Creativity
Personality
Traits
01
Curiosity
&
Openness
6
T RA IT S
1
Insatiable
Curiosity
Asks
questions
outside
their
own
field
,
for
no
reason
other
than
wanting
to
know
the
answer
.
2
Openness
to
Experience
Actively
seeks
unfamiliar
music
,
places
,
arguments
and
art
rather
than
staying
with
the
known
.
3
Tolerance
for
Ambiguity
Can
hold
an
unresolved
problem
open
for
weeks
without
forcing
a
premature
answer
.
4
Observational
Acuity
Notices
the
small
detail
everyone
else
walked
past
,
then
treats
it
as
a
clue
rather
than
trivia
.
5
Wide
-
Reference
Mind
Draws
on
film
,
biology
,
carpentry
and
contract
law
inside
the
same
conversation
.
6
Habit
of
Reframing
Restates
a
problem
in
new
words
until
it
becomes
something
they
can
actually
solve
.
1 / 5
02
Divergent
Thinking
6
T RA IT S
7
Ideational
Fluency
Produces
a
dozen
options
in
the
time
most
people
produce
two
,
and
withholds
judgement
while
doing
it
.
8
Associative
Leaping
Connects
ideas
from
unrelated
domains
without
visible
effort
,
and
can
explain
the
link
afterwards
.
9
Divergent
Scanning
Lists
the
obvious
answers
first
,
then
deliberately
keeps
going
past
them
.
10
Mental
Play
Inverts
,
exaggerates
and
scrambles
ideas
just
to
see
what
falls
out
of
the
experiment
.
11
Counterfactual
Thinking
Runs
"
what
if
the
opposite
were
true
"
as
a
routine
move
,
not
a
debating
trick
.
12
Metaphorical
Thinking
Thinks
in
analogies
and
uses
them
to
carry
a
working
solution
from
one
field
into
another
.
03
Risk
&
Experimentation
6
T RA IT S
13
Tolerance
for
Failure
Treats
an
attempt
that
did
not
work
as
data
rather
than
a
verdict
on
their
ability
.
14
Willingness
to
Look
Foolish
Shares
half
-
formed
ideas
out
loud
,
where
other
people
can
react
to
them
early
.
15
Bias
to
Prototype
Builds
the
rough
version
immediately
,
long
before
they
feel
ready
to
show
it
.
16
Comfort
with
Uncertainty
Starts
the
work
while
key
information
is
still
missing
,
and
adjusts
as
it
arrives
.
17
Nonconformity
Feels
the
pull
of
the
consensus
view
and
resists
it
anyway
,
without
needing
to
be
defiant
about
it
.
18
Rule
Discrimination
Knows
which
rules
are
load
-
bearing
and
which
are
simply
old
habits
nobody
has
questioned
.
2 / 5
04
Persistence
&
Craft
6
T RA IT S
19
Productive
Obsession
Returns
to
the
same
problem
for
years
without
anyone
asking
them
to
.
20
Delayed
Gratification
Works
for
long
stretches
with
no
visible
reward
,
approval
or
audience
.
21
Tolerance
for
Boredom
Does
the
unglamorous
revision
,
admin
and
repetition
that
the
work
actually
requires
.
22
Iterative
Stamina
Rewrites
and
retests
a
tenth
version
with
the
same
energy
they
gave
the
first
.
23
Paired
Discipline
Builds
routines
and
constraints
around
themselves
in
order
to
protect
the
loose
thinking
.
24
High
Standards
,
Low
Ego
Holds
the
work
to
a
demanding
bar
without
needing
to
be
the
person
who
was
right
.
05
Emotional
&
Sensory
6
T RA IT S
25
Aesthetic
Sensitivity
Hears
when
a
sentence
,
a
layout
or
a
chord
is
slightly
off
before
they
can
say
why
.
26
Emotional
Range
Accesses
a
wide
band
of
feeling
and
treats
it
as
raw
material
rather
than
noise
.
27
Empathic
Imagination
Models
how
someone
unlike
them
would
genuinely
react
,
not
how
they
would
like
them
to
.
28
Productive
Vulnerability
Shows
work
that
is
personally
exposing
and
stays
in
the
room
while
it
is
discussed
.
29
Deep
Absorption
Loses
track
of
hours
inside
a
single
task
and
resents
being
pulled
out
of
it
.
30
Generative
Restlessness
Carries
a
low
-
grade
dissatisfaction
that
keeps
pushing
toward
a
better
version
of
the
work
.
3 / 5
06
Independence
&
Identity
6
T RA IT S
31
Internal
Locus
of
Evaluation
Judges
the
work
by
their
own
standard
rather
than
by
the
reaction
of
the
room
.
32
Autonomy
Need
Performs
badly
in
environments
where
every
decision
is
supervised
or
pre
-
approved
.
33
Strong
Point
of
View
Has
opinions
about
the
work
and
can
defend
them
under
pressure
without
becoming
rigid
.
34
Maker
Identity
Defines
themselves
by
what
they
have
built
,
not
by
the
title
on
their
contract
.
35
Contrarian
Instinct
Automatically
considers
the
opposite
position
before
agreeing
with
the
one
in
front
of
them
.
36
Selective
Deafness
Ignores
trends
,
hype
and
market
noise
that
would
pull
the
work
off
its
own
course
.
07
Collaboration
&
Cross
-
Pollination
6
T RA IT S
37
Idea
Generosity
Gives
ideas
away
freely
and
does
not
keep
score
of
who
used
whose
.
38
Cross
-
Domain
Fluency
Works
comfortably
across
two
or
three
fields
that
do
not
usually
meet
.
39
Critique
Receptivity
Separates
feedback
on
the
work
from
judgement
of
the
self
,
and
acts
on
the
useful
part
.
40
Scene
-
Building
Gathers
other
makers
together
and
quietly
raises
the
standard
of
the
whole
group
.
41
Productive
Imitation
Studies
a
hero
'
s
work
closely
enough
to
understand
it
,
then
builds
past
it
.
42
Translation
Skill
Explains
a
complex
idea
in
plain
language
without
flattening
what
made
it
interesting
.
4 / 5
08
Working
Habits
6
T RA IT S
43
Incubation
Habit
Schedules
fallow
,
unfocused
time
and
trusts
it
to
produce
something
useful
.
44
Capture
Reflex
Writes
fragments
down
immediately
,
before
deciding
whether
they
matter
.
45
Combinatorial
Reading
Reads
widely
and
deliberately
,
including
well
outside
their
own
field
.
46
Constraint
Alchemy
Uses
deadlines
,
budgets
and
limits
as
fuel
rather
than
treating
them
as
obstacles
.
47
Selective
Perfectionism
Spends
heavily
where
quality
is
visible
and
ships
rough
everywhere
it
is
not
.
48
Finishing
Instinct
Has
a
track
record
of
shipping
finished
work
,
not
just
starting
promising
ones
.
5 / 5
