Daoud [4670361] January 21, 2024 Creative Path [IDE-MI-223]

Compensatory Assignment
Revison: Final Reflection (Version 3) || Written by Mohamed Daoud

Research on Creativity: An Introsprective Review & Reflection

CONTEXT: The subject of my reflection is the rigorous and comprehensive research process (mixed methods)
that I undertook for an alternative assignment in the ”Practice of Creativity” course. This assignment was
carried out under the supervision of my coach. Ir. Katrina Heijne. The research involved several elements,
including machine learning, multiple literature analyses, and an examination of theories related to creativity and
organisational creativity. Some specific concepts, topics, and subtopics that were explored include Schumpterian
cycles, Daniel Kahneman’s Theory of Noise in Human Judgment, Thematic Analysis, Coding Qualitative Data
(IMDB Ratings & Google Patents), Bayesian Inference, Monte Carlo Methods, and, of course, the central theme
of creativity. Oh, and I almost forgot: Generative AI and ethical considerations related to AI integration were also
taken into account. Although the list of components may seem overwhelming, it ultimately provided an original
methdodology which I aspire to integrate into an actual thesis. One aspect that particularly stands out upon
reflection is the significance of Acceptance Building, which served as a rationale for the topics discussed in my
reflection. a
a Feel free to skip if the context does not interest you or is regarded non-important, the main content is found

in the body.

1 PREFACE other student, further increasing my frustration. This

decision, coupled with the inadequate guidance on pa-
The endeavour began with a structured approach, draw- per requirements, led to a post hoc realisation that
ing multiple outlines and a schedule, shared with my my research was evolving into a sequential exploratory
coach. Faced with complex subject matter and the pres- study, which made converging various ideas and re-
sure to achieve a sufficient grade, my coach doubted my search aspects into a definitive paper increasingly chal-
ability to handle ambitious research proposals. Despite lenging.
this, I embarked on a study blending imaginative con-
cepts with technical approaches, such as ”Quantifying 2.1.3 Engagement with Experts Amidst Unclear
Creativity” and ”Artificial Creativity”. This required a Audience Definition
deep understanding of diverse areas including creativ-
ity, organisational creativity, ethics, advanced statisti- Reaching out to experts such as Dr. Mark Runco(later
cal methodologies such as OLS regression and Bayesian also John C. Kaufman and Vlad P. Glâvenau) brought
inference, and foundational knowledge in AI and Ma- valuable insights, providing a stark contrast to the guid-
chine Learning. ance from my coach. The coach’s advice that the re-
search should be readable by a broad audience, imply-
Hence, I utilize the Integrated Reflec- ing a need for simplicity and avoidance of in-depth anal-
tive Cycle to analyze the intricate na- ysis, further complicated the writing process. The lack
ture of my research, which mirrors the of a defined audience, unlike other research groups with
complexity of my personal exploration a client, made my approach to writing the final paper
of creativity and my inherent creative chaotic and unstructured.
skills and self-perception.[3].
2.1.4 Submission
2 EXPERIENCE
After submitting my work and having a final ’evalua-
2.1 Sequence of Events tion’ with my coach, where I received a score of 7+, I
felt a sense of relief. Before the session, I mentally pre-
2.1.1 Initial Enthusiasm and Coach’s Guidance pared not to have high expectations and simply hoped
My academic endeavour to explore the convergence of to pass the course. I tried to avoid any personal biases
AI and creativity began with structured planning and and focused on taking in the feedback and summaris-
enthusiasm. However, the advice of my coach was less ing the points mentioned by my coach that needed im-
than ideal. The lack of clear communication regarding provement, particularly in terms of the submission or
the paper’s requirements, such as word count, inclusion the ’creative output.’ My frustration dissipated and I
of appendices, and graphs, added to the complexity of regained a sense of peace. However, when I continued
my task. There was a significant gap in expectations with courses such as ”Recontextualising Creativity” and
and instructions, making it difficult to structure my re- the ”PEP” Assignemtn, the comment about the impor-
search effectively. tance of the creative process versus the output reignited
my frustrations. It wasn’t necessarily about the grade,
2.1.2 Experiment Setup and Frustration but rather about how the entire research process un-
folded. This led me to writing this Final Reflection ear-
The experiment setup, initially promised by my coach lier than originally planned, as I saw it as the perfect
to be an independent effort, was later handed over to an- opportunity to reaffirm and question myself.

