The science of Creativity Notes From TIME MAGAZINE
Richard Jerome “Striving for the new”
Are you creative? The term carries a mystical aura, its special power imbued with a touch of the divine. After all creativity supplies the first verb of the bible. “In the beginning, God created…”
Creativity is “an innate quest for originality.” Driven by the enduring human passion for novelty. Edward O. Wilson winning biologist Pulitzer Prize
University of Notre Dame anthropologist Agustin Fuentes, author of the Creative Spark: How imagination made humans Exceptional, puts it this way. The essence of creativity is to look at the world around us, see how it is and imagine other possibilities that are not immediately present or based on our immediate personal experience. Creativity is seeing the possibilities and then trying to make those imaginings into material reality.
That capacity to think together, to imagine possibilities and to hope, that’s what got us here.
Jeffrey Kluger “This is your brain on creativity”
What is known as a remote association test, in which subjects are given three seemingly unrelated words and asked to determine a third word with which they could each be paired
Walter Isaacson “Learning from Leonardo”
Sometimes in supernatural fashion, a single person is marvelously endowed by heaven with beauty, grace, and talent in such abundance that his every act is divine and everything he does clearly comes form God rather than from human art.
Being relentlessly and randomly curious about everything around us is something that each of us can push ourselves to do , every waking hour.
Not all knowledge needs to be useful. Sometimes it should be pursued for pleasure. By allowing himself to be driven by pure curiosity, he got to explore more horizons and see more connections than anyone else of his era.
Focus on things that fascinate us but also, at times, being distracted and pursuing some shiny new idea you happen to stumble on.
Genius starts with individual brilliance. It requires singular vision. But executing it often entails working with others. Innovation is a team sport. Creativity is a collaborative endeavor.
Cortney Mifsud “Seven secrets to unleashing your inner genius”
Creativity is more than a matter of natural talent. It is also a state of mind, a certain attitude that you can bring to any task, a general spirit of spontaneity and questioning the world and the way things work. Seeing things continually fresh and new, that you may have seen many times before. It’s a certain way of being in this world.
1. Don't force inspiration 2. Understand Bias 3. Break 4. Be open to new experiences 5. Embrace opposing forces 6. Let your mind wander 7. … But home in (My words get in the zone, to its core.)
Ron Judkins “Pushing your envelope”
One person who I willing to be excessive can achieve more than 50 people together.
Avoid making perfection the enemy of originality
The genuinely innovative are led by their passions and not by rational ambitions. New ideas spring from personal interest, even if they seem irrelevant to the task at hand.
Katie Reilly “When Schools Get Creative”
Creative thinking is more important than ever before.
The average US public school student takes 112 mandatory standardized test between pre-kindergarten and their high school graduation, according to a 2015 report by the counsel of the Great City School.
Creativity can boost happiness and well being.
A 2016 report by the World Economic Forum predicted that the top three job skills in 2020 will be complex problem solving, critical thinking and creativity, nothing that artificial intelligence will continue to disrupt the workforce and replace certain jobs, creativity is a uniquely human advantage.
They are calling for creativity to be taught to students from kindergarten to graduate school in order to adequately prepare them for the future.
All stages of education should allow more time for students to work collaboratively on interdisciplinary projects that pique their interest. “Learning a set of facts during your schooling is not going to provide very well for your whole, since the world keeps changing.”
List all the questions they have about a particular unit before launching into a detailed lecture
Sarah Begley “How parents can excite and inspire”
Reading is critically important to building a child's intelligence, and a certain amount of it is key for boosting creativity as well.
Creative thinkers need to focus not just on solo breakthroughs but also on fruitful collaborations
Teaching curiosity is teaching kids to wonder about things that they may not have wondered about before and to ask open ended questions. When they’re curious they are more likely to discover things that interest the,. And once they are intrigued theirs no telling where passion will lead them
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Are you creative?
Greatness lies in exceptionalism
Einstein “I have no special talents , I am just passionately curious.” --- We should be carful to never outgrow our wonder years or to let our children do so.
Be curious, relentlessly curious
Seek knowledge
The best ideas are mistakes
Observe
For the pure joy of geeking out
Different is good
Care about the beauty even of the parts unseen
Make list
Collaborate
Be open to mystery
Google “Default Network” It is what is active when you are daydreaming or ruminating quietly
Creativity does not work well with constraints
Collaboration has a big role to play in creativity
There is nothing telling you where your passion will lead you.