Abstract
Silicon Valley defines itself by its commitment to innovation and disruption. While popular narratives place the origin of tech culture in the boot-strapped garages of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, a review of mid-century social science and organizational theory reveals a fixation on technological creativity dating to 1950. That year, the newly formed NSF sponsored consortia on recruiting creative scientists; also in 1950, JP Guilford’s APA keynote launched a spate of publications on quantitative creativity measurements. Creativity research addressed Cold War economic and defense imperatives to invent groundbreaking Space Race technology, priorities that converged around corporate R&D centers. Social scientists dissected how lab environments could encourage innovation among employees. While Chris Argyris and Edward B. Roberts focused on the dynamics of a research team, Myron A. Coler and Anne Roe looked for an individual’s innate traits. These approaches share an overlooked but instrumental equivalence, between the creative scientist and the stereotypical visual artist. Reviewing the research reveals how mid-century definitions of “creativity” were modeled off of traits associated with modernist artists: irascibility, vitality, solitary nature, etc. This imagery helped elevate computer engineers’ reputations from lowly, pencil-pushing techs to visionary, if challenging, geniuses. I contend that artist-scientist comparisons actually shaped key social science research methodology, and set the course for the management culture of the nascent computer industry. Revisiting the pre-history of Silicon Valley, this study asks: How does the historical typology of “the creative” still emerge as a fascination of the social sciences and what does this type obscure?
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KEYWORDS
technology, organizational culture
Digital Media
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