  The standard view that creativity entails both originality and
appropriateness leads to the paradox that experts who converge on one optimal
solution are rated as no more creative than beginners who give many original
solutions. This paper asserts that there is no one-size-fits-all definition of
creativity; creativity must be assessed relative to the constraints and
affordances of the task. The flatter the adaptive landscape associated with the
task, the greater the extent to which creativity is a function of originality
only. For tasks with a single-peaked adaptive landscape, there is a tradeoff
between originality and appropriateness. Only for tasks with rugged adaptive
landscapes is creativity positively correlated with both originality and
appropriateness. It is suggested that the adaptive landscapes associated with
artistic and scientific pursuits are equally rugged, but for artistic pursuits
their topologies reflect idiosyncratic experiences and emotions (the peaks and
valleys are not aligned).
