoes perfected for industrial efficiency: uniform, sturdy, stackable, with thick skins that could survive a cross-country truck ride.
Modern supermarket tomato. It looks perfect. Tastes like wet cardboard.
The breeders weren't trying to ruin tomatoes. They were optimizing for measurable outcomes within a system that had specific constraints. Flavor wasn't a metric. Shelf life was.
Kid is a tomato
A classroom is a conveyor. Thirty different brains go in. One kind of thinking comes out. What kind?
Funnelers. In math class you solve the equation the way teacher showed last Tuesday. In history class, the French Revolution happened for the reasons listed on page 47. Psychologists call this convergent thinking. Funneling possibilities down until one remains.
Bees.
When a bee finds flowers, she comes back and dances. The dance tells other bees where to go. One answer, transmitted clearly. Textbook bee behavior.
But every 20th bee ignores the dance completely. Flies off in a random direction. Usually finds nothing. Comes back hungry, maybe dies.
Every now and again, one of these disobedient bees finds a better field that nobody knew existed. And when the original flowers die – that knowledge saves the hive.
Too many scouts, everyone starves today. Too few scouts, everyone starves tomorrow.
Schools have decided they need zero scouts.
The kid who gives the expected answer gets the A. The kid who gives an unexpected answer – even a genuinely interesting one – learns to stop doing that.
Kyung Hee Kim tracked creativity scores across decades of American schoolchildren. The Torrance Tests measure things like originality – can you generate unusual ideas? – and elaboration – can you develop and extend those ideas into something rich?
Since 1990, the trend line points one direction:
Down.
The decline is sharpest in exactly the dimensions that matter most for genuine innovation. Kids aren't just generating fewer original ideas; they're losing the ability to develop ideas into something substantive.
Enough about children
The real world loves creativity. At least it's in every job posting. I've recently seen an ad for local conference about innovation with a very unique name "Thinking outside the box" and a $999 attend fee. Surely adults have fixed what schools broke.
Kodak invented the digital camera in 1975. Steven Sasson built it. Showed his bosses.
They told him to keep it quiet. Film was the business and digital was a threat.
Kodak filed for bankruptcy in 2012. By then, everyone had a digital camera in their pocket.
Innovate or die.
Right?
In 1985, Coca-Cola invented New Coke. Sweeter, smoother, beat Pepsi in every taste test. Millions spent on research.
It lasted 79 days.
The backlash was so violent that Coca-Cola scrapped the whole thing and brought back the original formula. The lesson rippled through corporate America for decades: new is dangerous. Different is a risk. The safe move is the move that's worked before.
This is how most companies actually work. The employee who proposes something genuinely new might look foolish. Might waste resources. Might threaten someone's turf. The employee who executes standard procedures competently?
Promoted. So now he can run brainstorms.
Brainstorms are shouting and sticky notes. Someone takes a photo of whiteboard.
Name one idea from your last brainstorm..
Brainstorms are headache, glue on the wall, clogged iCloud.
In the middle of the 20th century, American planes landed on Pacific islands. Brought food, medicine, equipment. Then, the planes stopped coming. The islanders wanted them back. So they built runways out of straw. Control towers out of bamboo. Wore coconut shell headphones and waved landing signals. It looked exactly like an airport. Planes never came. Richard Feynman called this cargo cult science.
The form without the function.
Brainstorms are bamboo runways.
98% to 2%. Geniuses in. Tomatoes out.
Topics
More Read
Other Half of Thinking
Divergent thinking is only half of creative work. We've built an industry around that half while neglecting everything else that matters.
Science Knew Better Way To Study for Over a Century.
Spaced repetition boosts retention by 200-400%. The science has been clear since 1885. Schools still teach cramming. The gap between knowing and doing is a choice.
A Boring Secret About Habits
The people who stick with habits aren't more disciplined than you. They've discovered that motivation is a trap, and there's a simpler path hiding in plain sight.