Creative Thinking Is Just Problem-Solving Under Pressure

I will be honest: I almost did not make it to this activity at all. This semester has been one of the harder ones. My car broke down. I have been dealing with financial strain. I missed classes and presentations. I am autistic and schizophrenic, and when life gets unstable, managing everything takes more out of me than it probably does for most people. There were weeks where just staying connected to my studies felt like a win.

So when it came to reflecting on creative thinking, I did not have to look far for material. I have been doing it — badly, imperfectly, but doing it — this whole semester.

Reflection on the Up or Down Cup Game activity — 22 May 2026

What the cup game taught me

The Up or Down Cup Game looks simple. Two teams flip cups to their side as fast as they can. I assumed it was a speed game — whoever has the fastest hands wins.

Then I noticed something. You can kick a cup so it lands on its side — neither up nor down. That cup is now useless to both teams. It is not sabotage through strength. It is sabotage through positioning. One small observation, and the whole game looks different.

That is what creative thinking actually is. It is not always about generating more ideas. Sometimes it is about noticing the angles that the obvious framing hides.

Lateral thinking is not just for games

The moment I connected the cup game to my own situation, things made more sense.

When I was already far behind this semester, the conventional student move is to either disappear quietly or pretend things are fine. I did neither. I wrote to my lecturer directly. I told her my situation — the accident, the car, the money, my disabilities. I said I was prepared to accept failure if it came to that.

That was the unexpected angle. Radical honesty in a system that usually rewards performed okayness.

It worked. My lecturer paid attention. She pushed back, offered a path forward, and I took it. I followed up with my groupmate Pretty, asked specific questions, and figured out what I actually needed to do.

I would not have called any of that "creative thinking" at the time. I was just trying to survive the semester. But looking back, that is exactly what it was.

Knowing your real starting point

There is a kind of creative thinking that does not get talked about much: honest self-assessment.

Before you can find a workaround, you have to know where you actually are — not where you wish you were, not the version of yourself that has everything sorted. The real one, with the real constraints.

I have spent a lot of this semester working from a very stripped-down starting point. No reliable transport. Limited money. Uneven energy. A group that was mostly absent because the others went to SMILE. I had to draft an emergency activity plan with whoever was left and whatever materials were around.

It was not elegant. But it happened, and it happened because I stopped waiting for conditions to be ideal.

That is adaptability. Not having a perfect solution — just refusing to fully stop.

What I am taking forward

I used to think creativity was a talent some people had. A brainstorming skill. Something that happened in workshops with Post-it notes.

This semester taught me it is something else. It is what happens when the normal road is blocked and you still need to get somewhere. It is noticing rule gaps in cup games and in academic situations alike. It is being honest when honesty is the unconventional move. It is working with the minimum you have rather than nothing at all.

In IT work — debugging, building systems with limited resources, designing workarounds — I will keep using this framing. Ask early. Notice what the obvious frame is hiding. Work from the real starting point, not the ideal one.

The lowest-resource solution is sometimes the most creative one. I have seen that proven this semester more than once.

Written as a course reflection for Creative Thinking and Problem Solving, MSU College Sabah.