I have been told that I am creative. Yes, I understand that some, probably most, will find that statement hard to believe. I myself find it a little disconcerting. I think the reason why I have never viewed myself as creative is because, unlike what I see other people do, I can’t just “create” an idea or something cool out of apparent nothingness. And neither do I create often. I “create”, almost always, in response to a problem. They say that necessity is the mother on invention, and that best expresses how I approach the creative process.

I am, at my core, a reactive not a proactive person. When I am presented with a piece of information, I will accept it if it does not conflict with truths previously learned. Rarely does that information cause me to start coming up with new and interesting applications I could put it to, unless that information has bearing on an existing problem.

This makes learning a programming language difficult. You say, “How so?”. Well because I have another problem. My short term memory is poor. Now, mind you, I’m not stupid. I just don’t remember things, unless they have a direct bearing on a current problem, and unless I use them right away. So when I sit down to learn a programming language, like say JAVA, I read but see very little use for what I’m reading. And until I have to put that knowledge into use, it just sits there, quietly receeding into peacfull forgetfullness…