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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Argyle King" data-source="post: 8128692" data-attributes="member: 58416">My previous post was poorly worded.I was not trying to say that higher level math didn't involve creativity. My attempt was to categorize two different types of thinking. I do not believe one is better than the other. It's simply an observation of what I see as one group of skills being promoted as a culture, while a different group seems to have withered somewhat.Perhaps a better anecdotal example would be a lieutenant I was deployed with, during my time with the military. He was one of the most "book smart" people I have ever personally known in my life. If given a situation, he was fantastic at coming up with a plan for how things should work. First 1 - then 2 - then we do 3 - then...However, he also was very poor at improvising or thinking on his feet when a situation went differently or if a situation didn't present itself as a virtually perfect textbook scenario. In that particular context, lack of experience was likely a factor. But that's an attempt to illustrate what I mean.Apologies for mentioning politics, but another example might be the Republican primaries from around 2015. Marco Rubio literally got stuck on saying the same thing over and over again. He had clearly studied the issues and what his talking points were (memorization,) but, when faced with a situation which deviated from the status quo, he couldn't pull himself out of what he had programmed himself to say.Bringing it back to the college example, the most notable courses in which I can compare differences are when comparing Public Speaking to Public Relations. There are Communications students who do wonderful at Public Speaking but panic and break down during Public Relations. In Public Speaking, you can prepare and think out what is needed to be said in a somewhat linear way. In contrast, the PR class involves being asked questions by other students playing the part of the press and public. I've seen a lot of intelligent people crash and burn because of a simple question or because they couldn't come up with how to react on the fly.Regarding fear of criticism:I think there is some truth to that. There are studies which indicate that social media platforms may cause people to fall in line with "approved" ways of thinking, speaking, and acting so as to avoid conflict and to be rewarded with positive re-enforcement from others.To some extent, I think this is a challenge faced by writers, game designers, and movie directors. Creativity can sometimes be hampered by needing to adhere to cultural norms and whatever moral cause is popular among the masses in the moment. Yes, I do believe there are forms of "entertainment" which are clearly "wrong" and grossly offensive to audiences -and those should be avoiding. Finding a balance between pushing boundaries and not heading into clearly offensive territory can be tough, and that's especially true in a world where so much of what we do and create is on display for the rest of the world. The stress of finding that balance can weigh on a person; I think there are some artists who find it easier to simply conform to whatever is deemed commercially acceptable.Regarding abundance of information:I agree that we live in an age during which information is readily available. But I believe our contemporary education has failed to teach how to process information. Things such as logic, reading comprehension, and critical thinking aren't taught to the extent they once were. This leads back to my previous comment. The youth of today is being taught higher-level math and science much earlier than I was. The proficiency at getting from point A to point B in a process is phenomenal. At the same time, I believe there anecdotal evidence to suggest that (culturally: in the US,) some ability to take in information and consider it in a way which isn't prescribed or pre-programmed has been lost. The odd irony to that is that I see an abundance of creativity on social media, in terms of videos and photos posted on Instagram accounts. But asking some of those same people to apply that same creativity to thinking or to engaging in a personal interaction falls flat.How does any of this relate to tabletop games? I don't know.</blockquote>

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