Divergent thinking is intellectual originality. It is creative and counterintuitive thought. It is thinking outside the box. 

A study on divergent thinking found that 98% of children between ages three and five scored in the genius category for divergent thinking. Between ages eight and ten, the number droped to 32%. By the time kids become teenagers, it droped to 10%. Only 2% of those over age twenty-five scored in the genius category for divergent thinking.

According to John Pulitzer, who cites the study in his book Get Weird, the solution to this intellectual conformity and creative atrophy is "tapping your natural weirdness."

Gordon MacKenzie, longtime Hallmark Employee, convinced the company to create a special title for him: "creative paradox." Along with challenging corporate normalcy at Hallmark, MacKenzie did a lot of creativity workshops for elementary schools. He said he would ask the kids how many artists there were in the room, and the  pattern of responses never varied. In the 1st grade, the entire class waved their arms like maniacs; every child was an artist. By the time he got to 6th grade, only one of two kids would tentatively and self-consciously raise their hands.

All the schools he went to seemed to be involved in the suppression of creative genius. They weren't doing it on purpose, but society's goal is to make us less foolish. As MacKenzie says, "From the cradle to the grave, the pressure is on to be normal."

At Living Well Lodges we aspire to the divergent, the weird, the "just a little" crazy! We encourage you - Let Your Genius Shine.