Kurt Andersen talks with Gary Marcus about what science knows, and doesn’t know, about creativity. Marcus is the director of New York University’s Center for Language and Music, and the author of "Guitar Zero," a book about how the brain learns. Marcus is skeptical of tests that measure creativity, like the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking. “They correlate somewhat with actual achievement. It’s like measuring someone’s height and saying, ‘are they going to be a good basketball player?’ On average, taller people are better basketball players. But it’s an average, and it’s a pretty indirect measure.” The key problem for all scientific approaches to creativity, Marcus thinks, is that creativity isn’t one thing; there is no box in the brain. Instead, he sees an interplay of personality traits and particular aptitudes that develop over time. “I think I’m creative as a scientist and as a writer. I’m not creative as an artist or as a musician,” he says, although Marcus writes music. Being
