The Cook and the Chef: Musk's Secret Sauce - Wait But Why
In the 1960s, a creative performance researcher named George Land conducted a study of 1,600 five-year-olds and 98 percent of the children scored in the “highly creative” range. Dr. Land re-tested each subject during five year increments. When the same children were 10-years-old, only 30 percent scored in the highly creative range. This number dropped to 12 percent by age 15 and just 2 percent by age 25. As the children grew into adults they effectively had the creativity trained out of them. In the words of Dr. Land, “non-creative behavior is learned.”
This 1960's study doesn't speak well for our creativity as adults. I know that there are at least some efforts in the educational system to support creativity but ultimately it comes down to grades and wealth to get ahead so creativity often takes a back seat to rote memorization. But only 2% by age 25? :-(
No, I do not consider myself a chef. A free thinker maybe. The most creative thing that I've done so far is to design, build and get Transport Canada certified a basic flight simulator, but I didn't do my own software, just mechanicals. It went nowhere.