Wednesday, March 27, 2013

A.O.C.: Creativity and Restrictive Choice

Haley Scholars Spring 2013 Reading Groups

By Danielle Hall

In the second part of chapter 6 of The Art of Choosing, Sheena Iyengar discusses the advantages and disadvantages of “keeping doors open” (201). Iyengar makes some useful connections throughout this section. More notably is the link between creativity and the practice of restrictive choice where she concludes that “creative disciplines” are where we can look "for guidance” (214).

Iyengar discusses how inventors and artists now come to know the value of restrictive choice(s) and while some boundaries are broken, newer ones can still be defined. One concept that is useful to consider is Iyengar’s proposition that “to choose is to invent,” by which she means that "choosing is a creative process, one through which we construct our environment, our lives, our selves" (213).

Which idea -- "restrictive choice" or choosing as a creative process -- drew your attention most? Why?

7 comments:

Jacqueline C. said...

Choosing as a creative process caught my attention the most.When we learn from others and our own mistakes, it helps us choose better in the future.When you think about it, you go through several things in order to make choices.Being able to choose in a process, shows we know ourselves well.

Wole Abraham said...

What drew my attention the most was Iyengar's idea of choosing as a creative process. The reason being is because I never thought of choosing whether you want to do something or not as something creative. Iyengar allowed me to think outside of box when it came to choosing because it actually is a process that requires you to think things through.

Breon Anderson said...

Choosing as a creative process drew my attention most because how opening and closing doors and what we learn from it. When we close a door we learn from the mistakes we made through and open new doors with new people that we can gain better knowledge and help us out in the future.

Maya Estell said...

Maya Estell,
Restrictive choice drew my attention most, because as a society we cannot just choose to do what ever we feel like doing. Some of our choices are restricted simply by the environment or predicament that we our in. I agreed that in some of the choices we make boundaries can be broken and or defined. Which is a process of life. Therefore restrictive choice drew my attention more because it is the realist perspective.

Jenee' B. said...

Restrictive choice drew my attention the most. It was interesting to think about how many people have the idea that with more choices one can make better decisions, when in reality having fewer ones may truly be better. I think that with fewer choices people are forced to really think and pick the best option that would benefit them most, while having endless choices may make people feel overwhelmed and cause them to choose poorly.

Raven Cole said...

Restrictive choice caught my attention. I believe that especially in college the choices we make today can and will affect our future. Of course we want to enjoy our experience here and make memories but at what expense.

Mariah B. said...

What caught my attention the most was "restrictive choice" because of how important the amount of options you have when making a decision is. I never really thought about it in that way. Is it better to have a restriction on your options? Or to have as many as possible?