8 Bits of Wisdom on Being a Creator from Neil Gaiman. Four Steps To Finding Inspiration, From An Idea DJ. A 5-Step Technique for Producing Ideas circa 1939. John Cleese on the 5 Factors to Make Your Life More Creative. By Maria Popova “Creativity is not a talent.
It is a way of operating.” Much has been said about how creativity works, its secrets, its origins, and what we can do to optimize ourselves for it. In this excerpt from his fantastic 1991 lecture, John Cleese offers a recipe for creativity, delivered with his signature blend of cultural insight and comedic genius. Specifically, Cleese outlines “the 5 factors that you can arrange to make your lives more creative”: The lecture is worth a watch in its entirety, below, if only to get a full grasp of Cleese’s model for creativity as the interplay of two modes of operating — open, where we take a wide-angle, abstract view of the problem and allow the mind to ponder possible solutions, and closed, where we zoom in on implementing a specific solution with narrow precision. A few more quotable nuggets of insight excerpted below the video. Creativity is not a talent. We need to be in the open mode when pondering a problem — but!
Seven Habits of Highly Creative People. Seven Habits of Highly Creative People is an homage to Stephen Covey (Oct 24, 1932 – July 16, 2012) Creativity is the act of turning new and imaginative ideas into reality.
Creativity involves two processes: thinking, and then producing. Innovation is the production or implementation of an idea. If you have ideas, but don’t act on them, you are imaginative but not creative. Make a habit of these seven practices, and you will be highly creative in your field: 1. “In creating, the only hard thing’s to begin; A grass-blade’s no easier to make than an oak.” Creativity requires an absorbed mind, a relaxed state of focus and attention. 2. “We are what we think. We amplify what we think about most. 3. “Be patient towards all that is unsolved in your heart. How To Be More Interesting (In 10 Simple Steps) The Six Enemies of Greatness (and Happiness) Why conviction drives innovation more than creativity. By Doreen Lorenzo, president, frog FORTUNE -- In business circles, "creativity" has become a buzzword to describe a desired trait among employees.
It's widely believed that having creative thinkers on staff will boost overall team levels of innovation. Yes, creativity can lead to a surplus of original ideas. But when it comes time to sell those concepts internally, and then later take those ideas to market, creativity is not enough. More important is conviction. Look at the most-admired business leaders today. Consider how Amazon (AMZN) founder Jeff Bezos asked the graduating class at Princeton University during his 2010 commencement speech there, "Will you wilt under criticism, or will you follow your convictions?
" But it's not just company founders and CEOs or Ivy League grads that can benefit from having a strong sense of conviction. The 10 Reasons Why We Fail. Why Weird is Wonderful (and Bankable) Real Innovation: What It Really Is, and How to Really Do It (Really) Page 3 of 3 Here are the questions, and some examples of how they’ve been used for the greatest innovations in history… Benjamin Franklin looked at the American Colonies in a different way from everyone else, and as a result what he saw was a fledgling America, rather than a bunch of Englishmen struggling with their parent country.
When the naturally occurring phenomenon of fire was used in a number of new ways, it became a source of heat and light, a powerful weapon, and a way to cook food–radically changing the world in the process. When the ancient Sumerians moved language from the verbal to the written context, they greatly amplified its power and importance, because now language could transcend time and space. Thomas Edison was one of many inventors working on the light bulb, but he set himself apart by turning electric light into a true innovation through its connection to the electrical grid. Louis Braille changed both the design and the performance of written language. Time to redefine "innovation" By Doreen Lorenzo, president, frog FORTUNE -- Despite the many case studies and op-eds you might read on the importance of "innovation" as a strategy, in real life many businesses are struggling to be innovative.
It doesn't mean that they can't come up with enough new ideas or that they don't have creative people on staff. Instead, executives might find that they cannot implement innovation within their company's structure, or that they get bogged down by distractions that only seem to be taking them on the path to inventions that are timely--and potentially profitable. In addition, many of the barriers to corporate innovation are forces that are much bigger than internal ones. But perhaps the biggest dilemma that businesses face when it comes to innovation is that the concept of "innovation" itself must be constantly re-thought to remain relevant.
Eight Ways Goofing Off Can Make You More Productive.