To further qualify these findings, the creativity gains seem to only be evident among people who have what Damian calls “adaptive resources.” These are the things that can help you overcome trauma, be they personality traits (such as how self-sufficient or self-assured you are), how much money you have, or how much social support surrounds you. Intelligent people seem to have an easier time spinning their weird straw into creative gold, as do people who are more open to experiences. People who have lots of these resources are able to view their unusual experiences as “challenges,” rather than “threats,” and as performance-reviewey as that sounds, that seems to make a big difference in whether your difficult experiences result in personal growth.

If you don’t already have a lot of adaptive resources, the good news is that people are able to change their personalities—more on this in later chapters—through therapy and other tactics. After making these changes, people might be able to generate different explanations for their weird experiences and view them in a more positive light.

The problem is, that process of finding new explanations for your experiences sounds, even to Damian, a lot like creativity. This field of study can get a little circular. Damian is currently trying to untangle whether creative people are just more likely to find themselves in unusual situations, or whether, as it currently appears to her and others, creativity actually does spring from weirdness.

If that is true, it leads us to a philosophically difficult place. If people who are kicked around by life end up more creative, that might imply that a little kicking-around—in the form of discrimination, trauma, loneliness—is fine, even healthy.

But that would be too much of a leap. Creativity, after all, can only happen if you have the kind of life that allows you to be creative. Working three jobs to make ends meet because you’ve been discriminated against will leave little time for creativity. Immigrant kids who are locked out of scholarships may never reach their creative potential, because they won’t be able to afford college. Your creative potential doesn’t mean much if it’s never given a chance to flourish.

But, Damian says, if you’re already unique in your environment, it can only help you to think about your situation in a more positive way: “I’m different, but that means I have something special to bring to the table.” Your weirdness is attached to you. But rather than a millstone around your neck, it can be a jet pack.

Being unusual doesn’t just make you, yourself, more creative. Dissenting voices can also boost the creativity242 and decision-making power of the broader group you’re a part of.