Problem solving and creativity: think circles not lines

In discussions on innovation, you'll often hear people mention the terms creativity and problem solving. These are often treated as distinct constructs, which, to some extent, they are. This is the typically Western, binary treatment of the world -- the scientific, "view from nowhere" approach.

Creativity can be viewed as an action or series of actions that:

1. is proactive
2. tends to produce a visible resource that previously didn't exist
3. from the human perspective, is motivated by an internal input that is hard to identify.

by contrast, problem solving can be viewed as an action or series of actions that:

1. is reactive
2. tends to be in response to an encountered resource
3. from a human perspective, is motivated by an easily identifiable external input.

Even though they are different, it's often useful to treat creativity and problem solving as the same thing and treat them as different starting points. For example, if you are an artist, you may feel compelled to draw whatever is in your head, but you will soon face the problem of what medium to use. You start at the creativity point on the circle. If you were commissioned to paint a portrait of somebody (as many famous artists were in the past), your starting point is problem solving -- after that, you will move towards creativity.

If you can think of any examples where problem-solving activities and creativity activities don't function in this way, fire away.