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Daoud [4670361] January 21, 2024 Creative Path [IDE-MI-223]

2.2 Creative Self-Doubt & Expression but to delve deeply into this complex field, driven by
a genuine passion for the subject and a desire to con-
In the first versions of my drafts, I used humorous
tribute meaningfully to the academic discourse.
metaphors to explain different regression models. For
example, I compared these models with famous chefs
like Gordon Ramsey and Jamie Oliver, using culinary 3.2 Analyzing My Actions
techniques to represent statistical methods. I also used My approach was methodical and structured, yet it
the analogy of ingredients in a recipe to explain the in- evolved into an exploratory journey due to the dynamic
dependent variables and the impact of considerations nature of the research topic. The lack of clear guidance
such as types of cheese allergies on the dependent vari- from my coach led me to take more independent initia-
able (the quality of the cheese sandwich recipe). Also, tives, such as reaching out to experts in the field. How-
a contextual example was included in the Appendix ever, this independence also meant navigating through
explaining ”Bayes Theorem” in the domain of screen- uncertainties and making decisions without much exter-
writing, Star Wars movies, and integrated qualitative nal validation.
data of IMDB movie categorisation, titles, and ratings
to express how a creative factor such as novelty can
3.2.1 Examining My Assumptions
be conceptualised using Bayesian infernce. Although
the intention behind these ”innovative” methods was I assumed that a thorough and comprehensive explo-
to enhance the accessibility and appeal of the research, ration of the topic would naturally lead to a well-structured
I ultimately decided against them. This was because I final paper. This assumption underestimated the chal-
was concerned about coming across as unprofessional, lenges of converging diverse ideas into a cohesive nar-
childish, or unintelligent. This choice was influenced rative, especially in the absence of clear guidelines and
by the absence of positive feedback in the academic set- defined audience expectations. My perfectionist ten-
ting. Furthermore, the Appendices were not taken into dencies perhaps led me to overestimate the need for
account during the assessment process, and my coach exhaustive exploration and underappreciate the value
expressed disinterest in reading them having put a lot of focussing and streamlining my research.
of work in assembling them as I wanted to prove that
the methodologies were applied correctly, give direc- 3.2.2 Consequences of My Actions
tions in how to conduct the empirical procedures, and
also provide the ’audience’ relatable and digestable ex- The consequences of my approach were twofold. Posi-
planations of complex statistical methods... All lead- tively, it led to a rich and detailed understanding of the
ing to more doubts about the personal value and use topic and meaningful engagement with experts, provid-
of creative self-expression and even more frustration. ing valuable insights. Negatively, it resulted in frustra-
Thoughts that have lingering throughout my life due tion due to the lack of support from my coach, con-
to my social/financial status and background in a pre- fusion over audience and paper requirements, and an
dominantly white environment. overwhelming array of ideas that made converging into
a definitive paper challenging.
2.2.1 Overambition, Imposter Phenemon and
Self-Critique 3.2.3 Emotional Reflection

My journey into AI and creativity was characterised by Throughout this process, I experienced a range of emo-
an overambitious desire to answer all questions and a tions, from initial excitement and enthusiasm to frus-
perfectionist approach. This drive, while fuelling my tration and self-doubt. The lack of clear direction from
extensive research and involvement with experts, also my coach and the challenges in structuring my research
led to feelings of uncertainty in my own work. The led to feelings of uncertainty. My overambitious ap-
challenge of deciding which parts to include in the fi- proach and self-critique sometimes resulted in deleting
nal submission was compounded by a tendency to over- entire drafts and restarting, which, while reflective of
criticise my work, leading to a cycle of excessive di- my commitment to quality, also added to the stress
verging and reconverging of ideas. This process gen- and complexity of the task.
erated an ever-expanding set of hypotheses, including
self-critising ones, and resulted in me deleting entire 3.2.4 Impact on Others
drafts and starting anew, further complicating the writ-
The coach’s lack of clear guidance from coach and de-
ing process.
cision to delegate experiment setup to another student
impacted not only my research process but also my re-
3 REFLECTION ON ACTION lationship with coach. Created a sense of disillusion-
ment and decreased trust in their support. However,
3.1 Understanding My Objectives
my independent efforts to reach out to experts like Dr.
Reflecting on my actions, I realise that my primary goal Runco, Kaufman, Glâvenau, etc. were positively re-
was to conduct a comprehensive and innovative explo- ceived, adding value to my research and potentially en-
ration of the intersection between AI and creativity. My hancing my reputation in the academic community.
ambition was not just to complete a research project,

