Is Creativity Just Evolution With Better PR?

By Les Mottosky

A provocative thought: if you strip away the ego and the branding, most human “innovation” looks suspiciously like mimicry. Airplanes? Bird wings with fuel. Skyscrapers? Vertical termite mounds with elevators. Velcro? Literally borrowed from burrs.

If everything we invent echoes nature, what counts as original?

Culture is obsessed with originality. Startups “disrupting” everything, artists chasing "a style, all their own", brands shouting “All new!” and “Groundbreaking!” Meanwhile, Mama Nature’s been prototyping for four billion years. Zero hype required. She's about results before razzmatazz.

All this buzz obscures a truth: we'll never out-innovate a mushroom. Or anything from nature.

Fungi communicates underground, detoxifies environments, heals, feeds ecosystems, messages other species and launches spiritual awakenings. That’s efficiency and style. There are no apps for that.

Even our wildest ideas mirror organic patterns. Biomimicry isn’t merely a design trend; it might also be a confession. Our fractals, rhythms, and clever hacks reveal how much we’re actually working from a deeper source.

But maybe that’s not a failure. Instead, it might be the point.

Originality, perhaps, is not raw, brazen inventing from scratch. It’s more like a remix of reality into something nature didn’t quite try: a twist of absurdity, purpose, or rebellion. Nature offers the language and then we write the poetry. Sometimes flawed, but still poetry.

We’ve just forgotten we are nature. A strange, overly confident branch with opposing thumbs, bubble tea and Wi-Fi.

So steal from the rats. Remix the mycelium. Just do it with understanding—and the humility to admit you’re not the first.

You're just the latest.

If you’re lucky, and the idea of legacy matters to you, not soon-to-be-forgotten.

If you're unlucky and inventively blocked, peel your eyes from the screen and walk out a door. The organic inspiration – the ever-present reminder – you need will meet you there.

TAGS: #Audacious Strategies #Wisdom In Leadership #Nature At Work #Humility #Courage Is Our Nature, #Adaptation As Innovation

Les Mottosky

Adaptation Strategist // I help organizations turn creativity into their competitive advantage by aligning leadership, culture and strategy to unlock adaptive innovations.

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lesmottosky@mac.com

https://www.linkedin.com/in/les-mottosky-9b94527/