As a local truck driver, I’ve ventured in and out of hundreds of different factories and businesses throughout my 23+ years of driving a semi-truck. It seems like I’ve seen just about everything. Recently, I was walking through a printing factory in Sparta, MI… finding my way to the restrooms, when I noticed a very large sign on the wall with a quote attributed to Albert Einstein:
“Creativity is intelligence having fun.”
The quote intrigued me, and I made a mental note of it before relieving myself in the restroom. As I walked back through the factory, I peered up at the sign again and then looked around. There were a few employees doing their thing at the giant printing machines, and I couldn’t help but wonder if any of them had ever been affected by this giant quote hanging just over their heads.
When I returned to my truck, I recorded the quote on my smartphone to look into later and possibly use as content for my blog. I knew there was something about it, but I never could have guessed what I was about to find out.
The Misquote Factory
I typed the quote into Google and asked about the attribution to Albert Einstein. I wasn’t really surprised to learn that this specific quote is actually misattributed to him.
After a quick Google search gave me a short answer (with a few sources), I decided to dig deeper with ChatGPT. The new ChatGPT 5 is a game-changer when it comes to research like this. Within about a minute, it gave me a full breakdown of the origin story and supporting references. Honestly, I’m not sure I could’ve even completed research like this on my own, and if I did, it would have taken me an hour or more.
As it turns out, the line actually came from George Scialabba, who wrote in Harvard Magazine (1984): “Perhaps imagination is only intelligence having fun.” Over time, “perhaps” dropped, “imagination” became “creativity,” and someone slapped Einstein’s name on it. Apparently, if you attach Einstein’s name to anything, it automatically sounds smarter. Funny how that works.
Einstein’s Real Words, Still Better
Even though Einstein cannot be credited with the catchy “creativity is intelligence having fun,” he did say some profound things on the subject:
“Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.”
“The gift of fantasy has meant more to me than my talent for absorbing positive knowledge.”
The first quote comes from his 1929 interview in The Saturday Evening Post. The second is from a recollection by his physician, János Plesch, in 1947. Both are richer and more interesting than the fake viral version. Proof that the truth is often better than the simplified, Instagrammable soundbite.
Guru Scripted Content vs Imaginative & Unique Ideas
Catching this fake attribution made me think about the world of online publishing I’m currently caught up in. Across platforms, I see endless guru advice telling me to:
- Pick one ultra-specific niche or topic
- Identify your specific audience or avatar
- Provide a solution to a problem
- Stick to your lane… don’t merge off-topic
While I’m sure some people find success and make money by following that advice, it’s not for me. It feels scripted. I can clearly see the formula playing out everywhere.
I’m a [describe yourself and your experience], and I help [describe your audience] [describe the solution].
Here’s an example…
I’m a digital marketer who sold a software company for $10 million, and I help aspiring entrepreneurs figure out core marketing strategies so they can be ultra-wealthy like me.
Nah. Not for me. I choose the unscripted path. Even if I think I have something valuable to share, I don’t want my bio to sound like a cut-and-paste from Guru School. It would feel fake… like Einstein supposedly saying something he never actually said.
Instead, I’m choosing the road of fantasy and imagination. I’ll create content on whatever my brain decides is interesting that day. If I’d followed the guru script, this very blog post wouldn’t exist!
The Success Formula Scam
So many online “experts” puff themselves up as if they alone hold the golden ticket to success. Their whole business model depends on convincing you they’ve cracked the code… and if you just follow their exact steps, you too can be rich and free.
But let’s be honest. Most of their success comes from selling the formula itself, not from doing the thing they’re supposedly experts in. If everyone is busy teaching everyone else how to get rich, then who’s left to actually… do anything? It starts to look like one of those pyramid schemes, but with fancier slideshows and better microphones.
Even Jesus once called out the religious experts of his day for being all show and no substance… “polished on the outside but rotten underneath.” That same kind of empty posturing shows up in guru culture today, too.
As I like to say (yes, I’m quoting myself here):
If everybody teaches everybody else how to have success, then we’ll all be successful and rich!
Clearly, that’s not possible. And even if it was, not all of us want to be gurus. Some of us just want to create, explore, and share our perspective… without pretending we’ve unlocked some secret formula.
The Case for Creative Permission
And that’s where it all ties together. A misattributed quote in a Michigan factory. The real Einstein quotes that are actually better. Guru advice that sounds polished but feels empty. And a sly reminder that even 2,000 years ago, people were calling out hollow experts.
The truth is, you don’t need a cage built out of “niche rules” to be successful. What you really need is permission. Permission to follow curiosity. Permission to let imagination lead the way. Permission to create without worrying whether it checks the right guru-approved boxes.
Einstein never said, “creativity is intelligence having fun.” But maybe he should have… because it’s not a bad idea. Just don’t let someone else’s script decide what “fun” looks like for you.
So, let me leave you with a question:
What’s one creative impulse you’ve been ignoring because it doesn’t “fit your niche”…?
Related Book: Unscripted by MJ DeMarco
How the Quote was Verified by ChatGPT 5
- Searched for the origin of “Creativity is intelligence having fun” to test the Einstein attribution. Landed on Quote Investigator’s analysis tracing the line to other sources and not to Einstein. Quote Investigator
- Looked for the earliest attested phrasing. Found Oxford Reference crediting George Scialabba’s line “Perhaps imagination is only intelligence having fun” in Harvard Magazine (March–April 1984). Oxford Reference
- Cross-checked that Scialabba attribution via a second independent source noting the same line and context. The Nation
- Checked an additional provenance roundup to see how the wording morphed over time and where the Einstein misattribution spread. Barry Popik
- Verified what Einstein actually said about imagination by consulting Quote Investigator’s entry on “Imagination is more important than knowledge,” which reproduces and cites the 1929 interview. Quote Investigator
- Located the primary venue for that statement — The Saturday Evening Post 1929 interview “What Life Means to Einstein” — to confirm wording and context in the original publication. The Saturday Evening Post
- Sought a canonical reference book to check whether “Creativity is intelligence having fun” appears among vetted Einstein quotations; relied on Princeton University Press’s Einstein quotation volumes as the standard reference set. (Representative sample confirming the imagination quote’s sourcing.) assets.press.princeton.edu
- Tracked the “gift of fantasy” line to a posthumous recollection (not a contemporaneous written piece) by Einstein’s friend János Plesch; used a bibliographically anchored citation that points to János: The Story of a Doctor (1947) and a major Einstein biography for page verification. Lib Quotes
- Scanned a few popular quote sites to observe how the misattributed “creativity…fun” line propagates online, noting they are not authoritative sources but useful to understand spread. quotation.io
- Synthesized the results: the “creativity…fun” line is misattributed to Einstein; the Scialabba 1984 line is the closest antecedent; Einstein’s documented views elevate imagination (1929 interview), and the “gift of fantasy” remark survives via a friend’s recollection rather than a primary text. Quote Investigator+1 | Oxford Reference | The Saturday Evening Post | Lib Quotes