Introspectacle

I've been trying to come up with new names for the blog, and on a bus the other day I thought up the name "Introspectacle", which I found appropriate, in a "tearing out your innards for the world to see" fashion (not literally—ick). Of course, I first had to run a search to see if my new word was actually new, and indeed I discovered "introspectacle" was not unsullied as I had hoped. The first result on Google is a blog written by an overtly Christian fellow.

There is a reason that I often say, "it's probably already been done"; it probably already has. Maybe I'm overanalyzing this, but as students who have grown up in the United States we have been exposed broadly to the same kind of education and culture. We share similar creative processes with other people. That is not to say that we are all the same, but rather that our minds often fit into categories (which paradoxically is encouraged by the same American culture that praises individualism--think about how engineers, art students, scientists etc are expected to think, or just look at politics).

A pessimist might draw the conclusion then that anything we do is already done by someone else, and shockingly we're not as special as they told us in elementary school. Especially considering a standardized and increasingly regimented education and entertainment that can be traced back to but a few sources, it is easy to assume that each person will fit neatly into a pocket of established culture, a classification, a stereotype--ultimately, it's all been done before.

That standpoint, however, neglects a crucial fact--the same fact that drives the evolution of species--that from the combination of old ingredients we can indeed create something new. It is our specific mixture of experiences and talents that define who we are as individuals; it is that which drives change and innovation in all fields.

Regardless, it is still generally discernible, given a set of circumstances, what constitutes an obvious result and what is truly creative.