300 Are the Androids Dreaming Yet? TRY THE PAPER CLIP TEST AGAIN! Divergent thinking is rarely the final goal; it is rather a jumping off point for the creation of something new, like a solution to a mathematical puzzle, a painting, or a novel invention. The exercises allow us to explicitly see one of the early creative steps — idea generation before the pruning step. But most creative people often just create, they don't follow a scripted process. The term ‘the creative process’ is a great misnomer. There is no process that actually creates. Process merely puts us in the right frame of mind to do so. Processes are useful for framing a problem and ensuring we have all the right tools at our disposal: good crayons, some nice art paper, a hot cup of coffee. But process must be put to one side at the moment of actual creation. Convergent Thinking Convergent thinking is the opposite of divergent thinking. It focuses on discovering the final solution to a problem rather than generating precursor ideas. Some creative people only use this method, avoiding laborious processes such as brainstorming. Tests of skill for convergent thinking generally pose puzzles where there is only one correct answer, but one that requires a non-linear step. Here’s a really simple convergent thinking puzzle to try. It only requires a piece of paper and pen. Draw a circle on a piece of paper with a dot in the center. It should look like this. Do NOT take the tip of the pen off the paper until you are finished. HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_015990