I wandered into this Lifehacker post regarding breaking through creative blocks and clicked through to the video, which then spurred me to consider a long form response. After all, creativity is my passion. Here are my thoughts on the matter:
At the risk of devolving into semantics, I believe that creative-thinking and problem-solving aren’t precisely the same, even though they’re very similar and both require higher cognitive levels.
Problem-solving
When you take to a whiteboard during problem-solving, aka brainstorming, the first ideas to come out are rarely the best as they are less creative-thinking and more logical processing based on the known parameters. That is why you brainstorm, and why you should keep at it when you think you’ve reached all potential solutions. That is what is really being explained in the video of that Lifehacker post.
But let’s say that your problem involves numerous parameters. Then, just like some questions on a cognitive test, your solution doesn’t require much creativity, but more logical processing.
Creative-thinking
So take the opposite situation of the blank page. Here, you’ve got few or zero parameters and lots (unlimited) solutions. Heaping amounts of creative thinking comes into play here as your first stab requires you to establish your own parameters.
Often, breaking through parameters is considered a sign of creative thinking, but what it really is, is a sign that you’re able to create your own parameters rather than stay within someone else’s / predefined parameters. Coloring outside the line implicates a personal parameter that the lines are irrelevant to your personal solution.
Therefore, creative-thinking is the ability to define your own parameters.
Creative work
It is not enough to apply creative thinking, in order to produce creative work. Once you've established your personal parameters, you must then apply logical processing to the lines you draw, write, etc. For instance, consider how someone like Frank Gehry has clearly defined personal parameters and whose process of design is iterative. What he's doing is evaluating (applying logical processing) the design moves against his personal parameters.
The better you are at both defining your personal parameters and applying logical processing to adhere to your personal parameters, the more successful one is, at developing creative work.
None of what I just wrote came about instantly, by the way. First, I took the predefined parameters -- the story -- and applied some simple tests of my experience. I then substituted my own parameters and tested them. It's not perfect, and I know the shortcomings, but now it's in the back of my head and I'll keep adding / subtracting from it.
Ultimately, the synthesis of what I wrote was a 2-hour exercise. Fortunately, I have the luxury to sit around for 2 hours for such considerations.
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