There's been a great deal written (for instance) on the history of invention, and most of the writing boils down to something in the neighborhood of six ingredients necessary in varying degrees to establish a climate suitable for invention:

1. Security. When people are worried about where their next meal is coming from, or whether their homes will be standing in the morning, invention becomes secondary. This is why places like Chechnya or Afghanistan or Rwanda are not the hot-beds of high technology.
2. Resources. Inventions are lost to history because there's no money to fund them, or there are no components on the shelf with which to build them.
3. Market. If there's no place to sell an invention, it'll be forgotten -- if it's ever noticed in the first place.
4. Reception. Even if there is a market, new products don't get going if the public thinks "that's too much like work," or "we've always gotten along just fine without that."
5. Infrastructure. Sometimes you need to have the government show the world how an invention is to be used; sometimes you need a judicial system to protect the rights of creators.
6. Reality check. When I worked for a start-up they once had the attitude that "our technology is so sexy that surely someone will buy it!" Well, sexy isn't enough -- sometimes you have to be able to explain to the market why the product is necessary.

This is worth noting because creativity in all forms is subject to the same forces (or certainly something analogous) as invention.

Throughout history, there have been common threads in the ways inventions have been lost:

1. disasters
2. non-availability of components; lack of development funding
3. lack of supporting trade activity
4. public suspicion & skepticism; "it's too much like work to use this"
5. lack of sufficient documentation
6. lack of supporting societal/judicial structure
7. inability to separate imagination from invention; to move from the drawing board to the real thing
8. inability to align our explanations with our observations; to share our visions effectively with others, especially those who can assist us
9. societal evolution

Many people hate writing, because it's a creative activity and subject in a small way to the historical forces above. Writing can, however, become just a little bit less of a chore if writers feel they have enough of the above ingredients in place to produce something new.

And what forces can align the historical ingredients of creativity? History answers us again:

1. energy, mechanics, and industry
2. changes/improvements suggested by the form of objects; or by the way things are currently done
3. failures (sometimes accompanied by public outrage/government regulation)
4. insufficiency of specialization
5. the need people don't know they have (e.g. "post-its")
6. the need to go better/faster/cheaper

I asked students how they know if they're in the "zone," when they can really accomplish a task and be creative about it. They almost always tell me that it's like they're in a time warp -- they don't have any sense of elapsed time.

One of the references below lists the time warp among these nine characteristics of creative motivation:

1. clear goals all along the way
2. immediate feedback associated with actions
3. a balance between task challenge and your skills
4. action and awareness come together
5. distractions don't distract you
6. no fear of failure
7. no self-consciousness
8. your sense of time becomes distorted
9. what you're doing becomes an end in itself

You could take nearly all of these and condense them into "you're so focused on what you're doing that neither time nor anything else outside the task has meaning." :-) :-) :-)

Do you want to stimulate your own creativity, and that of others you work with? Here's what you'll need:

• The freedom to make mistakes. (This of course has to be exercised with caution, so failures can be avoided.)
• The freedom of self-expression. (Again, with caution, especially when dealing directly with customers.)
• Directly confronting obstacles. Some creative people can find new ways around old obstacles given the chance.
• Recognizing "happy accidents." Things we find that we weren't seeking, yet are helpful.
• A chance to daydream once in a while.

We can learn a great deal about creativity from watching kids play:

• The best play stimulates imagination without dictating where the imagination should go, or taking control of the imagination in any other way.
• It allows us to do what we couldn't do (and maybe wouldn't even think of doing) otherwise.
• It promotes an ative response without disrupting other activities.
• It provides us with exercise, sensory stimulation, and interaction with people!

Creative Directions

• recognition: of more than you see
  • a whole based on a part
  • a characteristic based on an appearance
• grouping: of items with a common characteristic
• possibilities: of new recognition and groupings
• judgment: of the possibility that best fits
• alternatives: improving judgment

How to Kill Ideas

• judge them before they have a chance
• deny them care
• start a conflict between creator and potential user(s)
• put them in the wrong place (or time, culture, amount, style)
• put off acting on them

How to Stimulate Your Creativity

• become involved in something outside yourself (volunteerism or advocacy)
• keep a journal and include sketches
• attach yourself to some aspect of popular culture
• MAKE things
• have challenging, encouraging friends
• expect struggle, risk, and even opposition
• recognize that everyone fails
• recognize that individual failure is rare

References

Csikszentmihalyi, M. Creativity. NYC: Harper-Collins, 1996.
Messadie, G. Great Inventions Through History. Edinburgh: Chambers, 1991.
Petroski, H. The Evolution of Useful Things. NYC: Vintage Books, 1992.
Weiner, N. Invention. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1993.
Creative Think is the web site for Roger Von Oech, who wrote A Whack in the Side of the Head and A Kick in the Seat of the Pants, two excellent and easy-to-read texts on creativity.
Hanks, K. and J. Parry. Wake Up Your Creative Genius. Menlo Park, CA: Crisp Publications, Inc., 1991. ISBN 1-56052-111-2
The sci.engr.* FAQ on Innovation and Product Development
DeBono, E. Mind Power. London: Dorling Kindersley, 1995.

1. If you have difficulty focusing on a task, walk away from it and try something else, preferably something that you'll be successful at. The "quick win" will build your confidence.
2. Always keep track of the creative things you've done in the past. Not everything creative you do will be something you can move forward with, like a marketable invention, but if you keep track even of imaginative failures, you'll stand a better chance of coming up with a winner next time than if you give up your creative acts to history.