I definitely think creativity is a skill that can be learned. But I also think that there is not one set of creativity techniques that will work for everyone. Every artist/problem solver is unique and they must discover their own process.

Some people (like me) do a lot of meta-creativity and meta-thinking, as you said. But some people gain creativity skills simply by constant practice. Just like a child doesn’t need to know the grammar of a language in order to speak it. Grammar gets built in through practice.

And then some people are just geniuses. Woody Allen can show up on the set and just start shooting without rehearsal or storyboards or previs. A genius. The rest of us have to work for it

I’ve never really put creativity under the microscope. I know am occasionally creative, and sometimes I feel very un-creative (is that a word?).

I sort of fumble my way through most creative endeavours, but I think it pays to reflect on what exactly you could do to foster good creative impulses and suppress all the nasty things that can get in the way (depression, procrastination, laziness etc..). Or maybe it’s a matter of channelling whatever you’re feeling into a creative output.

So if you invent a methodology for maximizing your creativity, isn’t that being “meta-creative”?

Without having read the papers I can only guess at what exactly is happening under the hood.

But the problem is an interesting one. I look forward to seeing the results applied back to the head mask.