ABSTRACT
Discussions of creativity and innovation are often rather fruitless because only the improvement of people is considered. Other studies of creativity have mistakenly focused on the characteristics of people who are good problem solvers. While there are stories of differently abled people who have "turned lemons into lemonade", there are also many stories of people who suffered without producing any extraordinary achievements. People get results in spite of accidents, persecution, or poverty, not because of hardships and disasters. Trying to improve creativity by giving people more time and money for simple brainstorming is like trying to turn poor runners into marathoners by giving them time to practice and offering money for winning races. Equally popular is the belief that the main obstacle blocking innovation is the lack of resources and that pouring money into research and design will increase the output of innovation.
