[nvln]

There is deliberate practice for skill-building. There is exploratory "making" that fuels originality. There is inspiration hunting and incremental tweaking to get to creative mutation. There is high productivity that triggers eventual ingenuity. I find the article hyperbolic in its thesis and execution especially when it comes to the final hand-wavy bit about how there is more per-capita creativity in non-rote learning.

While its hard to prove or disprove without a long study to prove or disprove the author's claim, I'm willing to die on the following hills:

1. Kumon sheets are the antithesis to creativity 2. Understanding is not a form of memorization (not the rote variety anyway)

[ants_everywhere]

I've thought a lot about education, and my personal take is that in the US we way undervalue drilling (by which I mainly mean building up familiarity and muscle memory) and way overvalue understanding.

I've been collecting quotes about these topics for a few years. One relevant to creativity and drilling is Bob Dylan's

> If you sang "John Henry" as many times as me.... you'd have written "How many roads must a man walk down?" too.

[nvln]

There is definitely a lot of value in practice and repetition. I don't think rote memorization / drilling are the only means of getting that practice and repetition. Ironically, with a bit of creativity, we can provide both. Lot of practice, lot of repetition, paired with understanding, play and making things.