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Crayolas or self-help books?
http://twitter.com/berkun/status/11000644702 (liberties taken during detwitterization)
Many adults haven't made anything in years—giving them legos or crayons would help more than reading books on creativity.
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Crayolas or self-help books
Maybe.... maybe crayons or Legos would help more, but not much and not by themselves. The person would also need a lot of time, the freedom -- or "permission" -- to spend that time experimenting and a lot of encouragement, not to mention motivation. If it's true that the person we're talking about hasn't made anything in years, then odds are there's a lot of resistance/fear and not much motivation. Plot some crayons in front of him or her, and he/she will probably scribble or draw stick figures. Put a new musical instrument in front of me and then stand there and watch and I probably won't create what you would call music, and I won't want you to hear it. I might experiment more if you leave me alone. Put Legos in front of me and I'll probably build a very basic, simple house or vehicle. Give me a camera or some yarn or some other substance I have some experience using -- or an instrument I already know how to play -- and the story will be different. Then again, I'm not in the category of people who haven't made anything in years.
Still siding with the Crayolas
I don't think that the quality of the work produced with Legos or crayons is relevant. Stick figures would be a great result.
The ability to create is like a muscle; it strengthens from repeated use and atrophies with disuse. You can't expect to go to the gym for the first time and benchpress 400 pounds. If that's the goal there will be a lot of workouts, likely starting with just pushing the bar and no added weight.
A teacher of mine once said that everyone is born with a certain number of bad drawings in them. It is our job to draw the bad drawings until there aren't any more left.
I think putting a problem or a task in front of someone is always more productive than telling them what to do. The best thing is for book learning and experiential learning to happen concurrently so that the experience and the reading can support each other. Mr Berkun's declaration holds. Reading all the books in the world won't do any good until the reader actually starts to do something.
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