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3.2.5 Acceptance rors the diversity of perspectives and methodologies

that I used in my research, blending AI, creativity, and
Despite my previous criticisms, I still would like to ex-
statistics [4].
press my gratitude to my coach for the support she
provided. It was never my intention to criticise oth-
ers but rather to reflect on my own experiences. It is 4.1.4 Critical Creative Rethinking
possible that my coach had good intentions and sim- Akpur’s insights into critical, reflective and creative think-
ply wanted to prevent me from becoming overwhelmed ing provide a theoretical basis for understanding the im-
by complex issues that could have caused stress and pact of these thinking styles on academic achievement,
self-doubt. Maybe she was testing me, not in terms which was evident in my research process [1].For exam-
of specific learning objectives, but in terms of how I ple:
would handle a situation without any feedback, teach-
ing me the importance of communication. Now I re- • Creative Thinking: 1 The application of uncon-
alise that your participation in administering the KAI ventional techniques, such as Monte Carlo Markov
test and providing me with a detailed explanation of Chains, surveys on voter turnout, time-analysis,
the results further reinforces this idea. Therefore, I ac- and theories of creativity as foundational princi-
knowledge and appreciate the guidance provided by my ples, is utilized within a conceptual framework
coach, which helped me overcome my frustrations and to quantitatively measure different aspects of cre-
regain a sense of peace once again. It was without her ativity. However, it was necessary to take into ac-
approval that I would never have learnt so much in such count certain limitations. These included a small
a short period of time. sample size consisting of only 30 respondents and
an experiment that did not adhere to the pre-
4 THEORY scribed conditions. These factors affected the abil-
ity to draw accurate conclusions. In order to over-
4.1 Theoretical Frameworks come these limitations, alternative methods that
combined the ”sketching of possible distributions”
4.1.1 Creative Self-Belief and ”doodling random radio frequencies” while
Throughout my investigation of the possible conver- listening to music(journaling) . This approach
gence of AI and creativity, I have been greatly informed sparked the theme of ’Noise’, which refers to unex-
by theoretical frameworks in the field. The work of plained variability in a sample that may be influ-
Karwowski, Lebuda, and Beghetto (2019) on creative enced by randomness. In addition, insights from
self-beliefs offers significant insights into how my per- Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman about hu-
ceptions about creativity and my self-influenced my ap- man judgment and Noise were incorporated into
proach and persistence in research. Their findings high- the study. This led to the use of Bayes infer-
light the impact of individual beliefs and self-concepts ence and the continuous gathering of qualitative
in the navigation of complex tasks, which is consistent data, applying a Metropolis-Hastings algorithm
with my experience of self-doubt and overambition [3]. to expand the initial sample size through a Monte
Carlo pseudo-sample.
4.1.2 Learning From Random Thoughts • Critical Thinking Furthermore critical think-
The concept of ”microserendipity” as explored by Ross ing was ’employed’ by considering a wide range
(2020) resonates with my experience, highlighting how of hypotheses, resulting in a post hoc implemen-
accidental discoveries and unforeseen events can signif- tation of a sequential evaluation study. This re-
icantly contribute to creative processes. The concept alisation came about through a careful glossing
underscores the importance of being receptive to un- over the abstract/results and detailed examina-
expected opportunities and insights, a principle that tion of more than 200 sources and obtaining a
played a pivotal role in my research journey. Further- near-perfect score on the critical review of the lit-
more, the exploration of creativity and meaning in the erature.
work of Gonçavles (2018) further contextualises the depth • Reflective Thinking: Despite sometimes pro-
and complexity of creative processes in relation to per- ducing unproductive results, I have found that in
sonal and professional development [5][2]. each (re)iteration, I overlooked a crucial variable
or ignored significant aspects, leading to a require-
4.1.3 Kwowledge Through Trandiscplinarity ment for additional empirical research and some-
Furthermore, Hak-Soo Kim’s discussion of the neces- times writing an entire new draft. However, I
sity of interdisciplinarity in solving complex problems do not think this approach is inherently wrong or
such as climate change and epidemic diseases provides should be shunned. However, it is crucial to dif-
a broader context to understand my research approach. ferentiate between self-neglect and self-reflection
The process of ”cominding,” involving coexposing, cofo- while recognising that there is no such thing as
cussing attention, cocognising, coremembering, coques- 1 Proposition(!), whether it is really creative is not up to me to

tioning, and coimagining, as described by Kim, is par- say, but if we would pretend.
ticularly relevant. This multidimensional approach mir-

