I’m sure this article about Colorado College replacing college entrance exams with a Lego building test is being linked to from everywhere. It made me remember thoughts I’ve had in the past about how to measure creativity. The Lego test isn’t designed for that, but perhaps it could be. Ingenuity is such an important facet of intelligence and the ability to solve new problems. And creativity is art. Multiple choice tests could never measure these qualities. More interactive tests have probably been produced to try to measure creativity, but it doesn’t seem to be something that colleges and companies directly look for. I try to gauge it when interviewing engineers by asking how they would handle certain situations I don’t think they have been in. Once in a while I can tell immediately that someone is a creative thinker, often I’m just not sure. It’s always been my favorite programmer trait, and I keep an eye out for it. I’m not sure it is something that can really be taught, though you can learn it by experience.