When speaking of craft, it is difficult to not also talk of creativity, though the two are not the same. We tend to think of creativity as the domain of artists and gifted individuals. But creativity is so much more than creating a unique painting or a new business idea. It is something we do each day. It is simply responding to challenges in an unscripted way.
There’s an old line about the definition of insanity as “doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting a different result.” In this sense, creativity is the opposite of insanity. It is doing things differently and seeing how the result changes. Sometimes it is preferable to think of creativity instead as a process of experimentation. Framed in this context, creativity is nothing more than tinkering and seeing what happens. It is not a magical gift from a mythical muse, nor is it the domain of elitists or artists. It is a process available to anybody who wishes to see if different results can be achieved by trying something different. It is what distinguishes humans from the machines that would otherwise replace us. It is, in a word, our soul. Creativity makes an appearance in craftsmanship because “doing things well” often involves making some modification to the process in order to suit the circumstances.
— The Joy of Craft (Claes Zane), Loc. 1706–15