Will tablets help creativity?

Slow, deliberate problem solving is hard because our working memory is severely limited. Psychologist Daniel Kahneman describes how the brain deals with the overload,

We normally avoid mental overload by dividing our tasks into multiple easy steps, committing intermediate results to long-term memory or to paper rather than to an easily overloaded working memory. (Thinking fast and slow. 2011.)

Sketches and simple diagrams also help capture intermediate results. Unlike PCs, tablets are better suited for hand drawings. I'd say they are even better than paper because you can use practically unlimited number of pages and colors. It's quite possible that children who grow up with tablets rather than PCs will be able to escape mental overload during problem solving sessions.

I wish blogspot had doodling tools...

tags: creativity, tool, process, control, separation