When I first heard of creativity tests I was surprised that this should be possible but I was quickly convinced that at least some aspects can indeed be tested relatively straitforward:
1) Originality - statistical infrequency of response 2) Fluency - number of responses 3) Flexibility - the degree of difference of the responses, in other words do they come from a single domain or multiple domains 4) Elaboration - the amount of detail of the response
(these are from the web here but recurr in standard tests like William’s Creativity Assessment Packet (CAP) and real scoring instructions that I have seen are interestingly simple to do. More interesting are actual examples provided which show the range of creativity. And that is where I think one can actually learn to be creative: By reproducing certain dimensions of creativity. That may sound like a contradiction in terms but I have found from self-practice that many creative ideas build on earlier ones. And the earlier ones apparently don't neccessarily need to be your own :-)
While looking for accessible material online I found these: A marketing campaign which stimulates creativity and a thesis which adapts the CAP to an online setting and may give you a feel of creativity tests in practice.
Found the artical I mentioned first: Torrance Test of Creative Thinking - TTCT Read it, It contains lots of illustrative examples - many very creative.
A lot of Less Wrong frames becoming more rational in terms of correcting biases. When Scott Alexander is asked how he does it, he doesn't seem to actually have an answer-- if I recall correctly, he's just said that all he's got in his life is his job, his girlfriend, and his blog, which doesn't begin to explain his remarkable flow of interesting posts.
It's a good thing to have fewer and weaker biases, but it's better if de-biasing can be applied to new ideas which have a good chance of paying off.
Is there LW material about creativity that I'm not remembering? Any recommendations for information about creativity elsewhere? I'm especially interested in material which you've seen help you or other people become more creative, as distinct from material which has been plausible and/or fun to read.
Edited to add: While I think this is a generally applicable topic, I also have a local interest. I'm fond of LW, but it seems to be in a doldrums, and at least part of the cause is a lack of interesting new material.