Too true, and indeed. (Both regarding creative thinking and the lookbusy)

It's sad that so many people want you to "look busy" - I think it came about from the perspective shift of "Your work load is X and that's what we hired you to do" to "We own your ass from 9 to 5, do X and then report to me for Y, and Z.. or at least look busy so I don't have to fire you for 'slacking' after you finish your X workload Wednesday afternoon." Stupidity at large, greed in action.