GP: Students hoping to be entrepreneurs sometimes think a lucrative idea will come out of the blue. Education--especially in the liberal arts--can seem like an impediment along the way. Educators should introduce the idea that disciplined thinking and creativity go hand in hand.
This article is also a resource for discussion with students found responsible for academic dishonesty. Cheating and plagiarism are not victimless crimes. The greatest injury comes to those who deprive themselves of the habits and insights that come from genuine learning.
Key quote:
"Chance favors the prepared mind...
As humans, we want to believe that creativity and innovation come in flashes of pure brilliance, with great thunderclaps . . . [But] innovation is a slow process of accretion, building small insight upon interesting fact upon tried-and-true process...
'The most useful way to think of epiphany is as an occasional bonus of working on tough problems,' explains Scott Berkun in his 2007 book, The Myths of Innovation . . . 'Everything results from accretion, Mr. Berkun says: 'I didn't invent the English language. I have to use a language that someone else created in order to talk to you. So the process by which something is created is always incremental. It always involves using stuff that other people have made.'"
''Eureka! It Really Takes Years of Hard Work", The New York Times, February 3, 2008
