In an article in Newsweek “The Creativity Crisis,” Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman describe a study of people who received MacArthur genius awards. In the study, researchers discovered that MacArthur recipients spent time in their childhoods creating “paracosms,” or alternative fantasy worlds.
These kids visited their fantasy worlds repeatedly, often creating their own unique languages and social rules for them.
Creative genius involves the ability to create new worlds.