from a follow-up email with my colleague)
My considered, but not researched, judgment is that there is at least as much creativity now as when we were kids, but it’s expressed in many more ways. There are still people who design cars. But there are also people who design things that didn’t exist fifty years ago (maybe thirty years ago for you!).
In some ways, this gets back to an argument I used to have with friends in college about music. I think (I suspect many people who play an instrument agree with me) that making music is “more creative” (even if you’re playing someone else’s song) than simply listening to music that someone else has played (or is playing). I don’t think, though, that the widespread “appification of music” (ie, easy availability of prerecorded music starting in the 50’s and 60’s) caused fewer people to write music. Look at all the rock groups of the 60’s, for instance. There were *many* more bands playing many more original works once listening to music became a widespread pasttime than there were groups playing in the 1700’s, when only the wealthy could afford to hire a quartet or chamber orchestra….
I really think the creative urge comes from within. Certain tools make it easier to express–or harder, maybe. Widespread acceptance of “what we’re being creative about”–whether music, cars, or computer games/programs–generally leads, I bet, to more people creating them. Don’t have actual data, but if you make it worth my while (lol), I’m pretty sure the information on number of bands in the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s can be found online, to at least an order of magnitude, and perhaps similar information could be found about the number of quartets, chamber orchestras, etc. in the 1700’s.
Tell Rakesh this would make a great Ph.D. thesis or two for one of his interns that’s going on to graduate school heheheh.