Great 10 minute video of John Cleese discussing creativity, how to foster it and how it may be discouraged in others. What stood out for me:

1) when getting “stuck” – move away from the problem and the solution will become apparent later
2) rewriting, reworking on a project results in a far better product
3) interruptions destroy creativity
4) we don’t really know where ideas come from – but “we don’t get them from our laptops” … they probably come from an unconscious part of our minds
5) racing around and “keeping balls in the air” will not result in creativity (ouch!)
6) to enhance creativity: must create an “oasis” of calm by creating boundaries of space and time for it to happen; give yourself a start and finishing time

Really interesting quote: “To know how good you are at something requires the same skills as it does to be good at that thing. Which means that if you’re absolutely hopeless at something, you lack exactly the skills that you need to know that you’re absolutely hopeless at it … Most people who have absolutely no idea what they’re doing have absolutely no idea that they have no idea what they’re doing. It explains a great deal of life.”

And even more important for educators:
there are teachers who know that they themselves are not very creative and, therefore, they may not value creativity even if they can recognize it.