🚀 The Book in 3 Sentences

1. To enhance individual creativity (1) concentrate & work hard, (2) relax to generate an idea, & (3) concentrate and work harder to refine the idea.

2. To improve group creativity (1) get the right mix of outsiders and insiders, (2) encourage random interactions & conversation, and (3) use constructive criticism.

3. To improve cultural creativity (1) provide universal access to learn-by-doing education, (2) encourage immigration, and (3) strike a balance between IP and new innovation

🎨 Impressions

• Good book with some insights into creativity and the process required to enhance it

• Was recalled due to some factual inaccuracies that are not central to the key ideas of the book

 How I Discovered It

• Was recommended to me by my friend Mrinal Kulkarni

Who Should Read It?

• World problems are growing increasingly complex that require the efforts of creative groups composed of creative individuals

• If you have an ambition to solve some of the biggest problems in the world, you need to improve your creativity, which this book helps with.

☘️ How the Book Changed Me

• I’ve been encouraged to delve into new, unfamiliar areas to capitalize on the outsider effect

• I’ve tried to incorporate ideas and people from foreign fields to capitalize on horizontal sharing

📒 Summary + Notes

Effects & Definitions

• Outsider effect: People who are new to a field discover a creative solution to a problem
  
  • This occurs because people aren’t subject to the conventional wisdom of a field & can reapply knowledge from other fields

• Horizontal sharing: Members of every department of an organization share triumphs and problems
  
  • It enhances creativity as it enables the reapplication of knowledge from outside a department

• Constructive criticism: Identify faults but also offer solutions
  
  • Used by Pixar in meetings

Individual Creativity

• Creativity is associated with alpha-waves, which are encouraged by turning away from the problem, relaxing, and distracting ourselves

• Ideas seldom arrive in finished form; therefore, effort is required to complete the idea

• Imaginative epiphanies, which are often sudden and without precedence, occur in the right hemisphere-whose role is to connect disparate ideas and thoughts

• Epiphanies usually occur after a severe mental block, at which point the brain shifts from the logical thinking of the left side to the holistic analysis of the right side of the brain

• Another method of achieving epiphanies is to distract ourselves to activate our subconscious
  
  • Sleeping, daydreaming, walking, pacing, playing a game, or taking a hot shower/bath

• By shutting off the mechanism that checks the flow of thoughts from the prefrontal cortex we can “squeeze more creativity out of ourselves”

Group Creativity

• Complex world problems need the creative efforts of groups rather than just an individual

• Creative groups have the right mix of people—most people are familiar and acquainted with each other, but they are joined by new and unfamiliar talent

• The best groups practice constructive criticism and collective responsibility

• Criticism encourages interaction with others’ ideas & out-of-the-box thinking

• Individual generation of ideas & pooling of ideas is more effective than group brainstorming

Culture Creativity

• Creative cities maximize density, diversity, and interactions between residents

• Cultures that encourage education, immigration, risk-taking, and a balance between IP and building on top of existing innovation will be the most creative

• Cities with more interactions between residents enable greater idea transfers

• Creative approach to education is (1) universal access and (2) learning-by-doing projects

• Face-to-face interactions are superior to electronic communication to problem-solving

• As companies grow in size, they don’t have improvements in creativity as cities do
  
  • Companies erect walls, implement hierarchies, prevent relaxation, and stifle conversation