Are we innately biased against creativity?
I wish I had been aware of this when I was writing the book. It’s really just a twist on the familiarity heuristic, which says that we’re more comfortable with what we know; it’s safer, and feels less threatening. And so it is with ideas and art and invention: Although we all celebrate creativity in theory, we are unconsciously fearful of novelty, because novelty breeds ambiguity and uncertainty. That’s why we have always rejected–and will continue to reject–truly creative work, until its novelty has worn off. Think of Van Gogh, Vermeer, El Greco, Gaugin, Poe, Kafka . . . the list goes on and on.