Today, a reflection on creativity and time. The University of Houston's College of Engineering presents this series about the machines that make our civilization run, and the people whose ingenuity created them.
Synchronicity is a seductive enemy of creativity.
I fight like a trapped animal when anyone tries to schedule my time. The first step on the way to finding our creative center is turning off the clock. Landes reminds us that, in the 11th century, Chinese water-clock making was far ahead of Europe's. Soon after, China turned her back on creative clock-making, and the West began driving the technologies of time. Part of the answer lies in tyranny of another kind.