Innovation and Creativity: Two Sides of the Same Coin 

I’m going to just give it to you straight: I am probably the least technical person in the world. During the early stages of my writing career, I thought technical writing might be an easier career path than creative writing, so I took a course. It involved a lot of coding, the breaking down and explanation of highly technical devices, and other things I couldn’t comprehend. Needless to say, I decided that was not the direction I would take.  

That belief haunted me for years. I was even afraid of buying IKEA furniture, because it meant figuring out slightly technical images with no written instructions. Instead, I settled into the belief that I was creative, so I didn’t need to be technical, and that was just fine. 

It wasn’t until much later in life, when I started experimenting with baking, that I realized this type of cooking was a technical form of creativity. It was precise, formulaic and detailed. Mix up the baking soda proportions for your birthday cake, and you’re either left with a dense, flat pancake, or an over-airy or erupted mess. It was an “aha” moment: the first time I realized technical didn’t have to mean building a cabinet, coding a website, or inventing a new piece of machinery. Innovation and technology come in many forms. 

Since then, I have been putting this theory into practice in my writing, in my design, and in my thought process in general. Reimagining and reorganizing a magazine to flow better, to appeal more in terms of design or content, is a technical achievement. Understanding patterns in the industry to write useful and insightful news stories is a technical achievement. Even when my kids are yelling for dinner and I pull out the chicken and peruse my fridge for ingredients that might work together to make a good sauce, I’m being innovative. 

The point is, most things are not black and white, and not everything has to be how it appears at the outset. Sometimes you need an “aha” moment, and other times you need to scratch a bit below the surface, or think outside the box. 

Main image: Rapaport Managing Editor Leah Meirovich. (Leah Meirovich)