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Daoud [4670361] January 21, 2024
a flawless research paper. Furthermore, reevalu-
ating my coach’s intentions and embracing accep-
tance also mirrored my thoughtful contemplation.
4.1.5 Creative Unpredictability
My experience has reinfracted the idea that creativ-
ity and research are not just about methodical plan-
ning and execution, but also about being open to and
prepared for the unexpected. The interaction between
planned strategies and serendipitous discoveries can lead
to profound insights and breakthroughs [5] [2].
4.2 Recommendation
This experience has taught me the value of embracing
interdisciplinarity and the unexpected. The principle
of microserendipity emphasises the need to be open to
and prepared for accidental discoveries that can enrich
research. Future research efforts will benefit from an
openness to diverse methodologies and perspectives, as
well as an awareness of the potential value hidden in
unforeseen events and interactions.
5 PREPERATION
5.1 Planning for Future Situations
In future research efforts, especially those that intersect
complex fields like AI and creativity, I will prioritise set-
ting clear objectives and guidelines at the outset. This
includes establishing a well-defined audience and pur-
pose for the research, as well as specific requirements
for the final paper. Having learnt from the lack of clear
direction in my previous experience, I will ensure that
these elements are communicated and agreed upon with
any supervising figures or collaborators.
1. Self-Questioning & Over-Hyptothesizng
HM o ⇐ FACTS ⇒ HA , HB , HC ....H∞ : To bet-
ter manage my perfectionist tendencies and over-
ambitious approach, I will adopt a more iterative
process in research and writing. This involves be-
ing open to revising and refining ideas without
discarding entire drafts. Embracing the concept
of microserendipity, I will be more receptive to ac-
cidental discoveries and unplanned insights, inte-
grating them constructively into my research pro-
cess.
2. Becoming A Better Co-Minder I will further
examine the significance of interdisciplinary ap-
proaches in upcoming projects. Taking inspira-
tion from Hak-Soo Kim’s emphasis on ”co-minding”
and collective problem-solving, I will actively pur-
sue collaborative opportunities and integrate di-
verse perspectives to enhance the research process.
Moreover, recognizing the significance of environ-
mental and personal factors in fostering creativ-
ity, I will pay closer attention to the interaction
between these elements in my research endeavors.
Creative Path [IDE-MI-223]
3. Adopting and Adapting: It is vital to strike a
harmonious balance between creativity and prac-
ticality, while placing emphasis on establishing
precise objectives and identifying the target au-
dience for future research(projects). Essential is
to effectively handle expectations, both my own
and those of other individuals involved in the re-
search. Additionally, adopting a more iterative
approach to writing and research, which allows
for flexibility and adaptation, will hope to bring
advantages for future undertakings. This would
also entail the need to reconsider assumptions and
continuously reassess by aiming not to prove one-
self right, but rather exploring ways to challenge
one’s beliefs without becoming overly self-critical.
Conclusion My journey through a mix of tough
times and big wins has really deepened my under-
standing of research and creativity. It has shown
me how important it is to use different methods
and to be open to new ideas and to work with
others. This experience has reignited my passion
for solving problems and has made me even more
committed to continuing learning. I am looking
forward to a time when I am not held back by
exams and assignments, so I can dive deeper into
various subjects and learn more about creativity
and what creativity has me to offer. By drawing
from my Bayesian methodology where I mix what
I already know with new information, I am con-
stantly updating what I believe to match what is
really happening. This process helps me question
my own thoughts and those of others, aiming for
a deep understanding based on real facts. I have
learnt that it is okay not to be 100% certain about
everything. Sometimes being 80%, 70%, or even
60% is good enough. These insights will definitely
guide how I approach things in my future studies
and work.
References
[1] U. Akpur. Critical reflective creative thinking
and their reflections on academic achievement.
Thinking Skills and Creativity, 37:100683,
2020.
[2] M. Gonçalves. Creativity and meaning: In-
cluding meaning as a component of creative
solutions. Artificial Intelligence for Engi-
neering Design, Analysis, and Manufacturing,
32(4):365–379, 2018.
[3] Maciej Karwowski, Izabela Lebuda, and
Ronald A. Beghetto. Creative Self-Beliefs,
page 396–418. Cambridge Handbooks in Psy-
chology. Cambridge University Press, 2 edi-
tion, 2019.
[4] H.-S. Kim. Interdisciplinarity for problem
solving. Asian Communication Research,
17(3), n.d.
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[5] Wendy Ross and Frédéric Vallée-Tourangeau.

Microserendipity in the creative process. The
Journal of Creative Behavior, 55(3):661–672,
2021.

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